Henry I cleared a forest to build a town where robbers once hid, founding Dunstable Priory in 1132 as a sanctuary for Augustinian Canons. The king granted the priory the lordship of the manor and town, along with the quarry at Totternhoe, creating a self-sustaining economic engine. Tradition holds that Henry I established the town at the crossing of Watling Street and the Icknield Way specifically to combat highwaymen who had long infested the highway. The priory's original scope was vast, encompassing a dormitory for monks, an infirmary, stables, workshops, a bakehouse, brewhouse, and buttery. A hostel for pilgrims and travelers stood opposite the priory, and its remains are known today as Priory House. Opposite the priory itself was one of the royal palaces belonging to Henry I, known as Kingsbury. The present church and Deanery form part of the Archdeaconry of Bedford, located within the Diocese of St Albans, and became a Grade I listed building on the 25th of October 1951.
The Chronicler's Rise
Richard de Morins, a canon of Merton, became prior of Dunstable in 1202 and immediately transformed the house into a center of political influence. Before he had been prior a year, he was dispatched on the king's business to Rome, and it was probably owing to his influence that the lordship of Houghton Regis, with other gifts, were confirmed to the priory in 1203. From 1210 he took over as Dunstable's chronicler, documenting a period of both great prosperity and deepening crisis. In 1219, he secured the right of holding a court at Dunstable for all pleas of the Crown, and of sitting beside the justices itinerant at their visits to the town. This privilege brought him into less happy relations with the townsmen and may have helped to hasten their revolt against his authority in 1228. The priory was twice visited by Henry III during his term, once after the siege of Bedford Castle and again in the midst of the troubles connected with the burgesses. Despite these tensions, the priory seems to have enjoyed greater prosperity at this time than at any later period of which there is a clear account. In 1213 the conventual church was dedicated by Bishop Hugh of Wells, and the gift of the church of Bradbourne in the Peak provided maintenance for three canons.
The Debt of Sheep
The death of Richard de Morins in 1242 was followed immediately by heavy losses that plunged the priory into a decades-long struggle with poverty. In 1243, 800 of the sheep belonging to the priory in the Peak district died, and a succession of bad seasons led to great scarcity. By 1255 the canons not only had no corn to sell but not enough for themselves, and they had to buy all their food at great expense for two years after this. When Simon of Eaton became prior in 1262, he found the house 400 marks in debt, and all the wool of the year already sold. In 1274 a long and expensive suit was begun between the prior and convent of Dunstable and Eudo la Zouche, who had become lord of Houghton and Eaton Bray by his marriage with Millicent de Cantelow. Eudo refused to recognize the rights of the prior to a gallows and prison in Houghton, releasing one of his men from the prison and overthrowing the gallows. The dispute went on for some years, and after the death of Eudo, was continued by his wife Millicent until the year 1289, when it was finally decided in favor of the prior. In 1286, the priory had to trim its trees and hedges along the King's Highway pursuant to the Statute of Winchester to curb the activities of highwaymen. By an accumulation of misfortune, in the same winter, the outer walls of the priory had collapsed in the wet weather, and their hayricks had been destroyed by fire.
The Dunstable Priory clock was one of the oldest mechanical clocks in England, built in 1283 and installed above the rood screen, though its fate remains unknown. The priory's history in the fourteenth century is scanty, save for the events connected with the Peasants' Revolt in 1381, when the prior, Thomas Marshall, appears by his courage and moderation to have saved his own house from serious loss and his burghers from punishment. Thomas Marshall served as prior from 1351 until his death in 1413, a tenure of sixty-two years. In 1379 Bishop Buckingham confirmed an important ordinance of Thomas Marshall, setting apart certain funds for the education of one of the canons at Oxford. The prior alluded to the poverty of his house, which was so great that were it not for the help of friends they would not be able to live decently and honestly, and religion would be diminished. Hitherto there had not been enough canons nor enough money to set apart one for special study, but the prior now wished to do so, partly out of the profits of a chantry established by his own family. The priory was a populous place where a great number of people come together, making the need for learning and preaching urgent.
The Nullity of Marriage
On the 23rd of May 1533, in the Lady Chapel of the conventual church at Dunstable, Archbishop Cranmer together with the bishops of Winchester, London, Bath and Lincoln pronounced the marriage between Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon to be null and void. The location arose as Catherine was then residing at nearby Ampthill, some 12 miles to the north. In 1535 the prior, Gervase Markham, with twelve canons, signed the acknowledgement of the Royal Supremacy, and on the 20th of January 1540, 1, he surrendered his house to the king and received a pension of £60. The smaller English religious houses had been dissolved by Act of Parliament in 1536, and the church and priory at Dunstable were closed down in January 1540. The prior and the twelve canons were granted pensions and given dispensations to serve as secular priests. The great church and the buildings of the priory were initially kept standing intact, since it was intended to create a see at Dunstable, with the priory church as its cathedral. However, the scheme for the creation of new bishoprics fell through after a few years, and the beautiful church, with the exception of the parochial nave, shared the fate of the monastic buildings, being plundered of all that was valuable and left in ruin. There were only thirteen monks besides the prior at the time of the dissolution, eleven canons and two lay brothers.
The Discipline of Silence
There can be no doubt of the good order of the house during the time of Richard de Morins, who would scarcely have been chosen twice to visit other houses unless he had ruled his own with care and diligence. During his forty years of office canons of Dunstable were at least five times elected priors to other monasteries of the order. Bishop Grosseteste visited the house once in 1236, not so much to inquire into the daily life of the priory as to investigate its title to several appropriate churches, but he exacted an oath on this occasion from all the canons individually, and one of them fled to Woburn rather than submit to it. In 1279 Bishop Sutton came and discharged his office strictly and without respect of persons. The sub-prior and certain others were removed from their charge and forbidden to hold office in future, and certain less useful members of the household expelled. In May of the following year, he deposed the prior, William le Breton, from all pastoral care. It seems most likely that these depositions were on account of mismanagement rather than for any personal failings, as the great necessity and heavy debts of the house called for stringent measures. The new prior, according to the bishop's advice, set himself to limit the expenses of the whole house and assigned a fixed income to the kitchen for the future. The canons seem to have borne no ill-will to Bishop Sutton for his corrections and were ready on his next visit to their church to praise him for his excellent sermon.
The Stone and The Shield
St Peter's is one of the best examples of Norman architecture in England, built in the form of a cross with a great tower at the crossing and with two smaller towers at the west end. It took 70 to 80 years before the church was complete, and ten years later a storm destroyed much of the front of the church. The damaged part was rebuilt in Early English style, and the west front has a huge entrance consisting of four arches between 1170 and 1190 above a later 15th-century doorway. The entrance is decorated with diaper pattern and stiff-leaf moulding providing relief for a profusion of small arches. To the south west of the church is the 15th-century gateway, a reminder of the long-vanished priory. The old west doors still show the marks of shots fired during the English Civil War. Inside the church, the highlight is the intricate 14th-century screen, with five open bays. The roof is a sympathetic restoration dating from 1871 of the Perpendicular original. There are several funerary monuments and floor brasses. Among the possessions of the church is the Fayrey Pall, a 15th-century embroidered cloth. The seal of the priory used in the fifteenth century represents St. Peter seated, holding the keys in the left hand, and the right raised in benediction.
The Guest House Legacy
On the dissolution of the monasteries the Priory's guest house became a private house from 1545. One of the earliest owners was the important local Crawley family who used part of the building as an early hospital for the mentally ill. In 1743 the original stone vaulted hall was incorporated into a much larger house with the Georgian facade. The Town Council converted the building into a Heritage and Tourist Information Centre, and Priory House is a Grade II listed building. The priory's history extends beyond the walls of the church, encompassing a hostel for pilgrims and travelers, the remains of which is known today as Priory House. The original endowment of the priory included the lordship of the manor and town of Dunstable, to which was added under Henry II the lordship of Houghton Regis, and under John the king's house and gardens at Dunstable. The manors of Stoke and Catesby, and of Ballidon in the Peak, are mentioned in the annals as the property of the priory during the thirteenth century. In 1291 the tithes of St. Peter and St. Cuthbert, Bedford, Dunstable, Studham, Totternhoe, Chalgrave, Husborne Crawley, Segenhoe, Flitwick, Pulloxhill, Steppingley, Harlington, Higham Ferrers, Newbottle, Cublington, a moiety of Great Brickhill, Pattishall and Bradbourne belonged to Dunstable Priory, with pensions in other churches.