Pershore abbey

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Pershore abbey (Worcs.). A religious community established here in the late 7th cent. became a Benedictine house in the reign of Edgar (957–75) through the influence of Bishop Oswald of Worcester. Many of its endowments were later granted to Westminster abbey by Edward the Confessor, patronage which caused considerable friction between the two abbeys in the 13th cent. Two disastrous fires, in 1233 and 1288, combined with reduced agricultural revenues, brought considerable indebtedness, from which Pershore never recovered, and by the time of its dissolution in 1539, though it had an assessed income of nearly £650, the abbey was experiencing major economic and disciplinary problems.

Brian Golding