CHRISTMAS DAY 2014 VISIT TO NEWTOWN ABBEY TRIM COUNTY MEATH
Newtown Abbey is a medieval monastery and National Monument located in Trim, County Meath, Ireland.
The Abbey was founded by Simon Rochfort, Bishop of Meath, for Canons Regular (“Augustinians”) of the Order of St. Victor about 1206, and was dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul.
A synod was held at Newtown in 1216, which turned the sees of the churches of Trim, Kells, Slane, Skryne, and Dunshaughlin into rural deaneries.
In 1307, Richard Sweetman, the prior, was accused of murdering Robert Mody, one of the friars, and of assisting his brother, William Sweetman, to kill another canon. The prior gave Hugh de Lacie and John le Blounde, of Rathregan, as bail for his appearance at the next assizes. There is no record of the result of the trial.
William Shirwood, Bishop of Meath, was interred at Newtown Abbey in 1482.
The Abbey was suppressed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537.
The main building is the Church of St Peter and St Paul (sometimes called a cathedral). The abbey church features lancet windows, with Norman-style sedilia to the right of the altar, and a double piscina for washing communion vessels.
A smaller church in the east of the monastery is the parish church of Newtown Clonbun. This is the burial site of Lucas Dillon (c. 1530 – 1592), Attorney General for Ireland and Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and his first wife Jane Bathe. Their tomb effigies are separated by a sword of state, and so they gained the local nickname of the “jealous man and woman”.
NEWTOWN MONUMENTS AREA OF TRIM CHRISTMAS MORNING 2014
The Newtown Monuments describes a large medieval cathedral, two monasteries and a small church which date from 1206. On the walls of the church one will find the late 16th century tomb with effigies of Sir Luke Dillon and his wife.
The Friary of St. John the Baptist, is the remains of a 13th century Augustinian foundation, which was later converted to a hospital in the 18th century.
St Peter & Paul medieval Cathedral is situated in Newtown Cemetery. It was founded close to the temporal power of Trim Castle by the Norman Bishop Simon de Rochfort in c.1206 after his cathedral at Clonard was burned down. Only part of the original nave and chancel of this largest Gothic Church in Ireland survive.
Buried under the high alter of the cathedral are the remains of the founder Simon de Rochford (died 1224) and one of his successors, Bishop William Sherwood, who died in 1428. The figure of the bishop now affixed to the wall of the cathedral was long trodden underfoot and was badly worn in places. The figure is commonly known as ‘king john’s daughter’ but is probably the figure of Simon de Rochford the founder of the cathedral.
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