Colmworth - Bushmead Priory, (EH)

At the end of the drive is a small stone refectory which is all that remains of the large priory founded in 1195.
The monks followed the teachings of St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo in North Africa in AD354-430. The medieval roof frame, constructed about 1250, was cut and worked with some 160 local unseasoned oak trees, large enough for one tree to provide a rafter of about 6 metres. The timbers are blackened with soot from an open hearth formerly in the centre of the hall. Stencils of imitation masonry, each with a central decorative rosette, are on the walls of the room. Some stone steps remain that once led to a pulpit, where a Cannon read aloud from the scriptures during meal-times.

In the Cromwell/Commonwealth period, stained glass windows were smashed. The landowners, the Wade-Greys, though fighting for the royalist cause, survived. Perhaps this explains why Cromwell, on hearing of sheep stolen from their land, not only pardoned the thief but gave him sheep and some land from the estate.