Titchfield Abbey founded

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Titchfield Abbey was founded in 1232 by Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, as a house of Premonstratensian canons. The order, also known as the White Canons after the colour of their habits, followed the Rule of St Augustine and combined a contemplative religious life with pastoral work in the surrounding parishes. Titchfield was one of only a small number of Premonstratensian houses in England. The abbey was established on low-lying ground beside the River Meon, to the west of Titchfield village. The canons built a conventional monastic complex with a church, cloister, chapter house, refectory, and domestic ranges. The house was never large or wealthy by comparison with the great Benedictine and Cistercian abbeys, but it served as a centre of religious life, learning, and charity for the surrounding area for over three hundred years. After the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1537, the abbey was granted to Thomas Wriothesley, later first Earl of Southampton, who converted the buildings into a Tudor mansion known as Place House. The ruins of both the abbey and the mansion survive and are managed by English Heritage.