St Benet's Abbey, Norfolk

 St Benet's, on the River Bure, just outside of Ludham, was a medieval monastery built around the 10th century on the site of a previous monastery and added to over subsequent years. It was the only Norfolk monastery founded in the Anglo-Saxon period that continued in use throughout the middle ages.

Monasteries generally suffered under the dissolutions of Henry VIII but St Benet's was the only monastery that was not closed down. Instead it was united with the Bishopric of Norwich and to this day the Bishop of Norwich is the Abbot of St Benets and undertakes a service annually on the first Sunday of August.

However, despite this apparent reprieve the monks left anyway and the abbey was abandoned by 1545. The Abbey was dismantled and the church sold off stone as building materials.

In the second half of the 18th century a farmer built a windmill on the surviving 14th century gatehouse and although this resulted in the loss of the upper floor of the gatehouse the ruined windmill itself is now a grade II listed monument.

Possibly as a result of being inside, the stone arch of the gatehouse still features some fairly clear engravings of soldier figure and a dragon or griffon creature.

The surviving flint decorative panels suggest the gatehouse would have been a quite impressive looking structure.

Outside of the gatehouse very little of the abbey is still in eveidence save for some low level stone wall remains.

The whole monastery site was originally surrounded by a defensive type wall sections of which can still be seen.