Bardney was once a slight island in the marshy ground around the river Witham. The "ey" part of the name means island, and it was named after Saxon landowner or chief, Bearda - hence Bearda's"ey" (Bearddanig), from which the name Bardney evolved. Before the River Witham was straightened in 1812 the abbey site would have been close to the river, and would have made an ideal spot for a monastery combining the isolation necessary for the religious life with the access to markets needed for economic survival.
There is little remaining of the Abbey, if you visit the site at the bottom of Abbey Road, but there are many interesting artifacts in St. Lawrence's Church located on Church Lane.
The Witham Valley is remarkable for the number of medieval monasteries along its course. On the east bank, there were six (Barlings, Stainfield, Bardney, Tupholme, Stixwold and Kirkstead) with three more (Nocton, Catley and Kyme), on the west bank. The reason for the unusually high concentration of Abbeys was presumably the river itself, which served as a busy trade link between Lincoln and the port of Boston. The major income of the monasteries came from wool production and access to the river ( and to the trade and wealth that flowed up and down it) was vital.
The first monastery at Bardney was built in Anglo-Saxon times and endowed by King Ethelred, King or Mercia, and his wife Osthryd. It housed a shrine to Asthryd's uncle, King (and later Saint) Oswald. He was killed in battle in 642AD and his body (minus head and arms) was brought to Bardney in 675AD. Oswald's head went to Lindisfarne Abbey and his arms to Bamburgh. The shrine to St. Oswald made Bardney an important place of pilgrimage and a prosperous religious centre.
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