Shelley Monument - Priory Church - Christchurch, Dorset, UK.
N 50° 43.923 W 001° 46.502
30U E 586448 N 5620744
The Priory Church was founded in the 11th Century as an Augustinian Priory & has significant surviving architecture, artefacts, & memorials, including a Monument by Henry Weeks, a memorial to the poet Shelley, located in Christchurch Priory, Dorset.
Waymark Code: WMMBT8
Location: South West England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 08/28/2014
Views: 4
The Priory Church is in the Parish of Christchurch, where Christian worship has taken place for over 900 years. an ecclesiastical parish and former priory in Christchurch in the County of Dorset (formerly in Hampshire).
Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1792-1822
"P.B. Shelley is buried in the Protestant Cemetery in Rome, though his heart lies in St Peter's Churchyard, Bournemouth, Dorset, Great Britain. Shelley drowned in the Gulf of Spezzia in Italy. He was returning from a visit to Byron and Leigh Hunt at Livorno when his schooner (the 'Ariel') was caught in a violent summer storm. Shelley's body washed ashore several days later and was cremated on the beach at Via Reggio with Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt and Edward Trelawny in attendance. His heart, which refused to burn, was first passed to Hunt who later gave it to Mary Shelley." Text adapted from: (
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"The story of Christchurch Priory goes back to at least the middle of the 11th century, as Domesday says there was a priory of 24 secular canons here in the reign of Edward the Confessor. The Priory is on the site of an earlier church dating from 800AD. In 1094 a chief minister of William II, Ranulf Flambard, then Dean of Twynham, began the building of a church. Local legend has it that Flambard originally intended the church to be built on top of nearby St. Catherines Hill but, during the night, all the building materials were mysteriously transported to the site of the present priory. Although in 1099 Flambard was appointed Bishop of Durham, work continued under his successors, and by about 1150 there was a basic Norman church consisting of a nave, a central tower and a quire extending eastwards from the crossing. It was during this period that another legend originated, that of the miraculous beam, which was to change the name of the town from Twynham to the present day Christchurch." Text Source: (
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