Hailes Abbey near Winchcombe in Gloucestershire. Founded in 1246 by Richard, Earl of
Cornwall, King of the Romans and the younger brother of King Henry III, this once great Ciscertian
abbey became a site of pilgrimage when Richard's son Edmund donated a phial of the holy blood to
the community in 1270. Hailes Abbey was one of the last religious institutions to acquiesce following
the Dissolution Act of 1536, Abbot Stephen Sagar and his monks finally surrendering their abbey
to Henry VIII's commissioners on Christmas Eve 1539. After the Dissolution, the west range was
converted into a house and was home to the Tracy family in the seventeenth century, but these
buildings were later demolished and now all that remains are a few outlines in the grass.
The abbey is now in the care of the National Trust and English Heritage.