Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles
available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Hyde Abbey was a
medieval Benedictine monastery just outside the walls of Winchester,
Hampshire, England. It was dissolved and demolished in 1538. At the time
Alfred the Great refounded the royal city of Winchester about 880 AD,
the Saxon cathedral and the royal palace stood at the heart of the city.
As the city grew, land was purchased in the city in the last year of
Alfred's reign, and work was begun on the New Minster, beside the Old
Minster, under the direction of Edward the Elder; when it was
sufficiently complete, about 903, it was consecrated and fully endowed,
the abbot Grimbald (died 8 July 901), a learned monk of St. Bertin at
St. Omer in Flanders, was instated and the body of Alfred was reinterred
in the new structure. Several further members of the royal house were
also interred in the New Minster. The gift in 1041 by Queen Emma, widow
of Cnut, of the head of Saint Valentine was cherished as one of the most
valuable possessions of the now-reformed Benedictine house.
