Tarrant Abbey

Tarrant Abbey was an abbey in Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, England.HistoryThe site was founded as an independent monastery in 1186 by Ralph de Kahaines and has been identified as a possible site of 'Camestrum', referred to by Gervase of Canterbury. The Abbey was then re-founded in either 1228 or 1233 as a Cistercian nunnery, later supposedly the richest in England.Two famous people are associated with the abbey. The first is Queen Joan, the wife of Alexander II of Scotland and daughter of King John of England who is buried in the graveyard . The second is Bishop Richard Poore, builder of Salisbury Cathedral, who was baptised in the abbey church and later buried in the abbey, which he founded. He was at one time Dean of the old cathedral at Old Sarum, and later became bishop of first Chichester, then Salisbury and finally Durham.