Church of St Mary and St Hardulph, Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire
A Saxon monastery was founded at Breedon on the Hill probably in the time of Aethelred, King of Mercia (675-704). It was a house of some importance, which supplied an archbishop, Tatwine (731-4), to the See of Canterbury. Among the monks was the anchorite Hardulf. Early in the reign of Henry I the church of St.Mary and St.Hardulf was given to the Augustinian Priory of St.Oswald at Nostell, Yorkshire. Canons were already established at Breeden in 1122. Breeden Priory was a small house and remained throughout the Middle Ages a cell of Nostell. Following the Dissolution in 1539 parts of the monastic church were demolished and the rest became a parish church.
