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A Higher Reality, by John Chandler tells the story of England's largest and (arguably) most important nunnery, and of the town that grew up alongside it. King Alfred established Shaftesbury and its abbey on a Dorset hilltop in the late ninth century. His community of nuns became the model for other royal nunneries and a focus for the veneration of a murdered king, Edward the Martyr. It was supported by large, wealthy estates in Dorset, Wiltshire and further afield, and its church and monastic buildings were rebuilt on a massive scale around 1100. The medieval town of Shaftesbury prospered at the abbey gates, and became an important centre of trade and communications.
Following its dissolution in 1539 the abbey was demolished, and almost all trace of it was lost until archaeological excavations began on its site in the nineteenth century. The town, however, renewed itself with stone from the abbey and has continued as an attractive and flourishing community. It enjoys one of the most striking and beautiful settings of any English town, and the site of its abbey church - its foundations exposed within a peaceful garden - has become a popular attraction for visitors and residents.
John Chandler's book was commissioned by the Friends of Shaftesbury Abbey to accompany the new museum opened on the site in 1999. It offers an absorbing and wide-ranging history of the abbey, its saint, its buildings and estates, the devotional and cultural life of its nuns, its downfall and rediscovery. There is much too about the origins and development of the town of Shaftesbury, including a guided walk in search of its history. Although intended for a popular readership the text is fully referenced with an extensive bibliography and a comprehensive index, which will prove invaluable to students of monastic and urban history. First published in 2003 it is now reissued as a print-on-demand paperback.