Chicksands Priory

*** This visit is now full so we will start a Reserves list. Email Ann (visitingchurches@lalg.org.uk) if you would like to go on it - include your phone number as places often come up at the last minute. ***

We have already visited Chicksands Priory but it is so interesting we are having a return visit. 

The tour starts at 2pm but it will take time to process us and gain access to the site (on a military base) so please arrive at the Guardhouse about 1.30pm.

Chicksands Priory dates from 1150 but was dissolved in 1538. Very little is now visible, but the site has a rich history and is this country's only surviving example of a Gilbertine cloister above ground (it's now the Officer’s Mess and not at all monastic). Some buried remains were found by TV’s Time Team dig in 2001. We will have a tour of the building and learn about the Gilbertines, the Osborn family (who have been associated with Chicksands since 1576), and the military. 

NOTE there are a couple of large steps on the ground floor and only stairs to the upper floor in the Priory.

It takes about an hour and fifteen minutes to go around the Priory after which there will be a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit. There will be a small selection of souvenirs on sale, payment only by cash or cheque. You will then be escorted back to the gate and shown where to return your car pass, personal pass or numbered badge.

Booking opens here on 1 August and closes at midnight on 14 September. Online booking only. Tickets are £5 per person, plus non-members must pay an extra £2 (cash only) on the day.  All money will go to the Friends of Chicksands Priory to help fund their public liability insurance plus Priory Museum Room and ‘Audley End Glass’ projects. 

• Depending on your card provider, it may ask you to authorise payment of £0 - continue with the booking and the correct amount will be shown on the next web page for you to confirm the actual amount to be deducted.

• Don't forget to click on the final "register" button - don't stop when the payment is approved!

• Contact Ann (visitingchurches@lalg.org.uk) if you do not receive email confirmation as some email providers have a problem accepting emails from LALG. 

Booking Information LALG members

Booking Information for Non LALG members 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION

The site is on a secure MOD base so you will need to provide information in advance for everyone for whom you have bought a ticket. Details will be sent in the email confirming your booking but will include: first name and surname, date of birth and nationality. You must also list the make, model, colour and registration of the car(s) you will be arriving in. Ann will share this information only with the tour coordinator, who will then share it with the relevant people on the Base.

PLUS you must bring photographic ID with you on the day - passport (preferred), driving license, bus pass etc. You will not be allowed in without it. Please arrive at the Guardroom (entrance) about 1.30pm as it will take time to process everyone. 

Photographs must be for your personal use only and just of the outside of the priory building – no personnel nor other buildings or views of the site. Videoing, photography and audio recording are not permitted inside the building or elsewhere on the base. 

GETTING THERE

The postcode for Chicksands is SG17 5QB. Here is a map showing the location.  

The entrance is from the A600 (the Shefford to Bedford road) not from the A507. The turn, which is signposted UKSC on the A600, takes you down Sandy Lane, through Rowney Warren Woods and opens out by a vegetable packing station. Continue ahead, through quite a sharp left chicane and park in one of the marked bays there on the right.
From there you need to go into the Guardroom (the building on the left), where you will have your photo taken, a pass given to you and your photo id returned. The car driver will receive a vehicle pass to be displayed on the car dashboard. From there you will return to your car and wait to drive ‘convoy style’- following a member of the Tour Team - through the security gate onto the base and be shown where to park. From the Priory car park, you will make your way to the main entrance of the Priory. [Please be aware that there is a ha-ha between the car park and the Priory, should you decide to cross the grass!]