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Bisham Abbey is a Grade I listed building manor house at Bisham in the English county of Berkshire. The name is taken from the now lost monastery which once stood alongside. This original Bisham Abbey was previously named Bisham Priory, and was the traditional resting place of many Earls of Salisbury. The complex surrounding the extant manorial buildings is now one of three National Sports Centres run on behalf of Sport England and is used as a residential training camp base for athletes and teams and community groups alike. It is a wedding venue with a licence for civil ceremony and is used for conferences, team building events, corporate parties and private functions.
In 1335 the manor was bought by William Montacute, 1st Earl of Salisbury and in 1337 he founded Bisham Priory alongside, within the year of his death 1344, and he was buried there.
Henry VIII granted the manor house to Anne of Cleves as part of her divorce settlement from him, and it was later bought by the Thomas Hoby, who lived there until 1768. Elizabeth I was a regular visitor in the time of the Hoby family. Anne of Denmark stayed in August 1610.E. K. Purnell & A. B. Hinds, HMC Downshire, vol. 2 (London, 1936), p. 358 Her arms with the motto La Mia Grandezza dal Eccelso and the arms of her husband James VI and I featured in the stained glass of the parish church, and were later installed in the house.John Gough Nichols, The Family Alliances of Denmark and Great Britain (London, 1863), p. 25. There is a long-standing legend that the house is haunted by the ghost of Dame Elizabeth Hoby, as she purportedly beat her son to death for blotting his copy-book.
Despite holding some relics of Saints Cosmas and Damian, the priory never really became a centre of pilgrimage: many other churches also held relics of the same saints, including two different locations which both claimed to have their skulls.
Bisham Priory was dissolved on 5 July 1537, but six months later, on 18 December, it was refounded as a Benedictine abbey. This was not to last though as it was finally dissolved on 19 June 1538. The abbot of Bisham, John Cordery, is said to have cursed the building thus: "As God is my witness, this property shall ne’er be inherited by two direct successors, for its sons will be hounded by misfortune", as he was dragged from it. Nothing remains of the abbey church or its associated buildings.
The facilities include:-
The England association football men's senior team trained at Bisham Abbey for 40 years, up until early 2001. England Rugby had their training base at Bisham Abbey until 2005, when they moved to the University of Bath. Several football teams have trained at Bisham Abbey, most recently FC Barcelona and Portsmouth before their 2008 FA Cup victory. For the last few years Non-League Marlow United F.C. use the pitches as their home ground. The facilities are frequently used by elite athletes and community groups for residential training camps such as the Rugby Sevens and England Hockey. There is an International High performance Tennis centre based on site managed by WIN Tennis. Some professional rugby players use the gym facilities. In February 2006 the England futsal team played two international friendlies against Finland at Bisham Abbey. Due to their regular training ground (Beversbrook) being out of use due to the weather Swindon Town F.C. have been using the centre (as of February 2020) while they attempt to find a more permanent facility.
During the Nationwide Building Society's summer advertising campaign of 2010, when they were official sponsors of the England football team at the World Cup, one of their television advertisements featured the England team playing on one of the pitches at Bisham Abbey. The parish church was clearly visible in the background.
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