This community began when the nuns of Shaftesbury sought refuge from war in Bradford-on-Avon. The king granted them land with the stipulation that some of them remain behind to continue the community when Shaftesbury was safe enough to be reoccupied.
Bradford was a dependency of Shaftesbury.
King Aethelred granted land to the community at Shaftesbury as refuge from the Danish wars.
In 1066 and 1086, the manor of Bradford which was held by the abbess of Shaftesbury was assessed as having 49 hides of land and as valued at 60 pounds (Domesday Book: a survey of the counties of England, Vol. II, fol. 372r).
A nunnery church with a porticus on the east and a choir with no nave remains. It dates to around 1001 (Church Architecture in the Reign of Aethelred, 110).
The remains of Edward the Martyr, brother of Aethelred, resided at Bradford when the nuns of Shaftesbury were taking refuge there.
Domesday Book: a survey of the counties of England, Vol. II, fol. 372r;
Charters of Shaftesbury Abbey, no. 29 (S899);
Veiled Women,vol. 1, and vol. 2, 47-48;
Church Architecture in the Reign of Aethelred, 110
Foot makes no tie between this eleventh century foundation at Bradford-on-Avon and the later foundation of S. Margaret in the same area.
