The following image is of St Johns Church as seen from the gardens at Keynsham Abbey and was taken by Martin Farrell. As detailed in our previous blog, Martin is helping us to record the life of Keynsham Abbey gardens over the following year (Martin is from the Keynsham branch of the Avon Wildlife Trust). In the previous blog, Martin has captured some wonderful images of the flowers within the Abbey gardens taken in early Spring 2025. This image of St Johns Church is particularly interesting - the lack of leaves on the trees allows us to imagine what the view would have been like for the canons of Keynsham Abbey. Even though the secular church of St Johns stood outside the grounds of the Abbey, this view shows how physically close both ecclesiastical establishments were to each.
The Augustinian canons at Keynsham were from the Order of St Victor of Paris - an Order that was particularly active within their secular communities, helping to care for the sick, and generally considered to be a very humble Order - they were very social, lacked any grand status and did not seek privilege.
We do hope you enjoy this image......it does provide an opportunity to be transported back in time and see the same view that the medieval canons of Keynsham Abbey could see.
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