The houses of monks, canons and nuns which once were, and in many respects still are, such a characteristic feature of the European countryside, have generated a strong fascination and interest among laymen and laywomen ever since their first appearance in the fourth century. From their earliest beginnings, monastic communities were inevitably linked to the lay communities from which they sprang, and from which they were aiming so strongly to distance themselves in order to pursue a life dedicated as far as possible to a purely spiritual existence. From the start the lay community looked up to these groups of pious men and women, some with suspicion, but others with genuine admiration for their lifestyle of contemplation, self-denial and physical mortification, the perceived effectiveness of their prayers and their charitable acts, and they recognised the potential that these holy communities afforded for the salvation of their own souls, or rather the souls of those members of the lay community who had the financial means to afford monastic endowment.

In England and Wales, as in the rest of Christian Europe, monasteries and nunneries were an essential part of the medieval landscape and of medieval society. Just as elsewhere in western Christendom, the local lay community was involved with communities of religious men and women on several levels. Laymen supplied the recruits for the many and multiplying communities, they endowed them, and they traded with them. The religious, on the other hand, provided essential services for the lay community.