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Biggin Abbey was never an abbey, though it is popularly called that. It was properly a manor house, being the summer home of the Bishops of Ely.
Originally built in the mid 13th Century, by Hugh de Northwold, Bishop of Ely, it was almost entirely rebuilt in the 14th Century, after it had fallen into disrepair. It was rebuilt again in the 17th Century.
In its early days as a bishop's manor, it was visited by kings on their way through East Anglia; Henry III, Edward I, and Edward II are known to have stayed there, sometimes for a few weeks. It has been owned by the Willys family of Eye Hall, by Thomas Panton, and by Sir Peter Burrell.
Now a farmhouse, it is not at this writing open to visitors.
http://www.gatehouse-gazetteer.info/English%20sites/3939.html
http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/en-50579-biggin-abbey-fen-d...