On the northern bank of the river Calder, in a deeply secluded
vale, sheltered by majestic forest trees, which rise from
the skirts of level and luxuriant meadows to the tops of the
surrounding hills, stands the ruined Abbey and home of that little
colony of Monks, who, with their Abbot Gerold at their head, were
detached from the mother Abbey of Furness in 1134 to begin their
fortunes under the auspices of Ranulph de Meschines (the second of
the name) their powerful neighbour and founder. Here they contrived
to live "in some discomfort and great poverty for four years, when
an army of Scots under King David despoiled the lately begun Abbey
and carried away all its possessions. Finding they could get no
help elsewhere, the hapless thirteen resolved to return to the
maternal monastery" for refuge. This happened about the third year
of King Stephen.
The Abbot of Furness refused to receive Gerold and his companions,
reproaching them with cowardice for abandoning their monastery, and
alleging that it was rather the love of that ease and plenty which
they expected in Furness, than the devastation of the Scottish
army, that forced them from Calder. Some writers say that the
Abbot of Furness insisted that Gerold should divest himself of his
authority, and absolve the monks from their obedience to him, as
a condition of their receiving any relief. This, Gerold and his
companions refused to do, and turning their faces from Furness,
they, with the remains of their broken fortune, which consisted of
little more than some clothes and a few books, with one cart and
eight oxen, taking providence for their guide, went in quest of
better hospitality.
The result of the next day's resolution was to address themselves
to Thurstan, Archbishop of York, and beg his advice and relief.
The reception they met with from him, answered their wishes; the
Archbishop graciously received them, and charitably entertained
them for some time, then recommended them to Gundrede de Aubigny,
who sent them to Robert de Alneto, her brother, a hermit, at Hode,
in the East Riding of Yorkshire, where for a period she supplied
them with necessaries. They afterwards obtained a monastery of
their own called Byland, when they voluntarily made themselves
dependant upon Savigny, in order that Furness should exercise no
right of paternity over them.
In the same year, 1142, the Abbot of Furness understanding that
Gerold had obtained a settlement, sent another colony, with
Hardred, a Furness monk, for their Abbot, to take possession of
ravaged Calder, which the Lord of Egremont, William Fitz-Duncan,
nephew of David, King of Scots, had refounded. Their endowments
and revenues were chiefly from the founder's munificence, and were
small, being valued, at the suppression, at about sixty pounds per
annum.
The ruins of this Abbey are approached from Calder-Bridge by
a pleasant walk for about a mile on the banks of the river,
presenting several glimpses of the tower rising out of the foliage
of the forest trees by which it is surrounded.
The Abbey Church was in the form of a cross, and small, the width
of the chancel being only twenty five feet, and that of the
transepts twenty two. Of the western front little more than the
Norman doorway remains. The five pointed arches of the north side
of the nave, dividing it from the aisle; the choir; the transepts,
with a side chapel on the south; the square tower supported by four
lofty pointed arches; the walls and windows of a small cloister
running south; with the remains of upper chambers, showing a range
of eight windows to the west and seven to the east, beautiful
specimens of early English Architecture, terminated by a modern
mansion, occupying the site of the conventual buildings, but built
in a style altogether unsuited to the locality; these, with the
porter's lodge at a short distance from the west end, and a large
oven by the side of a rapid stream in the meadow on the east, all
so changed since the times of Gerold and Hardred, constitute in our
days the Abbey of Calder.
Against the walls of the Abbey are fragments of various sepulchral
figures, which from the mutilated sculptures and devices on the
shields, would seem to have belonged to the tombs of eminent
persons. One of them is represented in a coat of mail, with his
hand upon his sword; another bears a shield reversed, as a mark
of disgrace for cowardice or treachery; "but," says Hutchinson,
"the virtues of the one, and the errors of the other, are alike
given to oblivion by the hand of time and by the scourging angel
Dissolution."
Sir John le Fleming, of Beckermet, ancestor of the Flemings of
Rydal Hall, Westmorland, gave lands in Great Beckermet to this
abbey, in the 26th year of Henry III, A. D. 1242. He died during
that long reign, and was buried in the abbey. One of the effigies
above alluded to, with the shield charged fretty, is probably that
mentioned by Sir Daniel Fleming, who says that in his time (in the
seventeenth century) here was "a very ancient statue of a man in
armour, with a frett (of six pieces) upon his shield, lying upon
his back, with his sword by his side, his hands elevated in a
posture of prayer, and legs across; being so placed probably from
his taking upon him the cross, and being engaged in the holy war.
Which statue was placed there most probably in memory of this Sir
John le Fleming."
Among some ancient charters and documents in the possession
of William John Charlton, of Hesleyside, Esq., (1830) and
which came into his family, in 1680, by the marriage of his
great-great-grandfather, with Mary, daughter of Francis Salkeld,
in the parish of All-Hallows, in Cumberland, Esq., is one that is
very curious. It is an assignment made in A. D. 1291, by John, son
of John de Hudleston, of William, son of Richard de Loftscales,
formerly his native, with all his retinue and chattels, to the
Abbot and Monks of Caldra. The deed is witnessed by "Willmo.
Wailburthuait. Willmo. Thuaites. Johe de Mordling. Johe Corbet.
Johe de Halle et aliis:" and is alluded to in the following
passages quoted by Mr. Jefferson from _Archælogia Æliana_. "It
is, in fact, that species of grant of freedom to a slave, which
is called manumission implied, in which the lord yields up all
obligation to bondage, on condition of the native agreeing to an
annual payment of money on a certain day. The clause, 'so that
from this time they may be free, and exempt from all servitude and
reproach of villainage from me and my heirs,' is very curious,
especially to persons of our times, on which there has been so much
said about the pomp of Eastern lords, and the reproachful slavery
in which their dependents are still kept. Here the Monks of Caldra
redeemed a man, his family, and property from slavery, on condition
of his paying them the small sum of two pence a-year. The Hudleston
family were seated at Millum, in the time of Henry the Third, when
they acquired that estate, by the marriage of John de Hudleston
with the Lady Joan, the heiress of the Boisville family."
"Slavery continued to thrive on the soil of Northumberland long
after the time of Edward the First; for in 1470, Sir Roger
Widdrington manumitted his native, William Atkinson, for the
purpose of making him his bailiff of Woodhorn."
The inmates of Calder were probably neither better nor worse than
other cowled fraternities. A certain Brother Beesley, a Benedictine
Monk, of Pershore, in Worcestershire, speaks very boldly of
certain shortcomings, in his own experience of "relygyus men."
The following passage occurs in a petition addressed by him to
the Vicar-General Cromwell, at the time of the visitation of the
Monasteries:--
"Now y wyll ynstrux your grace sumwatt of relygyus men----. Monckes
drynke an bowll after collatyon tyll ten or twelve of the clok, and
cum to matyns as dronck as myss (mice)--and sum at cardys, sum at
dyes, and at tabulles; sum cum to mattyns begenying at the mydes,
and sum wen yt ys almost dun, and wold not cum there so only for
boddly punyshment, nothyng for Goddes sayck."