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[Illustration: _Photo. D. Gwynne._
TEWKESBURY ABBEY, FROM THE EAST.]
THE ABBEY CHURCH OF
TEWKESBURY
WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE
PRIORY CHURCH OF
DEERHURST
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
BY
H.J.L.J. MASSE, M.A.
Author of "Gloucester Cathedral"
"Mont S. Michel," "Chartres," etc.
WITH XLIV ILLUSTRATIONS
LONDON GEORGE BELL & SONS 1906
First published, April, 1900.
Reprinted with corrections, 1901, 1906.
PREFACE.
My heartiest thanks are here expressed to all who have helped me in
any way during the compiling of this book--to Sir Charles Isham, of
Lamport, for allowing me the use of his _Registrum Theokusburiae_ for
several months, and for permission to reproduce two pages from it; to
Mr. J.T. Micklethwaite for permission to make use of his paper on
_Saxon Churches_ published in the Journal of the Archaeological
Institute, and to the Institute for leave to reproduce the three
blocks of Deerhurst; to Mr. W.H. St. John Hope for several
suggestions; to Mr. A.H. Hughes, of Llandudno, Dr. Oscar Clark, and
Mr. R.W. Dugdale, of Gloucester, for so liberally supplementing my own
store of photographs; to Mr. S. Browett, of Tewkesbury, for the loan
of the wood block on page 17; and, lastly, to Mr. W.G. Bannister, the
sacristan of the Abbey, who placed his thorough knowledge of the
building, its records, and its heraldry, together with the whole of
his valuable MS. notes on these points, unreservedly at my disposal.
H.J.L.J.M.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. History of the Foundation and Fabric of the Abbey Church,
and Some Account of its Benefactors 3
II. The Exterior 29
North Porch 30
The Tower 30
The West Front 32
The South Side 34
The Cloisters 34
The Lady Chapel 37
III. The Interior 39
The Nave 39
The Roof and its Bosses 42
The Font 43
The Lectern 44
The Pulpit 44
The Screen 45
The Great West Window 46
The Aisles 47
North Aisle and its Windows 47
South Aisle and its Windows 49
North Transept 51
Interior of the Tower 53
St. James' Chapel 55
Early English Lady Chapel 57
St. Margaret's Chapel 58
St. Edmund's Chapel 60
The Clarence Vault 62
St. Faith's Chapel 63
The Vestry 65
South Transept 68
The Choir 71
Altar 74
Sedilia 75
Tiles 76
Windows of the Choir 76
De Clares 77
Despenser Graves 81
The Tombs and Chantries--Warwick Chapel 83
Founder's Chapel 88
The Despenser Monument 90
Trinity Chapel 91
Tombs in the Ambulatory 93
Abbot Wakeman's Tomb 95
Abbot Cheltenham's Tomb 95
Abbot John's Tomb 96
Abbot Alan's Tomb 97
The Organs 97
Specification of the Grove Organ 98
Church Plate 100
Church Registers 100
Arms of the Abbey 101
Old Tiles 101
Abbots of Tewkesbury 101
Dimensions of the Abbey 132
DEERHURST.
The Priory Church 105
Exterior--Tower 108
Interior--The Nave 108
The South Aisle 111
The North Aisle 112
The Font 114
The Choir 115
The Monastic Buildings 121
The Saxon Chapel 123
Index 127
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
Tewkesbury Abbey, from the East _Frontispiece_
Arms of the Abbey _Title_
The Abbey, from the North-west 2
Tewkesbury Abbey in 1840, by Rev. J.L. Petit 3
Page from the "Registrum Theokusburiae" 5
Richard Beauchamp, first husband of Isabelle Despenser, and his
Armorial Connexions, from the "Registrum Theokusburiae" 11
The Detached Bell-tower, demolished in 1817 17
The West End in 1840, by Rev. J.L. Petit 19
The Choir before 1864, from an old photograph 22
The Nave before 1864, from an old photograph 23
The Abbey Gate 25
Tile showing the Arms of Fitz-Hamon and the Abbey impaled 27
Tewkesbury Abbey, from the North 28
The Abbey, from the South 31
The Cloister Doorway 35
The Nave, from the West End 40
Masons' Marks 41
The North Choir Aisle, looking West, showing the back of the
Despenser Monument 52
Interior of the Tower above the Vaulting 54
Wall Arcade in Early English Chapel 57
The Ambulatory, looking towards St. Margaret's Chapel 59
The North Choir Aisle and St. Edmund's Chapel 61
The Vestry Door, South Choir Aisle 66
The Apsidal Chapel, South Transept 68
The Choir, looking West 72
Rib-centres in the Choir Vault 73
The Sedilia 75
The Warwick Chapel 85
Chantry of the Founder, Fitz-Hamon 89
The Despenser Monument 90
The Trinity Chapel 92
The "Wakeman Cenotaph" 94
The South Choir Aisle, looking West 96
DEERHURST.
Deerhurst Priory Church, from the South 104
Interior, looking West 110
Font 114
Plan of Deerhurst Priory Church before the Conquest, by J.T.
Micklethwaite, F.S.A., from "The Archaeological Journal" 118
The Tower, from "The Archaeological Journal" 119
Fourteenth Century Window 122
The Saxon Chapel 123
Dedication Stone 124
Plan of Saxon Chapel 124
Dedication Slab of an Altar 124
Chancel Arch in the Saxon Chapel 125
PLAN of Deerhurst Priory and its Domestic Buildings as now
existing 129
PLAN of Tewkesbury Abbey 130
[Illustration: _Photo. Dr. Oscar Clark._
THE ABBEY--FROM THE NORTH-WEST.]
[Illustration: TEWKESBURY ABBEY IN 1840.
By _Rev. J.L. Petit_.]
TEWKESBURY ABBEY.
CHAPTER I.
HISTORY OF THE FOUNDATION AND FABRIC OF THE ABBEY CHURCH, AND SOME
ACCOUNT OF ITS BENEFACTORS.
Tradition, originating in the desire to account for the name of the
town, would assign the foundation of a cell or chapel to Theoc, or in
Latin form Theocus, in or about 655. In support of this theory Camden
and others assert that it was called in Anglo-Saxon times Theocsburg
or Theotisbyrg. Others would derive the name from the Greek
"Theotokos," as the Church is dedicated to St. Mary, and others again
refer us back to a very early name, Etocisceu--Latinised as Etocessa.
In Domesday Book the town is called Teodechesberie, and throughout the
Chronicles of the Abbey is called Theokusburia.
The Chronicles of the Abbey tell us that the first monastery at
Tewkesbury was built by two Saxon nobles, Oddo and Doddo, in or about
the year 715, a time when Mercia was flourishing under Ethelred, and
later, under Kenred and Ethelbald. It was dedicated to the Virgin
Mary, and endowed with the manor of Stanway and other lands for the
support of the Benedictine monks who, under a Prior, were there
installed. Oddo and Doddo died soon afterwards, and were buried in the
abbey church of Pershore.
Much has been written about these mythical founders, and confusion in
the minds of the chroniclers, and in those of subsequent writers too,
has been caused by the similarity between the names of Oddo and Doddo,
and Odda and Dodda. It is stated in the old Tewkesbury Chronicle that
Oddo and Doddo were brothers, who in 715 founded a small cell at
Tewkesbury, and that Doddo built a church at Deerhurst to show his
love for a brother who had died some time before. They seem to have
been two noble dukes, members of an illustrious family and renowned
for their great virtue. Oddo is said to have become a monk, and after
his death to have been buried at Pershore Abbey.
As Mr. Butterworth points out in his book on Deerhurst, this seems to
be a travesty of what actually happened. There were in the eleventh
century two brothers, Odda and AElfric, with probably a third brother,
Dodda, who were related to Edward the Confessor, and were, besides,
his friends and followers. Charters are extant bearing their
signatures and names, and covering the period 1015-1051. It is this
Odda who caused to be built the "aula regia" at Deerhurst in memory of
his brother AElfric, with a stone[1] bearing an inscription of which a
copy is now in the Saxon Chapel at Deerhurst. This Odda, with his
brother, was buried at Pershore. Odda's existence at this time is
further confirmed by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (edited by Ingram),
which states that Odda was in 1051 made Earl over Devonshire,
Somerset, Dorset, and the Welsh. The same chronicle says that Odda was
also called Agelwin. Florence of Worcester says that he was also
called Ethelwin.
It is perhaps easy to see how a chronicler writing 250 years later,
should be led to assume that Oddo and Doddo were identical with Odda
and Dodda. Sir Charles Isham's "Registrum Theokusburiae" gives a
full-page illustration of this "_par nobile fratrum_," as Dr. Hayman
calls them, in which they are termed "_duo duces Marciorum et primi
fundatores Theokusburiae_" i.e., two Earls of the Marches and first
founders of Tewkesbury. Each knight is in armour, and bears in his
hand a model of a church. Both are supporting a shield (affixed to a
pomegranate tree) bearing the arms of the Abbey, which the blazoning
on their own coats repeats.
[Illustration: PAGE FROM THE "REGISTRUM THEOKUSBURIAE."
(_H.J.L.J.M._)]
According to the chronicle, Hugh, a great Earl of the Mercians, caused
the body of Berthric or Brictric, King of Wessex, to be buried in the
chapel of St. Faith in the church at Tewkesbury, in 799 or 800, and
Hugh himself was buried at Tewkesbury in 812. Of this fact
confirmation is given by Leland, who said that Hugh's tomb was there
in his time, on the north side of the nave.
The Priory suffered terribly at the hands of the invading Danes--in
fact, it was in the centre of the theatre of war in which, under
Alfred, the decisive struggle was fought to an end at Boddington
Field, where a spot called the Barrow still marks the site. In
consequence of the continued ravages the Priory was so reduced in 980
that it became a cell dependent on the Abbey at Cranbourn, in Dorset,
a Benedictine foundation of which Haylward de Meaux, Hayward Snow, or
Hayward de Meawe as the Isham MS. Chronicle spells it, was the founder
and patron. He and his wife Algiva are depicted in that MS. as sitting
on a mound with a cruciform building in their hands. The church has a
lofty embattled tower surmounted with a spire. Hayward fell at
Essendune in 1016, and was buried at Cranbourn. Tewkesbury Priory
continued to be dependent on Cranbourn for about one hundred years.
Hayward's son, Earl Algar, inherited the patronage of Cranbourn and
Tewkesbury, and on his death it passed to his son Berthric, or,
according to the Isham MS., Britricus Meawe. This Britric, while on an
embassy in Flanders, refused the hand of the Earl's daughter Matilda,
who was subsequently the wife of William Duke of Normandy, the
conqueror of England. When the lady became Queen of England she had
Britric's manors confiscated, and he died in prison at Winchester.
Thus Tewkesbury passed into the hands of the Normans.
At the time of the Domesday Survey the priory was possessed of 24-1/2
hides (or 3,000 acres) of land, which in Edward the Confessor's reign
had been valued at L1 per hide.
In 1087 William Rufus bestowed the honour of Gloucester, together with
the patronage of the Priory of Tewkesbury, upon his second cousin once
removed, Robert Fitz-Hamon, or, to give him his full titles as
recorded in the Charters, "Sir Robert Fitz-Hamon, Earl of Corboile,
Baron of Thorigny and Granville, Lord of Gloucester, Bristol,
Tewkesbury and Cardiff, Conqueror of Wales, near kinsman of the King,
and General of his Highness' army in France."
Robert Fitz-Hamon is the reputed founder of the present structure, but
the credit of the founding, or rather refounding, is due to Giraldus,
Abbot of Cranbourn. Like Abbot Serlo of Gloucester fame, he had
originally come over from De Brienne, in Normandy, the ancestral home
of the De Clare family, and a town closely connected with Tewkesbury
at a later date. Giraldus had been chaplain to Hugh Lupus, Earl of
Chester, and subsequently to Walkelyn, Bishop of Winchester. He was
appointed Abbot of Cranbourn by William Rufus, who acted on the advice
of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, and St. Osmund, Bishop of
Salisbury. Giraldus then secured the assistance of Fitz-Hamon, and the
munificent endowments of the latter supplied the means for building
the noble foundation at Tewkesbury. Fitz-Hamon is said to have been
inspired by a wish to make atonement for the wanton destruction of
Bayeux Cathedral by Henry I.
By the year 1102 Giraldus and the members of St. Bartholomew's Abbey
at Cranbourn removed to Tewkesbury, which was by that time ready to
receive them; and the establishment at Cranbourn, under the rule of a
Prior and two monks, became in its turn (after 120 years) a cell
dependent on the new Abbey of Tewkesbury. After a few years Giraldus,
"having neither the inclination nor the ability to satiate the King's
avarice (Henry I.) with gifts," was obliged to leave Tewkesbury and
returned to Winchester, where he died in 1110.
Fitz-Hamon had died in 1107 from the effects of a wound received at
the siege of Falaise, and was buried temporarily in the Chapter House,
which stood on the south side of the building.
In 1123 the Abbey was complete, and was consecrated on November 20th,
with much ceremony, by Theulf, Bishop of Worcester, assisted by the
Bishops of Llandaff, Hereford, Dublin, and another whose name is
unknown.
The main part of the church, as it now stands, is usually assigned to
about 1123, and substantially is as strong now as it was then.
In the following year, 1124, Abbot Robert died, and soon afterwards
Theulf, the old Bishop of Worcester, also passed away.
Of Fitz-Hamon's four daughters two became abbesses, another was
married to the Earl of Brittany, and Mabel was given to Robert, one of
the many illegitimate sons of Henry I. She seems to have been a
business-like lady, and to have hesitated at the proposed union with a
nameless lord, unless a title could be made to go with him. As Robert
of Gloucester writes:
"The Kyng understood that the mayde seyde non outrage
And that Gloucestre was chief of hyre eritage.
'Damozel,' he seyde, 'thy lord shall have a name
For hym and for hys eyrs, fayr wyth out blame,
For Robert of Gloucestre hys name shall be and is:
For he shall be Erl of Gloucestre and his eyres, I wis.'"
This Robert Fitzroy, thus made the first Earl of Gloucester, was a
great benefactor to the Abbey. To him are due the completion of the
church and the greater part of the tower. According to Leland, the
stone was brought over from Caen, but some seems to have been local
stone from Prestbury and Cheltenham. He was as prominent in the arts
of peace as he was afterwards in those of war, inheriting his taste
for the former from his scholarly father. It is to him that the
chronicler William of Malmesbury dedicated his work.
Robert Fitzroy died in Gloucester in 1147, but was buried at St.
James' Priory, Bristol, another foundation which was indebted to his
munificence. His successor was William Fitzcount, the second Earl of
Gloucester.
In 1178 the monastery was partly burnt down, the church fortunately
suffering but little. There are some slight traces of fire on the
exterior walls of the south and west faces of the tower, and on the
interior of the south transept. The Annals of Winton say, "_Combusta
est et redacta in pulverem Ecclesia de Theokesberia_"--an untenable
hypothesis; but the Tewkesbury Chronicles merely mention that the
monastery and the offices were destroyed. John, Earl of Cornwall,
better known as King John, was entertained in the monastery soon
afterwards, so that the damage cannot have been quite so overwhelming
as the Winchester Chronicles allege it to have been. The fire might
have been much more serious than it was, and it seems that only the
fact of the wind being north-east saved the church. Judging by the
marks of calcination on the outside of the tower, and the chief arch
of the south transept, the roof must have been seriously damaged, and
the roof of the cloister walk abutting on to the south aisle must have
been completely burned. In all probability the group of roofing next
to the south transept was destroyed.
William Fitzcount, dying in 1183, after a long and successful life,
was buried at Keynsham, a magnificent abbey built by him in memory of
a son who died young. Earl William's other children were girls, and
the lordship of Gloucester was vested in Henry II. for some years. In
1189 the Abbey lands were granted by Richard I. to his brother John
(who was afterwards king, 1199 to 1215), the first husband of
Isabella, third daughter of William Fitzcount. Being divorced from
John after his accession in 1199, she married Geoffrey de Mandeville,
Earl of Essex, who paid 20,000 marks for the honour of Gloucester and
the possessions of the Lady Isabel.
The earldom of Gloucester finally passed in 1221 to Amice--sister of
the Lady Isabella--great granddaughter of Fitz-Hamon the founder, who
had married Richard de Clare, Earl of Hertford. This Richard de Clare
was the ancestor of the Tewkesbury De Clares, a family which held the
honour of Tewkesbury for nearly a century.
His son, Gilbert de Clare, married Isabelle de Marechal. His name, as
also that of his father, is among the signatories of Magna Charta, and
he was a strenuous supporter of the barons against the King. Though he
died in Brittany, his body was brought home and buried in Tewkesbury,
at the foot of the steps leading up to the high altar. In a few
months' time his widow, Isabelle, married Richard, Earl of Cornwall,
brother of King Henry III. At her death she wished to be buried next
to Gilbert de Clare, but as her husband objected to this, she
bequeathed her heart to the Abbey, and this was duly interred in
Gilbert de Clare's grave. As the Register quaintly says in its rhyming
hexameters--
"Postrema voce legavit cor comitissa
Pars melior toto fuit huc pro corpore missa
Haec se divisit dominum recolendo priorem
Huc cor quod misit verum testatur amorem
His simul ecclesiae sanctae suffragia prosint
Ut simul in requie caelesti cum Domino sint."
Gilbert de Clare bequeathed to the Abbey the manor called Mythe, on
the hill just outside the town, and Isabelle also left to it many
relics, besides vestments, and much valuable church furniture.
On the death of Gilbert de Clare, his son Richard became a ward of the
King. Marrying Margaret de Burgh, a daughter of the great Earl of
Kent, without permission, he incurred the royal displeasure, and was
eventually forced to divorce his young wife in favour of the lady
chosen for him. He supported the barons against the King, with whom he
had never been in agreement. In 1262 he died, and was buried in the
Abbey. One of his wife's sisters married Robert Bruce, competitor for
the Scottish Crown and grandfather of King Robert Bruce.
His son Gilbert the second, Rufus or Rubens, _i.e._ Red, is another
well-known figure. Like his father, he at first supported the barons,
but soon after the battle of Lewes he took the King's side, and fought
for him at Evesham. Again from pique he deserted him, returning to his
allegiance once more in 1270. He was buried in the Abbey in 1295.
Gilbert de Clare the third, who was born at Tewkesbury in 1291, was
perhaps the most famous of the De Clares. Whilst he was still in early
manhood, he was twice chosen by Edward II. to serve as Regent of
England in his absence, once even before he had attained full age. His
promising career was cut short at Bannockburn in 1314, and the last of
the De Clares was buried in the Choir in 1314, his widow being placed
later by his side.
The lordship of Tewkesbury then passed from the De Clares, who had
held it for ninety years, to Eleanor, Gilbert's eldest sister. By her
marriage in 1321 to Hugh le Despenser, the lordship came into the
hands of the Despensers. This Hugh the younger, or Hugo Secundus as
the Register calls him, was too faithful a supporter of Edward II.,
and he paid for his fidelity with his life in 1326, having been
hanged, drawn, and quartered in Hereford about three weeks after his
aged father had suffered a similar fate at Bristol. His remains were
collected and buried in the tomb at the back of the sedilia, where
Abbot John's tomb was placed at a later date.
The next lord of Tewkesbury was Hugh, the son of Hugh the younger and
Eleanor de Clare. His tomb is to be seen on the north side of the high
altar, with his effigy upon it, together with that of his wife, the
Lady Elizabeth, who, though thrice married, preferred to be buried
with him. She retained the manor of Tewkesbury after her marriage to
Sir Guy de Brien, and on her death in 1359 it passed to her nephew,
Edward le Despenser.
This Edward le Despenser took part in the battle of Poitiers, and was
one of the first Knights of the Garter. On his death at Cardiff in
1375 his body was brought to Tewkesbury, and his effigy is to be seen
on the roof of the Trinity Chapel on the south side of the high altar.
He was buried close to the presbytery, and his wife was, in 1409,
buried next to him.
Thomas le Despenser, the third son of Edward, was for two years only
Earl of Gloucester, and being attainted, was executed at Bristol in
1400. No trace remains of his grave at Tewkesbury.
[Illustration: RICHARD BEAUCHAMP, FIRST HUSBAND OF ISABELLE
DESPENSER, AND HIS ARMORIAL CONNECTIONS.
From the _Registrum Theokusburiae._
(_H.J.L.J.M._)]
With the death of his son Richard in 1414, the lordship of the
Despensers in the male line, after ninety-three years, became extinct.
Once again the Manor of Tewkesbury passed by the female line, and into
the distinguished family of the Beauchamps, with whom Richard le
Despenser's sister Isabelle was connected by her marriage with Richard
Beauchamp, or Ricardus de Bello Campo as the Register calls him when
it does not give his name as Becham. He was killed at the siege of
Breaux in France in 1421, and his young widow erected the sumptuous
chantry chapel known as the Warwick Chapel over his remains. She then,
by special papal dispensation, married her cousin, also a Richard
Beauchamp, and from henceforth was generally known by her new title,
the Countess of Warwick. On her husband's death at Rouen in 1439, she
brought his body to England and had it conveyed to the Beauchamp
Chapel at Warwick. The widowed countess died in December of the same
year, but elected to be buried at Tewkesbury.
Her young son Henry was a favourite of Henry VI., who bestowed most
unusual favours upon him, creating him Duke of Warwick and King of the
Isle of Wight, and later King of Jersey and Guernsey. The young Duke,
who was married to Cicely Neville, died at the age of twenty-one, and
was buried in the choir of the Abbey. As he left no children, the
manor passed in 1449 to his sister Anne, the wife of Richard Neville
the "King-maker." All the "King-maker's" estates were confiscated to
the Crown after he fell at Barnet in 1471, but were eventually shared
between his two daughters Isabelle and Anne. Isabelle married George,
Duke of Clarence, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury, who in 1477, a few
days after Isabelle's supposed death by poison at Warwick, was put to
death in the Tower. Both were buried at Tewkesbury (_vide_ p. 62).
The young Edward, son of the Duke of Clarence, was imprisoned in the
Tower till his execution in 1499.
The Manor of Tewkesbury, as a possession of the Warwicks, passed into
the hands of Lord Seymour of Sudeley, the husband of Catharine Parr,
until his attainder, when they once more came into the hands of the
Crown. James I. sold the manor to the Corporation in 1609. During the
present century the lordship of the manor again passed by sale into
private hands.
In the chronicles of the Abbey the following facts are recorded:--
In 1218 the dormitory roof fell down upon the monks when they returned
from an early service, and Gilbert, a monk, had a thigh broken and his
head injured, while the Prior Gunfrey escaped unhurt.
In 1224, Robert Travers, Bishop of Kildelo (_i.e._ Killaloe), in the
winter dedicated two large bells in the tower.
In 1234 the principal gate of the monastery and two stables were burnt
down.
In 1237, Hervey de Sipton, the then Prior, pulled down and rebuilt the
chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas. Nothing can be said definitely as to
its size, owing to the later work done in this part. The chronicle,
however, distinctly states that divine service was first held in Prior
Sipton's new chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas, on St. Nicholas'
Day.[2]
The roof bears the arms of the Clares and Despensers, and this would
give the date of the bosses as 1321-1337, _i.e._, about a century
later than the date of the chapel.
The two chapels which are now usually known as those of St. James and
St. Nicholas were, at one time, supposed, without authority, to have
been the chapter-house of the monastery. They were so described as
recently as 1881, in the plan used by the members of the Architectural
Association for their excursion to Tewkesbury. For many years they
were in use as a grammar school, and were walled off from the rest of
the church.
In 1239 a grand altar was dedicated to the honour of the Virgin,
"gloriosae Virginis Mariae." This is by some supposed to refer to the
present altar-stone of Purbeck marble.
In 1241, Oct. 25, the body of Fitz-Hamon, the founder of the existing
fabric, was brought in from the Chapter House and placed on the site
of the Founder's Chapel built later.
In 1243 the dormitory, which had been rebuilt (chiefly by Abbot
Peter), was re-opened for use.
In 1246 the Prior, Henry de Banbury, built an Early English Chapel,
dedicated to St. Eustachius. It seems probable that this was erected
on the site of the apsidal Norman chapel, and the space (6 feet)
between it and the Early English chapel. The vaulting corbels are all
that remain.
In 1259 the Chapter-House was newly paved at the expense of the
Convent.
The chronicles, as reprinted in "Annales Monastici" stop short in
1263, and from that time onwards there is a dearth of direct
information as to the Abbey and its history.
The choir was altered in the time of Abbot Parker, by Elizabeth, the
wife, successively, of Lord Badlesmere, of Hugh Lord Despenser, and
Sir Guy de Brien. The original Norman clerestory was taken down and
the Norman columns of the choir slightly raised, as will be seen from
the choir aisle on the side where the original capitals were left
unaltered. At the same time the beautiful series of apsidal chapels
was added; stone vaulting took the place of the earlier wooden
roofing and the space between the four piers that support the tower
was vaulted. This work contains the arms of Sir Guy and of the
Montacutes.
1397. The Founder's Chapel was erected by Abbot Parker.
In 1422 Henry VI. granted the patronage of Deerhurst Priory to
Tewkesbury. Much litigation followed with Eton College in consequence,
but in 1469 the grant was confirmed and carried out by John Carpenter,
Bishop of Worcester.
On May 30, 1471, the Abbey, which had been polluted with blood during
the battle of Tewkesbury, and had not been available for divine
service for a month, was cleansed with special ceremony by the Bishop
of Down and Connor, who was acting as suffragan to the Bishop of
Worcester and reconsecrated.
At the Dissolution the whole establishment, which, from the lists of
what was to be kept and what was to be destroyed, was of considerable
size, was seized by the King's Commissioners. The houses and buildings
assigned to remain "undefaced" were "The lodging called the New Warke,
leading from the gate to the late Abbot's lodging, with buttery,
pantry, cellar, kitching, larder, and pastry thereto adjoining; the
late Abbot's lodging; the hostery; the great gate entering into the
court, with the lodging over the same; the Abbot's stable, bakehouse,
brewhouse and slaughter-house, the almery, barn, dairy-house; the
great barn next Avon; the malting-house with the garners in the same,
the ox-house in the Barton, the Barton-gate and the lodging over the
same." At the same time "the Church, with chapels, cloisters, chapter
house, misericord; the two dormitories, infirmary with chapels and
lodgings within the same; the workhouse, with another house adjoining
to the same; the convent kitchen; the library; the old hostery; the
chamberer's lodgings; the new hall; the old parlour adjoining to the
Abbot's lodging; the cellarer's lodging; the poulter house: the
gardner; the almary, and all other houses and lodgings not otherwise
reserved," were "deemed to be superfluous" and were committed to the
custody of Sir John Whittington.
The eight bells in the tower were estimated at 146 cwt., and were
ordered to be melted down, as was also the lead upon the roofs of the
choir, the aisles and the chapels annexed, the cloister, chapter
house, frater, St. Michael's Chapel, halls, farmery and gatehouse. The
weight of lead was estimated at 180 fodders, _i.e._, about 190 tons.
The jewels naturally were specially reserved to the use of the King's
Majesty, and the two mitres garnished with gilt, rugged pearls, and
counterfeit stones, and 1,431 ounces of silver and silver-gilt plate
were, together with the vestments, ornaments, and everything else of
value, taken away.
The public-spirited inhabitants of Tewkesbury, however, meant to
preserve their cherished Abbey from destruction if they could compass
it, and after petitioning their "most dread victorious sovereign
lord," succeeded in doing so for a consideration, viz., the sum of
L453. This sum was arrived at by roughly valuing the lead on the roofs
at 5d. a square foot, and the bells at something like 2-1/2d. per lb.
They had to pay L200 down, L100 the ensuing Easter, and the balance,
L153, at Christmas. It was further stipulated that the said
parishioners should "bear and find the reparations of the said church
perpetually."
The word "church" in this connection seems to be limited to mean that
part of the building other than the nave. The nave seems to have been
looked upon as belonging, as was the case elsewhere, to the
inhabitants of Tewkesbury, for their use, more or less as a parish
church. Mr. Hayman says that "parochial worship was enshrined there
side by side with the monastic, far in the past, before its
re-foundation in the eleventh century.... This parochial constitution
survived the great successive shocks of change which altered or
cancelled everything else. The change from Saxon to Norman, the havoc
of civil war, the concentration of power in the Tudor crown, the
Dissolution itself, and the Reformation which followed, all left this
as they found it, or left it stronger still. To this constitution
alone the noble church was indebted for its preservation. The King
could grasp all else from pinnacle to basement, but the nave was the
parishioners', and that he could not touch. The result is a church
surviving entire and substantially as its vanished patrons and
banished brethren left it. Therefore if this church is a monument of
baronial and abbatial power long departed, it is yet more so of the
strength of the popular principle, and of the vitality of the
parochial system which survives."
In the same way the good people of Great Malvern, or Moche Malverne as
it was then termed, clubbed together and bought the Priory Church for
L200, to serve as their parish church in place of the older parish
church, which then, after two hundred and fifty years' use, was in
need of repair. Their Lady Chapel, cloisters, dormitories, Chapter
House, &c., were rased to the ground, and all that had a market value
was sold.
After the purchase of the church by the good people of Tewkesbury, the
nave seems to have been utterly neglected, and only used for purposes
of burial and for the occasional performances of stage-plays. Such
plays were acted in 1578, 1584, 1585, as is shown by items which
appear in the list of "church goods," as "sheepe skins for Christ's
garments," "shippe skins for the sinners gear," "eight heads of heare
for the Apostles and ten beardes," together with a "face or vizor for
the devil."
In 1559, on Easter morning, during divine service, the wooden spire
fell down, causing damage to the tower masonry in its fall. This
steeple may have been the original one which had been put up by
Robert, the first Earl of Gloucester.
In 1576 the two chapels of St. James and St. Nicholas were cut off
from the church and turned into a free school.
In 1582 the campanile, which stood on the north side of the church not
far from the North Transept, was converted into a House of Correction
for half the shire.
In 1593 the Corporation records state that the long roof was taken
down, and replaced in the following year. Six years later there is
another interesting entry as follows: "The churchwardens after
Michaelmas, intending of themselves to build a battlement upon the top
of the church tower, offered to do the same without any charge, and
for that purpose did set forth three stage-plays, played in the Abbey
at Whitsuntide following."
To raise more money they then proposed to hold a Church Ale, but there
were difficulties in the way, and the proposal was dropped.
The cost of the battlements was L66. These same churchwardens, with
the help of others, "joined in entreating the benevolence of the best
disposed of the inhabitants, and thereby finished the free school by
glazing the windows, boarding the floors, and making the galleries."
In 1602 the monks' stalls, which had been in the body of the church,
were removed into the chancel.
In 1603 "the roof of lead over the chancel was taken down, new framed,
laid lower, and covered new," at the expense of the town.
In 1607 a large grey marble slab was discovered buried in the church.
It measured 13 feet 8 inches by 3 feet 6 inches, and 7 inches thick.
This was placed for some time in the middle of the chancel and was
used for a Communion table.
[Illustration: THE DETACHED BELL-TOWER, DEMOLISHED IN 1817.
_From Bennett's "Tewkesbury" lent by Mr. S. Browett._]
In 1653-54 there is an interesting entry in the churchwardens'
accounts: "Item. Paid the ringers 24th December, my Lord Protector
being proclaimed that day--who was the Grand Rebel." (The last few
words are by a different hand, perhaps that of the other
churchwarden.)
In 1661 the west window was blown in, and was rebuilt in 1686.
In 1720 the external re-roofing of the nave was carried out, and the
western gable, occupying the space between the two western turrets,
disappeared in the process.
By 1720 the "long roof," repaired in 1593, was again in want of
repair, and to raise money a brief was granted by Parker, the Lord
Chancellor. During the years 1723-26 the work was carried out and
finished. Before this, the eaves of the roof overlapped the side walls
of the nave.
In 1726 the "old wall at the East end of the Chancel" was taken down,
and foundations were dug upon which an altar-piece was to be erected.
About the same time, the marble Communion table, which Mr. Gough
called "the finest Communion table in the kingdom," was moved into the
nave. It was then cut longitudinally into two pieces, which were used
as seats in the porch.
In 1737 the organ now in the choir was erected over the old screen.
A stone altar-piece, Doric in character, with an elliptical pediment,
was set up in 1725, the cost being partly met by private
subscriptions. It must have struck most people as incongruous, for it
was not liked, and in 1848 it was removed.
A flood in 1770 rose to such a height that service could not be held
in the church; and the old feoffee book states that "the graves in the
church were shocking to behold, for scarce a stone was to be seen that
was not removed from its proper situation. Several parts of this
venerable building were materially injured, particularly the large
pillar next the seats of the Corporation, and the arch over the same."
In January, 1795, it was agreed at a parish meeting that "the church
shall be whitewashed as soon as convenient, and other repairs be done
... that shall appear necessary." The part of the church that was in
use was re-pewed, galleries were put up in the two transepts, and in
the easternmost bay of the aisles of the nave.
During the years 1824-30, the exterior of the tower, probably
untouched from the date of its first completion, was repaired, all
decayed stones being made good. The windows which had been partially
bricked up were opened, and shelving stones inserted instead. One of
the pinnacles was entirely rebuilt, and the three others repaired. The
turrets on the west front were also restored.
At this time also the transept walls and the roofs were repaired and
strengthened. The interior of the church previous to its
colour-washing was scraped and cleaned, and the walls and pillars
were repaired, pointed, and cemented. All the tombs were cleaned and
most of them restored. The greater part of the nave was paved with
Painswick stone, and in the rest of the church the gravestones were
relaid.
[Illustration: THE WEST END IN 1840.
By _Rev. J.L. Petit_.]
In 1825 the vicar and churchwardens posted to Worcester, that they
might inspect the colouring of the Cathedral and other churches there
with a view to decorating the Abbey. The committee decided in favour
of colour-washing the Abbey, and this was done three years later.
1828. The monuments of Sir Hugh le Despenser and Sir Guy de Brien,
being very dilapidated, were extensively repaired. Most of the
buttresses and pinnacles were entirely renewed. All this restoration
involved the outlay of a considerable amount of money, and if more had
been forthcoming more would have been undertaken, such as the
restoration of all the tombs and chapels, and the old windows in the
choir.
The font in 1828 was removed from the nave and placed in the apsidal
chapel in the south transept, from which position it was again removed
in 1878.
A final restoration was set on foot in 1864, and Sir Gilbert Scott
reported that L15,000 was necessary to make good the dilapidation and
decay which extended, in his opinion, from the foundations to the
roof. The necessary amount was not forthcoming for several years. Then
a new committee was appointed, with Sir Edmund Lechmere as its
chairman. In 1875 the restoration began, the choir being undertaken
first. For this purpose the church was divided into two parts by means
of a hoarding. When the pavement in the choir was removed, the graves
there were all carefully examined and their identification verified
where possible. Many fragments of historic stonework were found, and
these have been grouped together in the south-east chapel, which forms
a kind of museum.
After the work in the choir was advanced enough, the nave was
undertaken and thoroughly done; the floor was relaid on a foundation
of cement, all open graves being filled up.
On September 23, 1879, the building was re-dedicated with a service
modelled somewhat on the lines of the original dedication service in
1123.
During the last twenty years little has been done to the fabric.
Windows and other decoration have been lavished upon the interior, the
money expended amounting to several thousands of pounds, a sum which
might have been spent with more benefit to the fabric, upon purchasing
the precincts, and on repairing the timber-work which supports the
roof.
Interesting though the general question of the "restoration" of
ancient buildings is, and interesting though Tewkesbury is as a
particular case, this is not the place to go into it, but it may be
well to quote from Mackail's "Life of William Morris," vol. i., p.
340, a letter which William Morris wrote to the _Athenaeum_ about the
restorations proposed at Tewkesbury.
"My eye just now caught the word 'restoration' in the morning paper,
and, on looking closer, I saw that this time it is nothing less than
the Minster of Tewkesbury that is to be destroyed by Sir Gilbert
Scott. Is it altogether too late to do something to save it--it and
whatever else of beautiful and historical is still left us on the
sites of the ancient buildings we were once so famous for? Would it
not be of some use once for all, and with the least delay possible, to
set on foot an association for the purpose of watching over and
protecting these relics, which, scanty as they are now become, are
still wonderful treasures, all the more priceless in this age of the
world, when the newly-invented study of living history is the chief
joy of so many of our lives? Your paper has so steadily and
courageously opposed itself to these acts of barbarism which the
modern architect, parson, and squire call 'restoration,' that it would
be waste of words to enlarge here on the ruin that has been wrought by
their hands; but, for the saving of what is left, I think I may write
a word of encouragement, and say that you by no means stand alone in
the matter, and that there are many thoughtful people who would be
glad to sacrifice time, money, and comfort in defence of those ancient
monuments; besides, though I admit that the architects are, with very
few exceptions, hopeless, because interest, habit, and ignorance bind
them, and that the clergy are hopeless, because their order, habit,
and an ignorance yet grosser, bind them; still there must be many
people whose ignorance is accidental rather than inveterate, whose
good sense could surely be touched if it were clearly put to them that
they were destroying what they, or, more surely still, their sons and
sons' sons, would one day fervently long for, and which no wealth or
energy could ever buy again for them.
"What I wish for, therefore, is that an association shall be set on
foot to keep a watch on old monuments, to protest against all
'restoration' that means more than keeping out wind and weather, and,
by all means, literary and other, to awaken a feeling that our ancient
buildings are not mere ecclesiastical toys, but sacred monuments of
the nation's growth and hope."
The interest of the quotation lies in the fact that the Society for
the Preservation of Ancient Buildings was formed, with Morris as its
first secretary--a very practical outcome to such a very forcibly
expressed letter.
[Illustration: THE CHOIR BEFORE RESTORATION.
_From an old photograph._]
[Illustration: THE NAVE BEFORE RESTORATION.
_From an old photograph._]
A chance presented itself in 1883 of re-purchasing the Abbey House, a
building which stood in its own grounds on lands embracing the site of
the whole of the original monastic buildings. Subscriptions poured in,
and at the auction, held in the town, the Abbey House Estate was
bought for L10,500, and became once more, after 344 years, the
property of the church. This estate included the Abbey House, the
Abbey Gateway, three cottages, and about nine acres of land. A portion
of the latter, viz., that which comprised the Cloister Walk, was added
to the churchyard. The Abbey House comprises portions of the infirmary
and perhaps of the misericord, which survived destruction at the time
of the suppression of the monastery. Part of the original wall remains
on the north side, between the gateway and the church. It is a pity
that the inscription under the bay window is illegible.
At the sale there was a curious lot (Lot 2) put up for sale, but it
was withdrawn, and eventually given to the church. This lot was known
as the _Vaulted Chamber_, and formed a portion of the south aisle of
the nave which had been cut off from the rest of the building, and to
which access was given by a stone staircase outside the church and a
doorway in the wall by the nave.
Very few traces of the old monastic buildings are to be found, for
when the neighbouring ground has been levelled at various times large
quantities of stone have been dug up from the old foundations, and
utilised partly in constructing boundary walls, partly in repairs to
the building. The Abbey Gateway, which is well worth inspection, is
Perpendicular work, and is in surprisingly good repair, mainly owing
to the fact that for many years it was in private hands. It stands
very solid and square, and looks formidable with its battlements, but
the view through the open doorway is very fine--the foliage on the
trees beyond showing up the stonework. The work in the arches is good,
and the gargoyles are worthy of notice. The gateway was restored in
1849-50, and the gates are of about the same date.
In the cloister there are traces at the west of the outer parlour of
the monks, and the size of the cloisters is clearly seen to have been
eighty feet.
Of the place of this glorious Abbey in our own English history much
might be written, and in fact it has been a difficult task to steer a
course which, while avoiding too much history, should show that the
history is there. In all the great events of history down to the end
of the fifteenth century Tewkesbury Abbey has its place, and like the
Abbey of St. Peter at Westminster and the Cathedrals at Canterbury and
at Winchester, is in every respect a representative structure. "It
represents all the greatest influences in our social development, it
directly embodies in its memories both the Crown, at the time when the
Crown was a _primum mobile_ in politics, and all the estates of the
realm. It shows the Church as the keystone in which the various
thrusts of those contending masses met and balanced each other. It
exhibits in the Church patron the official link between things
spiritual and temporal. Its great lay potentates, Saxon or Norman,
either deduce their lineage from royal blood, or at once mix their own
with it, and renew again and again their touch of royalty by fresh
inter-marriages until the pedigree is absorbed into that of the
reigning or rival sovereign. The House, after blazoning a leading
name, often _the_ leading name of each successive period, after
scoring repeated Plantagenet affinities, at length shares the
internecine havoc of the York and Lancaster factions, and its last
scions which survived that havoc are cut off on the scaffold for the
crime of being too near the throne. But the almost princely rank of
these founders, patrons, and benefactors is their least claim to
historical remembrance. They are always to be found grouped in the
very focus where the light of history falls strongest, men of the
foremost mark for high trust and safe counsel for foreign strife, or
civil broil" (_Hayman_).
[Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._
THE ABBEY GATEWAY.]
Thus in the four centuries after the Conquest we find Fitz-Hamon, the
second founder, connected by marriage with the great Norman soldier.
In the civil wars of Stephen, Robert Earl of Gloucester and Lord of
Tewkesbury, and his half-sister, Maud or Matilda, played the parts we
know so well. Again, Gilbert de Clare, who is buried in the Abbey, was
one of the chief signatories of Magna Charta. The last of the three
Gilberts de Clare fell at Bannockburn in 1314, at the age of
twenty-three. The heiress of the latter married a Despenser, a family
closely connected with Tewkesbury, two prominent members of which,
viz., the favoured ministers of Edward II., will be remembered as
by-words in history. Sir Guy de Brien, the valiant standard-bearer of
Edward III., was the second husband of the widow of the fifth Lord
Despenser, and, with her, helped to rebuild the choir, in the
ambulatory of which his splendid monument is still to be seen. The
Despensers in turn passed away, the last heiress marrying in
succession two cousins, each named Richard Beauchamp. Of her second
marriage were born two children--a son, who married the sister of
Warwick the king-maker, and a daughter, who became the wife of the
Earl of Warwick himself. The king-maker's two daughters were
unfortunate in their husbands, one of them having been married to the
luckless Duke of Clarence, and the other to the young Prince Edward,
who fell in 1471 at the battle of Tewkesbury. Of these noble patrons
of the Abbey from the first Tewkesbury De Clare to the time of the
ill-fated Duke of Clarence, all save two, _i.e._, the second Richard
Beauchamp and the great king-maker, Richard Neville, who are both
buried at Warwick, found their last resting-place in Tewkesbury.
[Illustration: TILE SHOWING THE ARMS OF FITZ-HAMON AND THE ABBEY
IMPALED.]
[Illustration: _Photo. D. Gwynne._
TEWKESBURY ABBEY, FROM THE NORTH.]
FOOTNOTES:
[1] The original stone is in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.
[2] Mr. Blunt, in his "Tewkesbury and its Associations," assigns the
northernmost chapel to St. James, and the one between it and the choir
aisle to St. Nicholas, but in his plan he reverses them. The plan in
the _Builder_ of December, 1894, follows Mr. Blunt's plan in so naming
the two chapels. Some have thought the present Northern Chapel to be
that dedicated to St. Eustachius.