THE EXTERIOR.
One of the most characteristic views of the exterior is to be got from
the iron gates which give admission to the churchyard. The view thus
obtained presents to us, with the exception of the windows and the
pinnacles on the tower, features almost entirely Norman.
As it is impossible to make a complete circuit of the church, it is as
well to begin at the north transept. Here a wall will be found
projecting from the north-east corner, of which the western face is in
a very dilapidated condition. This wall contains a good Early English
pointed arch, which is now filled up with stonework and contains a
modern window. At the sides of the arch are Purbeck marble shafts with
a central shaft of the same, which divides it into two subordinate
arches, with an opening in the spandril between them. The base of the
dividing shaft is a block of marble, curiously carved, representing
four cats playing round the column. Each of the cats has in its mouth
the tail of the cat immediately in front.
On each side are the remains of a smaller recessed arch, and the only
portion of the north wall which is still standing contains one bay of
a trefoil-headed arcading which formerly was carried round the walls
of this chapel.
On the north wall of the transept the four bays of the vaulted roof
are discernible, and a fine Early English doorway in the wall (lately
restored) used to give admission to the main building. Originally,
when the church was perfect, this was an open arch. At the last
restoration a wall was built up inside, so that the arch might be left
clear. This chapel can hardly have been the one mentioned on p. 13,
which was dedicated to St. Eustachius, and was consecrated in 1246 by
Prior Henry de Banbury. It is much more likely to have been the nave
of the Early English Lady Chapel, of which the enclosed chapel to the
east was the choir. Bristol Cathedral has its elder Lady Chapel in a
similar position, though it was no doubt originally quite detached
from the main building. The corner buttress at the north-west angle of
the north transept was erected about the year 1720, and there is a
corresponding support to the south transept at its south-west angle.
The clerestory on this north side of the nave has a Norman arcade,
supported on short shafts, which extends from the tower to the west
front. The insertion of the later windows, which presumably were
enlarged when the nave was vaulted, has destroyed the regularity of
the arcading.
A flying buttress of very slight proportions will be seen on the north
side between the north transept and the north porch.
=North Porch.=--For a porch of Norman construction this is of unusual
dimensions, measuring 24 feet by 20 feet and 39 feet high. It is
extremely simple in character inside and out. The roof is a plain
barrel vault of stone.
Both the internal and the external doorway have a circular arch
composed of a series of mouldings supported by shafting, just as in
the arch of the great west window.
Over the outside door of the porch stood an image of the Virgin Mary
with the infant Christ, typical of the Incarnation, but it has
suffered much at the hands of would-be zealots. Over the porch is a
room or parvise, very difficult of access and badly lighted.
This north porch was in all probability built on to the church soon
after the completion of the rest of the Norman building, and this may
account for the difficult means of access.
Between the porch and the west end there are traces of some earlier
building, abutting on to the north wall of the church.
The iron gates at the main entrance to the churchyard near the "Bell
Hotel" were formerly mounted in the external doorway of the porch.
They were given to the church by Lord Gage in 1750.
=The Tower.=--This is generally considered to be one of the finest and
most perfect Norman towers in existence. Its massive size (each side
measuring 46 feet) takes off from its actual height. It stands well,
and is impressive from its proportions and the simplicity of its
ornament. It is 132 feet high from the ground to the battlements
inclusive, and 148 to the top of the pinnacles. The pinnacles and
battlements were added in 1660, as the inscription on the north-west
pinnacle testifies. They were restored in 1825.
[Illustration: _Photo. D. Gwynne._
THE ABBEY, FROM THE SOUTH.]
As to what was there before 1660 one can only conjecture, but it had
been undoubtedly damaged by the fall of the wooden spire covered with
lead, which event occurred on Easter Day, 1559.
From whichever point of the compass it be studied, there is ever a
different charm displayed, and the charm varies according to the light
that plays upon the time-honoured handiwork of the Norman builders.
The tower looks equally well from the north-west end of the
churchyard, seen through the trees, from the extreme west, and from
the open ground to the south-east, where the eye can also take in the
graceful battlementing of the choir. Perhaps the best view of the
tower and the building generally is that obtainable from the
Gloucester road, just as one turns the last corner coming into
Tewkesbury.
The tower is supported by four piers, which, as will be seen from an
inspection of the plan, are very massive. The two easternmost piers
are in plan very similar to the two corresponding piers in Gloucester
Cathedral.
There are two windows in each side of the lower storey or base,
immediately over the roofs of the nave and transepts, and between the
windows is the stone ridge or wall-plate which indicates the pitch of
the earlier roof. On three sides of the tower the dripstone is almost
perfect.
The next stage or storey has an arcade with two lights in each side of
the tower. The third stage has a narrower intersecting arcade of great
beauty and delicacy, with a curious effect produced by the warm
colouring of some of the stones.[3]
In the topmost stage there is another range of arcades and columns.
=The West Front.=--The chief feature in this front is the noble
recessed arch, 65 feet high and 34 feet wide. There are seven columns
on each side of the arch, one being partially concealed by the
masonry of the Debased Perpendicular window which was inserted
originally to give light to the nave. Portions of the seventh shaft
have been, however, exposed for inspection.
There is one slight defect in this unique west front as it now is,
viz., that apart from the window, the arch is on too large a scale for
the size of the front, or, as Dean Spence puts it (he himself is
quoting from some other writer), "As this noble arch stands at
present, it is extremely beautiful in itself, but it has an incomplete
appearance, seeming to want a _raison d'etre_, and being too large a
jewel for its setting."[4] Exactly the same may be said of the window,
though its excessive size will not be felt so much from the outside as
from the inside of the church, where the low vaulting of the nave
further accentuates the excessive size of the window.
As was the case at Gloucester, larger western towers were originally
contemplated to contain the bells, and there are indications of this
in the rough stonework in the clerestory on the south side, evidently
designed to carry a tower 22 feet square. The towers in the west front
at Southwell are an example of this design carried out. When it was
decided to build smaller towers, the bell tower or campanile (which is
shown on p. 17) was built. Later again the lantern or open part of the
interior of the tower was vaulted over (_vide_ p. 74), and the bells
were hung in the great central tower. The campanile was then diverted
to other uses. In later times it was used as a prison for several
years, but having become structurally unsafe, was demolished in 1817.
It would be interesting to know the original scheme of windows in this
west front. There is a trace of the original Norman doorway inside the
present doorway, and it is supposed that the original window was
either a large round window, with possibly one or two tiers of
round-headed lights below. Later, a larger window, probably of
fourteenth century work, was inserted, which lasted till it was blown
into the church in 1661. The present window, which was built in 1686,
may probably have been an attempt to follow the lines of the previous
window. At either side of the large arch is a Decorated window of two
lights.
The stonework of the towers, above the point where the arch springs,
is decorated with a Norman arcading in two tiers. They are finished by
two partly Norman turrets, with later pinnacles and spires.
=The South Side.=--This side has a blank appearance owing to the total
disappearance of the claustral and conventual buildings, all of which
were "deemed to be superfluous." There are traces on the south wall of
the "outer parlour," and there is blocked up into it a doorway from
the west end of the south aisle of the nave. Traces are there, too, of
Norman work on the wall, which prove that the Norman cloisters were of
the same extent and size as those of Perpendicular times.
=The Cloisters.=--These were of two periods of Perpendicular work, and
though smaller than those at Gloucester (80 feet as compared with 148
feet) seem to have been enriched with panelling and arcading in every
way as fine, judging from the stone which shows the spring of the
arches near the cloister door.
The doorway from the cloister to the south aisle is a beautiful piece
of fifteenth century work. It consists of a low pointed arch, struck
from two centres, in the hollow moulding of which are canopies. Below
are pedestals for figures. At the top the arch is embattled, and above
it are niches, seven in all, with pedestals and canopies, richly
ornamented and carved. On either side, over the canopy is an angel
bearing a plain shield. This doorway was filled with stonework up to
1892, and had been so filled for many years, but has since undergone
restoration of a very careful kind. The oak door is new, and is an
example of very florid work executed with the great mechanical
precision which now characterises modern wood-carving. One bay of the
cloister has been vaulted to protect the doorway; and the wall arcade
has been restored, at the expense of the Freemasons of the county.
On the south front of the south transept there are to be seen traces
of a building of the same width, through which there were means of
communication with the church. The wall of this south transept has
been considerably strengthened since the Dissolution.
Separated from the south transept by a slype or passage, was the
Chapter House, of which nothing is known beyond the fact that it was
repaved in 1259, and destroyed at the Dissolution with other buildings
on this side. Over the Chapter House there was a dormitory, also with
an entrance to the church. This entrance has been walled up. There
were stairs giving access to a room built over the apsidal chapel in
the south transept, and also to the transept itself.
[Illustration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._
THE CLOISTER DOORWAY.]
To the east of the south transept a very good view of the choir and
its chapels is to be obtained. The westernmost chapel is the Norman
apsidal chapel, and here the original Norman work comes to an end as
far as the exterior is concerned.
The Norman arcading on the east and west walls will be noticed, but it
has been lately restored.
The chapel (marked Vestry in the plan) has an upper chamber with two
commonplace modern windows in it, the mullions having been destroyed.
There is a massive buttress attached to the wall of this chapel, much
larger than any of the other exterior buttresses. It is quite hollow,
and is entered from the interior of the chapel, which is now used as
the clergy vestry.
The windows of the choir are elaborately decorated with a crocketed
gable.
The east end of the church[5] and the exterior of the chapels on the
north side of the church are in private gardens, which unfortunately
extend up to the very wall of the church, and prevent access.
The actual east end now consists of an arch which was formerly the
entrance to the destroyed Lady Chapel, of which nothing remains but
the modern masonry in the arch, now walled up, and containing a modern
window of three lights; and above this is the original west wall above
the vestibule of the Lady Chapel, with a restored window of four
lights.
The parapet of open work which runs round the summit of the apse is
another beautiful feature of the exterior of the eastern part of the
church. It seems to be formed of stalks from a thorn tree intertwining
in such a way as to form triangular openings. This parapet or coronet
is as much like lacework as it is possible for stonework to be, and
gives to the building a peculiarly delicate and subtle finish.
A very good exterior view of this east end can be obtained from the
battlement of St. Faith's Chapel. The pitch of the roof and the
character of the mouldings can thus be seen.
=The Lady Chapel.=--Nothing is left but the partly concealed mouldings
of the arch in the east wall of the ambulatory of the choir. On the
outside of the east end may be seen portions of the lofty
vaulting--just where it sprang from the walls--which would indicate
that the masonry was very beautiful and delicate work.
Much uncertainty exists as to the size of the Lady Chapel, though
traces of the foundations have been found for some distance to the
eastward of the present building. Unfortunately the ground in which
the foundations are hidden is private property, and the chance of a
thorough investigation of the site very remote. Traditionally, the
Lady Chapel is said to have been 100 feet long, or about a third of
the length of the building. There is no documentary evidence to
support this tradition, and in the absence of such confirmation Mr.
Blunt supposes that there was no large Lady Chapel,[6] but that a
chapel somewhat similar to those still surviving, and specifically
referred to as "Capella Beatae Mariae Ecclesiae Conventualis," was
destroyed not long before the Dissolution for the purpose of making
room for a larger and more splendid chapel. This chapel, Mr. Blunt
adds, was never completed, the plans of the builders being upset by
the general dissolution of the monasteries.
The Capella Ecclesiae Conventualis above mentioned would rather imply
the existence of another Capella Mariae to which the parishioners had
ordinary access, and this reference to it tends to strengthen the
theory that on the north side of the north transept there was a
detached Lady Chapel as at Bristol.
On the other hand, the orders of Henry VIII.'s Commissioners expressly
mention the Lady Chapel as a part of the building to be pulled down,
as being superfluous. This is a matter of exact history, and we have
either to accept the conclusion that the Commissioners ordered the
chapel to be destroyed, and that it was done, or else that they
ordered the destruction of a building which did not exist. To support
the former alternative we have the tradition, and it is nothing more,
that the Lady Chapel was destroyed because of the delay of the good
people of Tewkesbury in buying the choir.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Some of the stone in the tower is undoubtedly Caen stone, brought
from Normandy for the work.
[4] Mr. W. St. John Hope suggests that there was to be _one_ central
western tower, within which this arch would not look out of place.
[5] A good view of the north-east end at close quarters can be
obtained from the Abbey Tea Gardens.
[6] There are records of interments in the Lady Chapel: William Lord
de la Zouch of Mortimer in 1335, another Lord de la Zouch in 1371, and
the widow of the latter in 1408. In 1472 the Bishop of Worcester
appropriated the church of Little Compton to the Convent of Tewkesbury
to augment the salaries of the priests officiating in the chapel of
the Virgin Mary there.