EVESHAM
WRITTEN AND
ILLUSTRATED BY
EDMUND H. NEW
LONDON: J.M. DENT & CO.
29 BEDFORD STREET
NEW YORK: E.P. DUTTON CO.
MDCCCCIV
[Illustration: Bridge St. Evesham]
DEDICATED
TO THE MEMORY OF
_H.N._
1820-1893
_D.N._
1834-1901
NOTE
For the historical matter contained in the following pages the writer
is indebted mainly to George May's admirable history of the town
issued in 1845, a book which, since its publication, has been the
acknowledged authority on local history.
To Mr. Oswald Knapp his thanks are especially due not only for
permission to make use of the series of articles, founded on the
monastic chronicles, which appeared some years ago in the _Evesham
Journal_, most of them under the title of "Evesham Episodes," but also
for much generous help and criticism.
CONTENTS
I. INTRODUCTION
II. EVESHAM AND THE VALE
III. THE ABBEY
1. THE FOUNDING OF THE ABBEY
2. THE ABBEY AFTER THE CONQUEST.
3. THE DISSOLUTION.
IV. THE REMAINS OF THE ABBEY
V. THE PARISH CHURCHES
VI. THE TOWN--INCLUDING BENGEWORTH AND GREEN HILL
VII. THE BATTLE OF EVESHAM
VIII. CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS
IX. THE RIVER
X. THE NEIGHBOURHOOD
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
_Bridge Street_
_Evesham and Bredon Hill, from the Parks_
_The Bell Tower_
_The Gatehouse and Almonry_
_Abbot Reginald's Gateway_
_In the Market Place_
_High Street_
_The Bell Tower, from Bengeworth_
_St. Egwin's, Honeybourne_
Evesham
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
_Yonder lies our ... village--Art and Grace are less and less:_
_Science grows and Beauty dwindles--roofs of slated hideousness!_
--LOCKSLEY HALL, SIXTY YEARS AFTER
Those who love with a deep reverence the work of their forefathers,
whether because of the character and beauty of their handiwork, or
from the historical associations which are indissolubly connected with
it, cannot but regard with pain and abhorrence any cause which tends
towards the demolition or destruction of the monuments of the past. To
these it is a significant and distressing fact that hardly any modern
English buildings or streets possess the qualities which give the
value and charm to the old cities, towns, and villages of which we are
the grateful inheritors. If any reader is inclined to doubt the truth
of this statement, or to consider the sentiment expressed extravagant
or groundless, let him consider the difference between the old towns
and the new.
Evesham provides a typical and sufficiently striking instance of the
contrasted methods and results. Here there is hardly an old house
which has not a local and individual character. Many of them may be
plain, severely plain, some possibly ugly; but in each can be read by
all who will, a distinct and separate thought, or series of thoughts,
connecting the dwelling with its builders and owners, and with the
soil out of which it has sprung.
As the varying undulations of the face of the country tell a plain
tale to the geologist, so the shape and materials of human habitations
tell their story to the student of architecture and the history of
man.
The poet Wordsworth pointed out that one of the great charms of the
Lake country lay in the way in which the dwellings sprang out of the
hill side, as if a natural growth born of the requirements of the
peasant or farmer and the materials provided by nature. Throughout
England this was once the case; no two houses were precisely alike
because no two people had precisely the same ideas, wishes and
requirements; and the material was dictated by the stone or timber
provided by the district. Every building was in old times the
combined expression of the individual man and the _genius loci_.
The timber cottages which are still to be found in the town tell of
the time when tracts of the original forest still lingered, and oak
was the cheapest material fit for building. Often the foundation of
the walls is of stone, and the earliest stone to be used was that
which could be had for the digging, the blue lias found in thin layers
embedded in the clay of which the vale is composed. In the back
streets which retain, as would be expected, more of their primitive
character than the more respectable thoroughfares, this blue stone has
been much used, and in the churches it can be seen in the earlier
parts making a very pretty wall with its thin horizontal lines. The
tower of the church of All Saints shows it to great advantage.
Another stone is also employed, and one far better suited for
building, because it can be obtained in blocks of almost any size, and
carved with the utmost delicacy. This is oolite, the stone of which
the Bell Tower is built. From Norman times it was used in the more
important parts of the Abbey, as is shown in the foundations of the
great tower now exposed to view, and in Abbot Reginald's gateway. But
the oolite stone could not be got much nearer than Broadway, and what
was used by the monks in all probability came from the hill above
that village. In numerous old houses this stone is made use of, but in
almost all it must have come indirectly, having once formed part of
the structure of the monastic buildings, or perhaps of the castle
which for a short time flanked the bridge on the Bengeworth side of
the river.
In the seventeenth century bricks came into fashion, and good clay for
their manufacture was amply provided by the neighbourhood. To the end
of the century belongs Dresden House in High Street, a fine example of
the style of William the Third's time, built by a wealthy lawyer, who
came to settle here, from the northern part of the county. Tower House
in Bridge Street, probably of later date, is beautiful in its
proportions and mouldings, the prominent lead spouts adding much to
the general design. Unfortunately to this fashion for formality and
brick-work, at a later period superseded by a covering of plaster, we
must attribute the demolition of the older fronts, generally of
timber, and often gabled and projecting, which gave such a pleasant
irregularity to our old streets. Though formal and lacking in artistic
qualities these Georgian screens have a certain historical value in
showing that our little town was prosperous through the century, and
able to support a decided air of respectability. But not without
reason do we deplore the change.
The eighteenth century saw the beginning of the great development of
machinery, and in these Georgian house fronts, the productions of a
mechanical age, we see the deterioration of popular architecture.
Every line is rigid and without human feeling: the style, where any
exists, is exotic, not national or local; classical, not vernacular.
It is a learned importation, not a popular growth. The mason has
dwindled into an unreasoning tool in the hands of the architect; hence
the lack of personality, the absence of charm; and only in rare
instances has the architect proved himself capable of supplying those
qualities of design and proportion which to some slight degree
compensate for the loss of interest on the part of the craftsman.
In almost all buildings the roof is a prominent feature. In Evesham
the old roofs are all made of oolite "slats," and as these are split
irregularly, we have tiles of various sizes and slightly varying in
shape. In roofing the plan was to place all the large tiles below, and
to decrease the size gradually towards the ridge, the result being
most pleasing to the eye. Besides the interest given by irregularity,
the delicate silver grey of the oolite roofs, varied with tints of
moss and lichen added by time, produces an effect unsurpassed by any
other form of roof covering. Even the clay tiles, introduced at a
later time, take their place when mellowed by sun and rain; and these
throw into unpleasant relief the modern glazed Staffordshire ware
which resists all softening influences. The Welsh slates, too, before
perfect mechanical regularity was obtained, made a pretty roofing,
though they, of course, have no local interest here.
No one would wish to dwell long on the opposite side of the contrast.
We have already traced the beginning of the decline of domestic
architecture, and the present condition follows as a natural
development. In recent years the town has spread in every direction
that is possible. In the centre is the Evesham of the past, the
Evesham our forefathers built and our fathers knew. But it is
encircled by streets and houses which are not the product of the vale,
nor are they marked by any individual character. Rows upon rows of
dwellings, symmetrical, mechanical, and monotonous, can give no
pleasure to the eye, nor can the mind read in them any story save the
commercial enterprise of a commercial age.
No one can note these differences without sometimes asking the cause
of this lamentable degradation in the character of the buildings which
compose our modern towns. They are many and complex, and too deeply
rooted in present-day commercialism for us even to hope for their
removal. Yet we may still turn to examples of individual effort
throughout the country and find satisfaction. Here and there are
houses possessing some of the finest qualities which have gone towards
making our ancient streets and cities; and here we have evidence that
beautiful building is still possible if we will but have it. It may be
claimed that even the streets we build are historical as our old towns
are historical; that they are the outcome of the age we live in. And
truly this is so; and for this very reason we must needs be patient if
we cannot be hopeful.
But it is something to recognise the fact that we have in our old
buildings and streets records of unquestionable veracity, full of
character and meaning, and such as we are entirely unable, with all
our boasted advantages, to rival or even imitate. And more than this,
we have in most of the work that has been left to us examples of
craftsmanship, in every kind, which are invaluable as models of what
we once could do, and may do, under favourable conditions, again.
Let us then guard this goodly heritage for ourselves and our children
with jealous care, trusting that in fulness of time their handiwork
may be not unworthy to stand beside the best that has been
accomplished in the past. These storied towns may then be with us
still to teach what no history book can tell, and to inspire us with
the spirit of emulation for those qualities which sleep with the
Genius of the Past.