THE NORMAN ABBEYS AND CHURCHES OF CHESHIRE
Among the friends of Earl Hugh who visited him at his castle at Chester
was Anselm the great churchman, who afterwards became Archbishop of
Canterbury. Anselm was at the time prior of the Abbey of Bec, which was
close to Avranches, the earl's own Norman home. Now if there was one
thing on which the Normans justly prided themselves, it was the founding
and building of churches, and the heart of Earl Hugh was set on building
in his own city of Chester a monastery that should rival in splendour
those of his native country. Perhaps, too, the Norman lords thought that
by devoting a portion of their wealth to the service of God they could
win salvation for their souls and atone for the shortcomings and
misdeeds of their stormy lives. So the Cheshire earl sent for his former
friend Anselm to come and aid him in his scheme, and the result of his
visit was that in 1093 the clergy of S. Werburgh's were turned out of
their homes, and the church itself pulled down, and in its place was
erected a monastery of Benedictine monks who were brought over from Bee,
Anselm's chaplain, Richard, being made the first abbot.
The monks were men who lived a life of prayer, fasting, and study apart
from the world. None might ever leave the precincts of the monastery
without permission. The Benedictines received their name from Saint
Benedict, who lived in the sixth century, and drew up rules for the
daily life and conduct of the monks of the Order. They all slept in the
same dormitory, and all took their meals together in a common room
called a refectory. In the refectory at Chester you may see a lector's
pulpit from which portions of the Scriptures were read aloud to the
monks as they sat at their meals. They gave all their private
possessions to the monastery, and had to obey their superior in all
matters. Every hour of the day and night had its allotted duties of
work, study, or religious services. High up in the wall in one of the
oldest parts of Chester Cathedral is a row of tiny arches, and behind
them a narrow passage, along which the monks went from their
sleeping-chamber to the early morning services in the abbey church.
To some of the monks was given the work of gardening, agriculture, and
even building. The name of Caleyards at Chester still speaks to us of
the kitchen-garden which the monks tended. Others made copies of
illuminated 'missals' or books of Church services, or wrote histories
and the annals of the abbey to which they were attached. The Chronicles
of S. Werburgh were kept and added to yearly by the monks of Chester;
though the original has been lost, a copy of it, made by a later scribe,
has happily been preserved.
The most important part of the monastery was of course the church. The
Norman churches were built of stone, and, as they took many years to
build, very few of the founders lived to see the completion of their
work. Probably only the foundations and portions of the walls of the
church of Earl Hugh Lupus were finished during his lifetime. The work of
the Norman builders may be recognized by the round-headed arches,
doorways and windows which they copied from the Roman buildings. The
Roman basilica or hall of justice, in which the earliest Christians were
permitted to worship, was taken as a model for Christian churches. The
capital of a Norman pillar in Frodsham Church proves that they had
studied the architecture of the Romans, for it has the Ionic 'volute' or
spiral scroll on each of its four faces. If you look for the round
arches in the Cathedral of Chester you will be able to make out the
portions which remain of the church built by Earl Hugh and by the
abbots who completed his plans after his death.
You will see from the Norman church of S. John's at Chester that the
churches were built in the form of a cross with four great semicircular
arches to support a central tower. Similar arches on massive circular
columns separate the nave from the two aisles. An examination of these
columns reveals the fact that the building of the nave was commenced
from both ends at once in order to make more rapid progress with the
work, for the mouldings of the capitals of the outer columns is the
same, but differ from those of the inner ones. Moreover, the masonry of
the latter is more finely jointed than that of the earlier end columns.
This shows that the Normans improved in the quality of their work as
they went on. In the north transept of Chester Cathedral, which is part
of the first Norman church, the stones in the lower parts have wider
joints and are less carefully fitted than those above them.
The choir and aisles generally ended in a semicircular 'apse'. A
semicircle of dark blue stones set in the floor of the north aisle in
the Cathedral of Chester marks the apse of an aisle of Earl Hugh's
church.
The village churches were of course not built on the same scale of
grandeur as the churches of S. John and S. Werburgh. Nearly everywhere
the Norman 'lords of the manor' rebuilt the rude and humble churches of
wood and stone that had served the needs of the Saxons before them. But
little remains in Cheshire of these Norman churches, save here and there
a doorway or a window or a capital, that has escaped destruction or the
ravages of time. The Norman architects and builders were few in number,
and must have employed many Saxon workmen in the task of rebuilding. The
latter, as you have already learned, were no mean masons and sculptors,
and the carving of the mouldings and capitals of the doorways of the
village churches was doubtless in many cases done by them. The 'chevron'
or zigzag moulding, and the spirals carved on the face of capitals could
easily be cut with an axe, for the Saxons were not yet acquainted with
the use of the Norman chisel. At Shotwick and Shocklach you may see
doorways, which, from the simplicity of their mouldings, are probably
the work of Saxons, performed under the eye of their Norman masters.
[Illustration: NORMAN ARCHES, S. JOHN'S. CHESTER]
Towards the end of the eleventh century the clever Norman masons, who
loved to invent new patterns and vary their work, introduced other forms
of ornamentation such as the 'billet' and 'lozenge' and 'scollop' in
their mouldings, and adorned the capitals and even the pillars with rich
carving. Carved pillars may be seen in the Norman arcade in the
cloisters at Chester.
[Illustration: CLOISTERS, CHESTER: PORTION OF FIRST NORMAN ABBEY OF S.
WERBURGH]
The head of a Norman doorway is sometimes filled with a semicircular
stone called a tympanum, usually covered with a carved picture of some
scriptural subject. The tympanum over the door of the Norman chapel at
Prestbury represents Christ seated in glory.
[Illustration: NORMAN DOORWAY WITH TYMPANUM, PRESTBURY]
The Norman windows, like the doorways, were round-headed. The tiny
window in the chancel at Woodchurch shows us that they were often mere
slits on the outer face of the wall, widening considerably towards the
inner face in order that the light entering through the narrow opening
might be diffused as much as possible. Very few Norman windows have been
allowed to remain in Cheshire, for nearly all have been replaced by
larger ones of a different style at a later date when more light was
needed.
[Illustration: NORMAN WINDOW, WOODCHURCH, SHOWING WIDE SPLAY INSIDE]
The font is sometimes the sole remaining portion of the older Norman
church in which it once stood. In the modern church of Wallasey is an
ancient font, which by the arcade of semicircular arches carved upon it
is evidently the work of the Norman builders, and belonged to the Norman
church that formerly stood on the site of the present building. The font
of similar pattern at Grappenhall was dug up during a restoration three
feet below the floor of the present church, where it had lain for
centuries, and there are Norman fonts at Eastham, Bebington, and Burton.
In addition to those already spoken of, the churches of Bebington,
Bruera, Frodsham, Church Lawton, and Barthomley contain portions of
Norman work in some shape or form.
[Illustration: NORMAN FONT AT WALLASEY]
The Norman style of architecture is rarely copied nowadays in the
building of churches, being considered too massive and sombre as well as
costly. Boys who live in Wirral should, however, walk to the village of
Thornton Heath, where they may see a new church built entirely in this
style, with every detail copied faithfully from famous old Norman
churches.
Other Norman barons were not slow to follow the example of their
overlord the Earl of Chester. In 1150 Hamon de Massey, Baron of Dunham
Massey, built a priory at Birkenhead for sixteen Benedictine monks. The
tolls from a ferry across the Mersey were granted to them for their
support, the charges being 'for a horseman two-pence, for a man on foot
one farthing, a halfpenny for a footman on market days, and a penny when
he had goods or produce with him'. The name of 'Monks Brow' still marks
the landing-place of the ferry on the Cheshire side of the estuary. The
monks were also freed from attendance at the 'Hundred' Court of the
Wirral. The manors of Tranmere, Bebington, Saughall Massey, and
Claughton were also given to the priory, and the priors sat in the
council or parliament of the Earls of Chester. The ruined refectory is
the only portion of the priory now remaining.
The Abbey of S. Werburgh received grants of land from Earl Hugh's barons
as well as a large number of churches and manors from the earl himself.
In the course of time one-fourth of the entire city of Chester became
the property of the abbey. The abbot also had the right of taking the
tolls at the annual fair held at Chester at the Feast of S. Werburgh.
The fair lasted for three days, during which time even criminals might
visit the city to make their purchases without danger of arrest.
[Illustration: ARMS OF THE SEE OF CHESTER]
Chester had in fact rapidly become the chief seat of trade in the
north-west of England, and when the Conqueror ordered the sees of the
bishoprics to be removed from thinly populated centres to the large
towns, Peter, the first Norman bishop of Lichfield, left Lichfield 'a
sordid and desert place' and came to Chester, 'a city of renown,' making
the church of S. John his cathedral. Chester did not, however, keep this
honour long, for Peter's successor removed to the rich monastery of
Coventry. Hence it is that you find three mitres on the arms of the
bishopric of Chester.
Earl Hugh Lupus died in the second year of the reign of Henry the First.
Three days before his death he had put on the cowl and robe of a
Benedictine monk and entered his own monastery at Chester. He was buried
in the abbey cemetery, and his only son Richard, a boy of seven years of
age, inherited the earldom.
The Abbey of Combermere was founded for another brotherhood of monks
called Cistercians. Their 'rule' was even more strict than that of the
Benedictines. They wore neither boots nor cowl, and for a portion of the
year were allowed but one meal a day; nor were they permitted even to
speak to one another. In 1178, John, Baron of Halton, to secure the
safety of body and soul previous to making a pilgrimage to Palestine,
built a Cistercian abbey at Stanlaw, a dreary spot on the shore of the
Mersey estuary, and a third house of the same Order was founded at
Pulton on the Dee by Robert Pincerna, butler to Earl Randle II. Stanlaw
was almost wholly destroyed by a huge tidal wave which swept up the
Mersey, and the monks were removed to Whalley on the banks of the
Lancashire Calder. The monks, doubtless, were not sorry for the change,
for by the end of the twelfth century the majority of them had grown
tired of the simple life, and, becoming more luxurious in their way of
living, preferred to build their homes in delectable river valleys,
where they could fish the streams to their hearts' content.
Pulton Abbey was not more fortunate, and was much too near to the Welsh
to be a comfortable place to live in. The Welsh visits were so frequent
and unpleasant that the monastery was abandoned and the monks placed in
a fine new abbey at Dieulacresse in Staffordshire.
The monks who kept the abbey records were not always very particular
about the truth of the events they relate. They were very superstitious,
and ready to believe any story that would increase the fame of their
founders, or of their patron saints, to whom they ascribed the power of
performing miracles. The story is told that when Earl Richard was making
a pilgrimage to the holy well of S. Winifred in Flintshire he was
attacked by a band of Welsh insurgents and compelled to take refuge in
a neighbouring monastery. He prayed for aid to S. Werburgh, who is said
to have instantly parted the waters of the Dee by making new sandbanks,
over which the Constable of Chester marched troops to the relief of his
lord. These banks were long after known as the Constable's sands.