Historic Description of Forde Abbey

Forde Abbey

Like Lacock, a wonderful example of monastic buildings turned into a stately dwelling-house; but it is not so complete, perhaps as Lacock. The history of the Abbey, or rather of its founders, it told at very great length in a fourteenth-century narrative, printed in the Monasticon. There are in it some picturesque passages, the best of which shall be given: “Baldwin de Brioniis, a distinguished Norman Knight, married Albreda, niece to the Conqueror, and by her had two children, Richard and Adelicia. The Conqueror, gave to Richard the honour of Okehampton, and the wardship of all Devon, and in 1133 Richard, a devout man, applied to the Abbot of Waverley (the first Cistercian house founded in England) for a colony of monks to settle on his lands at Brightley in the domain of Okehampton. In 1136 twelve of them came, the necessary buildings having been meanwhile put up. Next year Richard died without sons, but his estates went to his sister. For five years the monks stayed at Brightley; but the district was barren, they were poor, and at last they decided that they must go back to Waverley. They set out, two and two, in procession, headed by the Cross; as they were passing through Thorncomb, Countess Adelicia saw them and inquired who they were. When she heard their story she said ‘God forbid, holy fathers, that the reproach should fall on me that what my brother Richard began with such devout purpose in God’s honour, I his sister and heir should be slow to finish. This manor of mine where we now are is a fertile one; I give it to you, with my mansion, in exchange for Brightley.’ The monks gladly closed with the offer and settled in the manor of Forde or Westford, and built their monastery in a spot formerly called Hartescath.

The honour of Okehampton came after this into the Courtenay family, and they were long patrons of Forde. Lord John de Courtenay, who died in 1273, was particularly bountiful to the Abbey, and of him this story is told: “When he was crossing to England from France, a great storm came on; it was night, and the sailors gave up all hope. ‘Do not lose heart’ said Lord John; ‘do your best for just an hour more. Then will be the time when my monks at Forde will be getting up for the office, and praying for me, and their prayers will prevail against any storm.’

About the time of John de Courtenay, Forde had a somewhat unusual Abbot – William of Crewkerne, who excommunicated the Bishop of Exeter (presumably for encroaching on the rights of his Abbey, which was exempt); the Bishop not unnaturally excommunicated the Abbot. The quarrel was decided in 1277, on the whole in favour of the Bishop.

The last Abbot, Thomas Chard, was the builder of the most sumptuous part of the Abbey as it stands now. Probably, foreseeing the Dissolution, he was determined to lock up as much of the ready money of the convent in building as he could. At Fountains something of the same sort was done. The value at the Suppression was £373 clear.

The succession of families, through which the site and buildings have descended till 1847, was Pollard, Paulet, Roswell, Prideaux, and Gwyn.

Of the buildings, the church is wholly gone; the site was on the lawn in front of the house. The cloister buildings were on the north. Of these the west range is also wholly gone and of the east range only the chapter house remains. As you stand in front of the house, this is the projecting block on your right. Then comes the fragment of the cloister (north walk), then a block of Inigo Jones’s work, with a porch (he was called in to improve the house for the Attorney-General Sir Edmund Prideaux in 1654) – then a porch-tower of Abbot Chard’s time, then four great windows belonging to Abbot Chard’s new hall, and lastly another projecting block of Inigo Jones’s work.

Of the monastic remains, starting from the east, the Chapter house is the earliest thing left. It is of late, even transition Norman date, and consists of two finely vaulted bays. The east window is of the fifteenth century. It is used as the chapel of the house.

Next, the north walk of the cloister, of Abbot Chard’s building; it is on the old site, as is shown by the remains of a twelfth-century lavatory found under the new facing. It is excellent late perpendicular work; glazed and long used as a conservatory. More modern rooms divide this bit of cloister from Chard’s porch-tower, which has his crosier and arms under the oriel window. He was titular bishop of Selymbria in Thrace – Solubricensis was his signature. This tower admitted to the great hall, an extraordinarily fine room of five bays with an original painted roof. It stands east and west, not in the proper position for a Cistercian frater. The original frater did not. This new frater cannot have been in use many years before the Dissolution. We do not see the whole length of it; a portion at the west end was divided into rooms by Inigo Jones. High up in the original end wall (in a bedroom) are Chard’s arms mutilated in relief. There is a projection northward at the west end, now cut up into bathrooms, etc., which retains old windows. The main windows of this hall on the north side are blocked.

Returning to the cloister proper, we find projecting from it northwards the old frater, divided by a floor, which seems original, or at least quite old. The tradition is that meat was served in the upper chamber and not in the lower, which may mean that the upper floor was the misericorde, the place in which those monks who required a generous diet had their meals.

Further east, running back from the chapter house, is the dorter, very well preserved in a great part of its length. The lower storey is an undercroft divided into kitchens and other offices. The upper is also vaulted; a modern partition runs down it, cutting off half the breadth into a series of bedrooms. The windows are plain lancets, and the building is of the thirteenth century. Traces of the night stairs are at the south end.

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