Historic Description of Evesham Abbey Bell Tower

Evesham Abbey

On the seal of Evesham Abbey, a very curious composition of the thirteenth century, the story of the foundation is told in a series of pictures. We see a swineherd looking up at a vision of the Virgin among trees, and by this is written (unique in such a place) an old English rhyme:

That is:

Eoves was the swineherd of Egwin (third bishop of Worcester, 692) and, having seen this vision, he reported it to Egwin, who sought the spot and was also favoured with a vision of the Virgin, who bade him found a monastery there. This vision also is shown on the seal, and the Virgin is saying “Ecce locus quem elegi”: “This is the place I have chosen.”

Three princes, Ethelred of Mercia, Kenred of Mercia, and Offa of East Anglia, gave many lands to Egwin. With Kenred and Offa he journeyed to Rome in 709 and obtained privileges from Pope Constantine. To a former journey to Rome made by Egwin belongs apparently the most famous legend connected with his name. By way of a penance for the sins of his youth he put iron fetters on his legs, which were fastened by a key, and the key thrown into the Avon, vowing not to free himself but to wait until God did so, or till the key came back to him, Either in the Channel (as the earlier story says), or at Rome, a great fish was caught and brought to him which had the key in its stomach. Fetters and fish are therefore the symbols of St Egwin.

His Abbey passed through the stages which become familiar to historians of English monastic houses. It was laid waste by the Danes late in the ninth century, re-established early in the tenth, when secular canons were introduced. They, like other all over England, were expelled in the great monastic reform in which Dunstan, Ethelwold, and Oswold (of Worcester and York) were the prime movers. Oswald did the work here (in 960-70), but the monks are recorded to have been expelled and again reinstated before a final settlement was effected in favour of the Benedictine Rule.

Egwin’s original church fell down in the Abbacy of Osward (late tenth century) and we do not know what buildings there were for the next generation or two. Elgin, made Abbot by Edward the Confessor in 1058, made great preparations for a new church and increased the number of monks. Walter, the first Norman Abbot (1077), like others of his time and nation, was very active in building. It is recorded of him that he mistrusted the sanctity of the relics of certain Saxon saints – St Credan, a former Abbot, and St Wistan, a Mercian King who had been murdered or martyred in 850 and was first buried at Repton. Abbot Walter tested these relics by casting them into a large fire, but they stood the proof.

Besides these Saints, St Wilsin, or Wulsy, an anchorite of the neighbourhood, and St Odulf, a Canon of Utrecht, whose relics had been bought in the eleventh century for £100, were honoured at Evesham Abbey.

An unusual thing happened in William II’s reign. Twelve monks were sent by him to Denmark to found a Priory at Odense in Funen. English influence was strong there; the principal church was dedicated to St Alban in 1101. The Priory was long subject to Evesham Abbey.

Late in the twelfth century there was an active building Abbot, Adam, a French monk; he finished the nave of the church, and the cloister. Early in the thirteenth century came Thomas of Marlborough, whose benefactions, recorded apparently by himself, were many and various. He had a good deal of repairing to do, for in 1207 the great tower of the church had fallen and done much damage. He had a long fight for the privileges of the Abbey, there is also an interesting list of books which he gave or purchased or caused to be written for the Abbey; he also had a window put in the choir representing the story of St Egwin.

One relic of his work may have survived, in the shape of a finely carved reading desk with a figure of St Egwin on it, which was dug up before 1800 on the site of the church and is now in Norton church 3 miles away. The Abbot is recorded to have set up a lectern “behind the choir.”

Of the fourteenth-century Abbots, John de Brockhampton (1316) built a fine new chapter house, and is sometimes credited also with a new Lady Chapel; and William de Boys (1367) gave two great bells called Mary and Egwin.

The last Abbot but one – for all practical purposes the last – was Clement Lichfield (1514-1539). In spite of the heavy sums which he paid to the King and to Cardinal Wolsey he was able to set an enduring mark on thee Abbey, for he built the beautiful tower which still stands, and added a pretty chapel to each of the two parish churches, one of which stood due north of the great church, and the other (St Laurence) near its north-west corner. He resigned in 1539, unwilling to surrender the monastery; and a young monk, Philip Hawford, was put in to carry the business through and earn for it a pension, and, later, the deanery of Worcester. The end came in the same year, 1539. The annual value of the Abbey is given to either somewhat over or under £1200. The grantee was Philip Hobbye.

As was the case at Bury St Edmund’s there were two parish churches standing in the same churchyard as the Abbey Church. So there was, unhappily, no need that any part of the latter should be preserved, and it was not. There is absolutely nothing to be seen of it above ground.

The site was explored with enthusiasm and intelligence by Mr Rudge, a former owner, in 1811, and his resultant plan can be seen in Vetusta Monumenta Vol 5. He found that the church was 281 feet long, with an aisled nave of eight bays, a central tower, transepts 116 feet across, a large crypt under the choir, with four rows of columns (the upper part of the choir being wholly gone), and another crypt south of this. South of the south transept was a chamber 35 feet long (the sacristy?), another 32 feet long (the slype?) and then the vestibule to the chapter house (of which the arch remains). This vestibule was 33 feet long and had two stone seats along the walls. The chapter house itself was decagonal, and measured 51 feet 6 inches across.

There was an entrance to the nave of the church on the north side near the west end. The transepts had chapels on the east; one, on the north, was apsidal. Many fine floor-tiles and fragments of stone carving, some gilt and coloured, were found.

What remains is: first, on the north side, in the passage by which you enter the churchyard, a piece of Norman work attributed to Abbot Reginald, and called the Almonry.

Then, the fine tower of Clement Lichfield towards the east. Late as it is, it is admirable in outline and proportion and – especially perhaps when seen from the train on a summer evening – groups most beautifully with the two churches, and the river in the foreground.

Just south of this is a modern monument to Simon de Montfort, slain in the great battle of Evesham in 1265 – the most important event in our history which is associated with the Abbey.

Southward again, passing outside what is now the wall of a private garden, you will find a large archway, and looking inside, you see that the arch is filled with two rows of mutilated statuettes – not a very common feature in England. The outer row here consists of eight seated figures – possibly the Evangelists and Doctors of the Church; the inner eight standing figures. All are headless, and no attributes remain to identify them. The author of the account in The Beauties of England and Wales, writing with all the elegance of 1814, says: “The outer row consists of sitting figures which seem to have been intended for either abbots or bishops, from their being seated on a kind of throne; but as they have all suffered decapitation it is impossible now precisely to ascertain their dignity. Unfortunately, too, the inner range have experienced the same harsh treatment from a former proprietor of this garden. . . . . His motive is said to have been the extirpation of the worship of images; and fearing that even these might become objects of veneration, he thought the best method of preventing it would be to take off their heads.” This arch was the entrance to the chapter house vestibule, the work of Abbot John de Brockhampton. It would be well if the ivy were removed from the southern side of this doorway, which is an unusual and beautiful piece of work.

Standing here, with the normal disposition of the cloister buildings in your mind, you will not find it difficult to divine the general lay-out of the cloister and the frater on the south side of it.

Passing back into the churchyard you should look at Clement Lichfield’s work in each of the two churches. Then, going westwards, you will find some attractive houses outside the yard, portions of which may be fragments of the outer domestic buildings of the Abbey. What are called the Abbot’s Stables stand south of the house built on the site of the gate house, and west of this is the so-called “Abbey House.”

In spite of Abbot de Marlborough’s pains lavished upon the gathering and making and books, and of Prior Nicholas Herford, who in 1392 left nearly a hundred volumes, there are very few in our public collections which can be traced to Evesham. Registers and cartularies there are, and an important chronicle, but nothing to which I can point as a brilliant example of Evesham calligraphy or illumination.

Share this page on the Social Networks