Historic Description of Merevale Abbey, Remains of

Merevale Abbey

Merevale or Mira Vallis. This is an example of the pretty names which the Cistercians liked to give their houses. Walter Map (in the twelfth century), who hated this Order, laughs at them for this custom; he quotes Casa Dei, Vallis Dei, Portus Salutis, Mira Vallis, and others.

Merevale Abbey is just outside Atherstone, and is, as it long has been, the domain of the Dugdales. Robert, Earl Ferrers, in 1148 founded a Cistercian Abbey here and colonised it with monks from Bordesley. Its possessions increased quite largely in the next centuries. At the Suppression the annual value was £254. The Abbot and nine monks were pensioned.

The principal relic of this establishment is the capella ad portus, unusually large, perhaps because it possessed an image of the Virgin which was the object of pilgrimage. This stands farther away from Atherstone than the rest of the Abbey, and is used as a parish church. It is shown on application at the gatehouse. It has three aisles of equal length and a western portion; work of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries is to be seen. At the west end is a stately wooden gallery said to have been an organ loft in the Abbey church. Some of the tombs and the old glass are likewise supposed to have come from thence.

The glass is noteworthy. In a south window is a fine foreign piece: a bishop in mitre and cope over plate armour. In the tracery lights of the east window is fifteenth-century glass, including an Annunciation. In the lower lights an excellent Jesse-tree (fourteenth century) much restored. The figures are, in the lowest row, Roboam, Manasses, Isaina (sic), Joram, Asa. Next, Malachi, David, Solomon, Ezechias, Moyses; at top Sophonias, a king, Christ (not belonging here: He is represented as the Judge, showing His Wounds), Jonas, Ysaias.

In a north window is the Assumption of the Virgin (she is headless); four out of six angels surrounding her remain. In the tracery are late figures of Apostles, and there is a roundel of foreign glass. The next window has in the tracery St Anne, a bishop, and the Annunciation. Below are fragments, one of the Lamb with cross-banner between the leaves of an open book.

The remains of the conventual buildings are in a field lower down. The church is gone, but for foundations which were laid bare in 1849. It was cruciform, with aisled nave and short choir. The cloister buildings were on the south side. A considerable length of wall remains, attached to a farm-house. The frater, which here was parallel with the church (not, as in most Cistercian houses, at right angles to it), shows the access to the readers pulpit. The chapter house entrance is also visible.

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