H. J. L. J. Massé

“ There are, however, many fine bosses, and, like those in the nave, they have been treated in a tentative way with colour and gold. As a whole, the effect of decorated bosses standing out in such strong relief from the simple, unadorned stonework is rather spotty and distracting. The arms of the Despenser family are to be found on some of the bosses in the south aisle, and it is to the munificence of that powerful family that the execution of the work is due. The Norman roof of the aisles was a lean-to roof of wood, as is indicated by the half-arch between either aisle and the transept. ”

“ Formerly the old font, of which portions remain in the church, stood in the apsidal chapel in the south transept, and the choice of position for the new one is not quite happy. The canopy is very fine work, but the font as a whole is as much too high as the choir screen is too low. It is also placed at far too great a height above the surrounding floor to be comfortable for a party of sponsors, and from its height it interferes with the beautiful vista of the nave as viewed from the outside of the open west door on a fine day in summer. ”

“ Would it not be of some use once for all, and with the least delay possible, to set on foot an association for the purpose of watching over and protecting these relics, which, scanty as they are now become, are still wonderful treasures, all the more priceless in this age of the world, when the newly-invented study of living history is the chief joy of so many of our lives? ”

“ Once again the Manor of Tewkesbury passed by the female line, and into the distinguished family of the Beauchamps, with whom Richard le Despenser's sister Isabelle was connected by her marriage with Richard Beauchamp, or Ricardus de Bello Campo as the Register calls him when it does not give his name as Becham. He was killed at the siege of Breaux in France in 1421, and his young widow erected the sumptuous chantry chapel known as the Warwick Chapel over his remains. ”

“ The old shafting has been chipped away on the west face of the stonework opposite to the north-east tower pier. As one turns round the corner into the north ambulatory or choir aisle, it will be noticed that on the wall is a monument by Flaxman to Lady Clarke; it is small and unobtrusive, but the sculpture is thoroughly good and worthy of a great artist.
On the right hand opposite is the Warwick Chapel (p. 83) , of which the glory in part has departed, viz., the decoration in colour and in gold, and much of the architectural detail. ”

“ The first and easternmost chapel is the largest of the series of chapels built round the ambulatory. It is pentagonal in form and is 28 feet by 24 feet, opening to the aisle with a richly moulded arch. The vaulting, as in all these chapels, is excellent work, but the student of such things will notice that the masons' work on the chapels on the south side is in even courses, and that the stones are better dressed than in the chapels on the north side of the choir. At the intersections of the vaulting there are some good bosses, chiefly foliage with some heads. ”

“ The Abbey Gateway, which is well worth inspection, is Perpendicular work, and is in surprisingly good repair, mainly owing to the fact that for many years it was in private hands. It stands very solid and square, and looks formidable with its battlements, but the view through the open doorway is very fine—the foliage on the trees beyond showing up the stonework. The work in the arches is good, and the gargoyles are worthy of notice. ”

“ Blunt in "Tewkesbury and its Associations" says, there are many people who cannot hear about monks without immediately thinking of nuns. It would seem that the room communicated with the dorter or dormitory, and was designed for invalid monks, who from it might hear mass sung in the church without going downstairs. In the south-east corner of the transept a staircase gives access to this chamber, and communicates with the triforium of the transept, the clerestory of the choir, the vaulting of the ambulatory as well as that of the tower. ”

“ What I wish for, therefore, is that an association shall be set on foot to keep a watch on old monuments, to protest against all 'restoration' that means more than keeping out wind and weather, and, by all means, literary and other, to awaken a feeling that our ancient buildings are not mere ecclesiastical toys, but sacred monuments of the nation's growth and hope. ”

“ Anthony on her left. At her feet there was to be an escutcheon, bearing her arms impaled with those of her late husband—who had died just three months before her—supported by two griffins; and at the [87] side there were to be statues of poor men and women in humble apparel with their beads in their hands. From the Abbey Register this part of the lady's last will and testament seems to have been carried out; but nothing remains of these added figures or of the tomb. The chapel is less perfect on the south, or choir side, than on that which faces the north aisle. ”

“ The coffin lid bears a rich floriated cross, with a representation of an abbot at the one end, and that of a lamb at the other. The arch over the tomb is crocketed, and is enriched with a profusion of ball-flower ornament in the moulding. The finial is very heavy, though beautifully wrought to represent birds and foliage. At the spring of the arch is the very curious figure of a devil. Two pinnacles [28] at the sides have most grotesque faces at the corners instead of the conventional foliage. This idea has been adopted in the decoration of the tomb-recesses in the nave in Bristol Cathedral. ”

“ In this chapel is a large aumbry, and a very perfect stone coffin which was dug up in the south ambulatory near the Trinity Chapel. The metallic sound given forth by the coffin when tapped seems to be of more interest than anything else to the ordinary visitor. Various interesting fragments of stonework are in the chapel, one being a portion of a tomb. Portions of the font formerly in the Norman chapel in the south transept are also here. Under the painted window is a piscina, more than half of which is modern work. ”

“ At the easternmost end of this aisle is the door by which access was given the church from the cloisters. The entrance to this door consists of a depressed arch, with a square head over it; the spandrils are pierced with an open quatrefoil. This door stands within the original Norman doorway, which was filled in, and traces of the supporting shaft with its capital may be seen. Above are seven niches, with brackets and [50] canopies of good carved work. Over the canopy on either side is an angel with a plain shield. ”

“ Close to Abbot Alan's tomb is another recess which now is without its coffin. The arch is pointed and crocketed with pinnacles at the sides. In the absence of a tomb the chief interest consists in the old encaustic tiles which have been transferred here from other parts of the building, a few of them having been found in 1875 under the then stone pavement of the choir. They are now safe here from the destroying power of the ubiquitous tourist's foot. ”

“ The Chronicles of the Abbey tell us that the first monastery at Tewkesbury was built by two Saxon nobles, Oddo and Doddo, in or about the year 715, a time when Mercia was flourishing under Ethelred, and later, under Kenred and Ethelbald. It was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and endowed with the manor of Stanway and other lands for the support of the Benedictine monks who, under a Prior, were there installed. Oddo and Doddo died soon afterwards, and were buried in the abbey church of Pershore. ”

“ The young Duke, who was married to Cicely Neville, died at the age of twenty-one, and was buried in the choir of the Abbey. As he left no children, the manor passed in 1449 to his sister Anne, the wife of Richard Neville the "King-maker." All the "King-maker's" estates were confiscated to the Crown after he fell at Barnet in 1471, but were eventually shared between his two daughters Isabelle and Anne. Isabelle married George, Duke of Clarence, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury, who in 1477, a few days after Isabelle's supposed death by poison at Warwick, was put to death in the Tower. ”

“ Other tombs of interest in the church will be found in making the circuit of the ambulatory. The first of these is the tomb of Sir Guy de Brien [D] . It has a central position in the stone screen-work which separates the chapel of St. Margaret from the north ambulatory. Sir Guy married Elizabeth, the widow of Hugh, Lord Despenser. The tomb is very similar in design to the Despenser tomb over against which it is placed. The knight is represented at full length, clad in his armour, with a lion at his feet. ”

“ By standing at the entrance to this chapel the visitor will obtain a very fine and interesting set of coups d'œil of the different parts of the building. Towards the north there is the view of the work at the back of the altar, and St. Edmund's and St. Margaret's chapels in the background. To the north-west are the tombs at the back of the altar and sedilia; to the west is a good view of the south ambulatory and the south aisle of the nave.
The next chapel, i.e., the middle one of the three on this side, has no known dedication. ”

“ The arch of the doorway is a plain, round-headed arch with its edges left quite square, and the impost is plain with the exception of a hollow immediately below the abacus. In height the doorway is 10 feet, and in width 51⁄2 feet, and it leans slightly to the north. Above this doorway, in the corners of the west wall, are two impost members or brackets, similar to those in the chancel, which may have been intended to support the floor joists of a chamber or gallery at this end of the nave. ”

“ Above the arch is a piece of stonework, similar to one above the long, narrow window, considered by some to be a mutilated carved head, but with more real likeness to a broken mechanical contrivance for hoisting up weighty goods into the upper part of the tower. On the right of the entrance door is the door which now gives entrance to the belfry. In many parts of the exterior there are traces of the coarse herring-bone work so prevalent in Saxon masonry. ”

“ It is a table tomb in the Perpendicular style, with very rich tracery enriched with quatrefoils and shields. A depressed arch forms a canopy, in the spandrils of which are the abbot's initials R.C. and his pastoral staff.
Almost opposite to this is a depressed arch which supports a mass of delicate work decorated with vine-leaves and grapes. Over this are many canopied niches (much mutilated) . The images they once contained have been destroyed. Under the [96] arch is now a coffin of Purbeck marble, with a cross on the lid, and the inscription "Johannes Abbas hujus loci." ”

“ The choir was altered in the time of Abbot Parker, by Elizabeth, the wife, successively, of Lord Badlesmere, of Hugh Lord Despenser, and Sir Guy de Brien. The original Norman clerestory was taken down and the Norman columns of the choir slightly raised, as will be seen from the choir aisle on the side where the original capitals were left unaltered. At the same time the beautiful series of apsidal chapels was [14] added; stone vaulting took the place of the earlier wooden roofing and the space between the four piers that support the tower was vaulted. ”

“ Peter at Westminster and the Cathedrals at Canterbury and at Winchester, is in every respect a representative structure. "It represents all the greatest influences in our social development, it directly embodies in its memories both the Crown, at the time when the Crown was a primum mobile in politics, and all the estates of the realm. ”

“ A flying buttress of very slight proportions will be seen on the north side between the north transept and the north porch.
North Porch.—For a porch of Norman construction this is of unusual dimensions, measuring 24 feet by 20 feet and 39 feet high. It is extremely simple in character inside and out. The roof is a plain barrel vault of stone.
Both the internal and the external doorway have a circular arch composed of a series of mouldings supported by shafting, just as in the arch of the great west window. ”

“ Whether the wooden roof decayed or was destroyed by fire, it was found necessary in the early part of the fourteenth century to re-roof the nave, and the present vaulting was then constructed. Beautiful though it is architecturally, it has the effect of dwarfing the nave, as it springs directly from the tops of the piers in the nave. In character it is a simple pointed vaulting, and the ribs at their many points of intersection are lavishly decorated with bosses. ”

“ There were also two windows in the nave opposite to each other. That in the north wall has been altered; that in the south wall is very curious and interesting. It is splayed both inside and out, from an opening 31⁄2 × 21⁄2 feet, with a sill 10 feet 6 inches above the level of the ground. The arch is of long, thin slabs of stone, inserted in mortar with wide joints, in some cases two inches in thickness.
A ladder gives access to what was the floor above, when the chapel was divided into two floors for domestic occupation. ”

“ Part of the tower, that to the west, has a battlement, while the rest has a low gabled roof. The windows in the belfry are decorated in character, but much of the masonry near them seems to be re-used stone from other parts.
By obtaining entrance to the farmyard upon which the east end abuts, traces of the original apsidal termination may be seen. It is much to be regretted that the church precincts are so built upon that examination is difficult.
INTERIOR.
The western entrance is situate in the tower front, and by three doorways gives access to the nave. ”