Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury Part 13

Its beautiful capitals inspired the workers to do their best and harmonise those in the south aisle arcade with those in the other aisle.

The walls of the nave were carried up to receive the clerestory windows about the year 1400, but as to their original height it is only possible to conjecture.

The Decorated windows of the north aisle all differ in style and date, that in the north transept being the earliest. The westernmost window in the south aisle is approximately of the same date, and contains the only gla.s.s in the church that is of any interest. The other windows in this south aisle are Perpendicular, and are high in the wall owing to the existence of the cloister, a blocked-up door into which can be seen under the westernmost window. Some fifteenth century oak seats in this aisle are worth notice.

In the north aisle the north-west window of four lights (by Wailes) is a memorial to Hugh Edwin Strickland (1853). The head of the window contains the fanciful device relating to the Persons of the Trinity, and below are Noah, Aaron, David, and St. John the Baptist.

In the lowest tier are Adam and Eve, Abraham and Isaac, the Annunciation, the Baptism of Christ in the Jordan.

The next window (by Clayton and Bell) is a memorial window erected by the Rev. G. b.u.t.terworth, till lately Vicar of Deerhurst.

In the north wall near the font is a blocked-up doorway, containing another memorial to a member of the Strickland family.

[Ill.u.s.tration]

Pater -- non est -- Filius est est Deus non non est est est Spiritus Sanctus

Both the aisles of the nave had undoubtedly at one time altars at their eastern ends. The north aisle contains three aumbries and the south aisle has one, probably removed from elsewhere in the church. It contains a piscina and a small circular recess or reliquary in its eastern side.

The north aisle contains a very fine specimen of a bra.s.s dated 1400, which records the death of Sir John Ca.s.sy, Chief Baron of the Exchequer in the reign of Edward III., and his wife Alicia. The inscription runs (in finely cut black letters, with beautiful ornaments between each word), "Hic jacet Joh?s Ca.s.sy miles quondam Capitalis Baro Sccii (_i.e._ Scaccarii) Regis qui obiit xxiii^o die Maii Anno Dni MCCCC, et Alicia uxor ejus. qu?r aiabus pp?r deus." The Chief Baron is represented in his robes, with a lion at his feet; his wife in a long loose flowing dress, fastened at the wrists and round the neck. She has her dog at her feet, with his name "Tirri"

engraved upon his side. Only one other instance exists of a pet's name being thus handed down.[30] Above the figures is a rich canopy, and a figure of the Virgin and St. Anne, a figure of St. John the Baptist being unfortunately missing.

Close to this are one or two other bra.s.ses. One of Elizabeth, daughter of Thomas Bruges, Esq., of Coverle, and wife of William Ca.s.sey, Esq., of Whyghtfylde, and then of Walter Nowden, Esq., 1525. Another small bra.s.s in the floor of the doorway to the choir records that "Here lyeth the body of Edward Guy, gent., who married Francis the eldest daughter of John Gotheridge, Esq., and had by her six sonnes and one daughter, and was here buried the sixt day of Dec. A^o. 1612."

Near to the Ca.s.sy bra.s.s is an old chest, and a stone coffin with a foliated cross upon its lid. This had been under the pavement till the 1861-62 restoration--hence its excellent state of preservation.

The blocked door in the east wall of this north transept once gave access to the sacristy.

=The Font.=--The font, one of the most interesting points in this interesting church, has had a curious history. A lady in the neighbourhood (Miss Strickland, of Apperley Court) found in a garden close to the river, in 1870, an upright carved stone. It occurred to this lady that the stone was in reality the stem or lower part of the font then in Longdon church, in Worcestershire, as the ornament seemed to be similar. The Vicar of Longdon was then asked to give up the bowl portion which had been conveyed in 1845 from a Deerhurst farmyard to Longdon church. The request was graciously entertained, and Longdon church received in exchange a new font. The two portions--probably long separated--were then replaced as they are now to be seen in Deerhurst, and the font previously in use there was given to Castle Morton church.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Photo. R.W. Dugdale._ FONT.]

The bowl is, like other early fonts, rather tub-shaped, made of coa.r.s.e-grained oolite, a Cotswold district stone, covered with uncommon ornamentation. It measures externally 28- inches in diameter, internally 24 inches, and 21 inches in height. The ornamentation consists of eight panels, each containing spirals which form an endless pattern, as they conjoin with other similar lines. Mr.

Westwood in the _Arch. Soc. Journal_ said of the ornament that it is "especially Irish, and is found in the finest of the most ancient illuminated Irish copies of the Gospels, and in those which were executed in England under the influence of the Irish missionaries.

Thus it is found in all the illuminated Gospels of St. Chad and Mac Regol (which is in the Bodleian Library and ascribed to 820 A.D.), and in the Gospels of Lindisfarne or Durham Book, but I do not recollect having seen it in ma.n.u.scripts known to be more recent than the ninth century." The ornament of the running border was thought by the same writer to be a later addition; others deem it contemporary with the scroll work, and think the design may have been obtained from some Saxon goldsmith's work.

Whether the stem belongs to the bowl, or whether the stem ought not to be inverted, are perhaps questions of minor importance. The spiral ornament in both parts is exactly the same, an interlaced strap ornament occupying three out of the seven panels in the stem. The effect of a heptagonal stem on an octagonal base or plinth is certainly odd. The _base_, or step, is probably of the late fourteenth, or of the fifteenth century. Originally there was not a hole in the bottom to let the water drain away, but one in the side.

There is no trace of any leaden lining to the font-bowl.

=The Choir=, with the destroyed sanctuary, had a total length of 38 feet, a breadth of 20 feet. The actual height of the choir cannot now be accurately estimated, though it seems to have been higher than that of the nave. The interior at present is all of the same height. The walls were apparently quite plain, and not pierced for any windows.

There were in the actual choir s.p.a.ce four doorways, _i.e._, a pair on the north and another pair on the south side. Of each pair one doorway gave access to the transept, and the other, in the earliest history of the church, to the open air. These doorways are quite plain, and are cut straight through the wall. Those on the south side and one on the north have lintels or level tops; the other has a straight lined arch composed of two long pieces of stone.

In each side wall of the choir, above these doorways, is an open arch, cut through the wall with a slightly projecting border at the sill, which is 10 feet or so above the level of the present pavement. The jambs are quite plain, with heavy impost members, slightly hollowed, and a square label, much damaged and defaced. These two archways were no doubt made to admit a modic.u.m of light to what must always have been a dimly lighted choir.

The eastern wall of the present chancel contains the arch (now blocked up) which formed the entrance to the apsidal sanctuary. This arch is very s.p.a.cious, being 12 feet 3 inches wide between the capitals, and 20 feet high. It is composed of a single broad, flat-faced member, with well carved but primitive caps, supported by a semi-cylindrical shaft on either side. The plinth, or base, is but slightly moulded, and is 23 inches in height. The label is square and exceptionally prominent, springing from carved heads representing tusked animals (probably boars) of considerable size.

Above the arch is a Perpendicular window, which was probably inserted after the sanctuary had been removed, though it may have replaced an earlier opening. Between the sill of the window and the blocked-up arch there are impost members or brackets fixed in the wall, and ab.u.t.ting against the side walls, the mouldings which return being different in each. There were probably similar brackets in the western wall of the choir which has been removed, and they may have been supports for the floor of the central tower. On this same wall are two stone slabs about 4 feet by 3 feet, with pointed tops flanking the window, which look as if they were intended to block up the splayed openings of former and possibly still existing window openings, though they have been internally and externally blocked.

There is no trace in any account of the church as to how or when the eastern tower was removed or destroyed. Lyson's two drawings of the church show the choir portion considerably higher than the rest of the building, with a roof quite different in pitch. This might be due to the fact that the choir had been loftier than the nave, or to the partial removal of the masonry of this tower. It seems just a probable explanation that this tower fell towards the end of the fifteenth century--perhaps after a fire of which there are traces in the south east corner of the building--and in its fall did such damage to the sacristy, the apsidal sanctuary, and the chapel at the east of the south transept, that the brethren of Tewkesbury, of which abbey Deerhurst had become a cell in 1469, felt it to be beyond their means to restore the fabric. This, of course, is merely a theory, but it would account satisfactorily for the structural alterations carried out about that time. The forced disuse of the old sanctuary would involve the blocking up of the choir arch which gave access to it, and also the making of an additional window in the then east wall of the chancel. As there was no tower to support, the west wall of the choir may have been removed and the rood-screen erected, the door of entrance to which still exists in the south aisle, unblocked. It is an open question when this west wall of the choir was removed. If it were done, as some have thought, in the twelfth or the thirteenth century, the removal may have been a predisposing cause of the fall of the tower.

The chancel contains some good oak seats and panelling which run all round the three available sides of the square. These were the seats for communicants, and the communion table until about sixteen years ago stood in the middle of the chancel. This Puritan arrangement was formerly not uncommon, but is now probably unique, seeing that Winchcombe church, where it once existed, has lately been "restored."

Some of the panelling was part of a Jacobean pulpit, one panel of which, with the date 1604, is to be seen. The chancel rail is of carved wood, in keeping with the rest of the chancel furniture.

Mr. Micklethwaite in his Paper on Saxon Churches (_Arch. Journ._ vol.

lxiii.) refers to Deerhurst specially, and his remarks are, by his permission, here quoted, with one or two slight verbal alterations:

"The Plan shows that in its last Saxon form it was a two-towered church of like plan to the church at Dover, on the Castle Hill. The central tower has gone, but the western one remains, and is a very remarkable building. The plan of the church shows the side walls of the nave black as still existing, which in fact they do, but only the upper parts of them. They are carried by arcades of thirteenth century work. These may take the place of earlier ones, and the church may have had aisles at its first building. If it had, I suspect that it lost them as Brixworth did, and was without when the east part of the church was put into the form shown on the plan. That seems to have been about the beginning of the eleventh century, but it is certain that there is earlier work in the west end and in the tower, and probable that there also is in the side walls of the nave. The presbytery was round-ended and wide-arched, as at Worth, and there is an arch in the east wall of the south transept leading to an altar place beyond. In the corresponding position on the other side (_i.e._, in the north transept) is a doorway which has led to some chamber outside.

"The openings from the tower to the transepts on the floor lines are very small doorways, but there is an arch higher up on each side which looks as if it might have opened from an upper floor or gallery.[31]

[Ill.u.s.tration: PLAN OF DEERHURST PRIORY CHURCH BEFORE THE CONQUEST.

_By J.T. Micklethwaite, F.S.A., from "The Archaeological Journal."_]

"To the end of the Saxon time it was usual to make living-rooms in the towers and roofs of the churches, but the evidence of it is clearest in the fore-buildings of the early monastic churches. That at Deerhurst gives more points than are found together in any other single monument, but the parallels of all, except the division of the two lower stories of the tower, may be found elsewhere, and nearly all at Wearmouth and Brixworth.

"Here is a section of the tower of Deerhurst looking north, with later mediaeval work left out, and indications given of missing parts, of which those that remain supply the evidence.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE TOWER.

_From "The Archaeological Journal."_]

"The tower is considerably larger from east to west than from north to south, and on the ground and second stories is divided into two unequal parts, the eastern being the larger. The eastern division has formed the usual porch of entrance from the fore-court, with an arch eastwards towards the church, and two small doorways north and south from the covered walks of the fore-court. These doorways were destroyed in the thirteenth century, or later, when the walls were cut away and pointed arches as wide as the chamber itself inserted. On the west, an arch rather lower than that towards the church leads to the western division, which was not the baptistery, but a sort of vestibule to it. The baptistery itself stood, in the usual way, west of the tower and in the midst of the fore-court. A doorway of the thirteenth century now fills up the arch between it and the tower, which gives us the latest date up to which it can have stood.

"Ascent to the upper part of the tower must have been by wooden stairs or ladders in the western division. The western room on the second story probably had no use except as a landing. It received only a borrowed light from the baptistery, which equalled in height two stories of the tower. The eastern room was entered by a door from the other. It has windows on the north and south sides, and a triangular opening towards the church on the east. In the same wall, towards the north side, is the doorway which led to the gallery in the church, and which, I think, is an insertion of the tenth century or later.

"The third stage is now divided, but was originally one room, and that, as appears by the treatment of its details, an important one. I have suggested that it may have been used as a night quire. On the east is the very remarkable two-light window towards the church. There are windows in the middle of the north and south walls, and close by each is a round-headed recess very like those on the walls of the crypt at Ripon, and, I believe, like them, intended to hold lights.

"In the west wall is a doorway now towards s.p.a.ce, but originally leading to an attic in the gable above the baptistery. This room cannot have been very convenient, but the treatment of its door-case marks it as one of some importance. Perhaps it was the abbot's room.

"Only part of the fourth stage remains, but enough to show that it was a single room like the one below; and on the east side, where the wall remains higher than elsewhere, is a doorway which led up one or two steps into the s.p.a.ce between the ceiling and the roof of the nave.

This seems to point to that loft having been used as the general dormitory.

"The tower must have gone up at least one more story, where the bells would hang, but that has all been replaced by later work.

"One reason for believing that the church at Deerhurst had aisles and lost them is that on each side of the nave in the Saxon wall, above the thirteenth century arches, is a three-cornered window like that from the second stage of the tower to the church, and looking as if it had served as a sort of squint from some chamber outside, which chamber is more likely to have been an attic in the roof of an aisle than anything else. If any such others existed at Deerhurst, there must have been separate access to them from the church or from outside, as they could not be reached from the tower."

THE MONASTIC BUILDINGS.

The chief remaining portion of the domestic buildings runs parallel with the wall on the right hand of the path leading from the gate in the churchyard to the west entrance of the church, and must have formed the east side of the larger cloister, as the corbels for the penthouse roof still exist in the walls, as they also do on the south wall of the church. Two doors into the cloister from the church, one at either end of the south aisle, have been blocked up.

The other sides of the cloister, which have entirely disappeared, probably comprised on the south side a refectory, and on the west side perhaps the Prior's apartments and a dormitory or infirmary. The humbler domestic buildings were probably to the east of the block composed of the church; and a smaller cloister, or at any rate a smaller quadrangle of buildings may have existed to the east of the present block now inhabited as a farm.

These farm buildings, which measure 68 feet 9 inches by 26 feet, with walls 30 inches in thickness, are probably late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, but contain many later modifications. There is a large upper room near the church with certainly a fifteenth century panelled ceiling, added to the existing open roof. This roof has a quatrefoil opening, through which it was possible to see what was taking place in the hall below.

Below this room (used as a granary) is a cellar three steps below the ground-floor level, with a Norman shaft, introduced from some other part of the buildings, to strengthen the floor above.

The present parlour, when in use as a hall, seems to have had two entrances on the south side, one of which, now blocked, serves as a small pantry.