Bell's Cathedrals: Wimborne Minster and Christchurch Priory Part 7

In early days the bailiff of the de Redvers regulated all markets, fairs, tolls, and fines, and had the right of preemption and sat as judge in the tenants' court. Edward I. relieved the burgesses of Christchurch from all arbitrary exactions, and established a fixed fee-farm rent instead. The castle was taken for the Parliament by Sir William Waller with 300 men on April 7, 1644.

A little to the north-east of the castle stand the remains of one of the few Norman houses that have come down to the present time. It is thus described in the first volume of "The Domestic Architecture of the Middle Ages" by Turner and Parker, pp. 38, 39. This volume was published in 1851. "At Christchurch, in Hampshire, is the ruin of a Norman house, rather late in the style, with good windows of two lights and a round chimney shaft.[6] The plan, as before, is a simple oblong; the princ.i.p.al room appears to have been on the first floor. It is situated on the bank of the river near to the church, and still more close to the mound, which is said to have been the keep of the castle; being between that and the river, it could not well have been placed in a situation of greater security. Whether it formed part of another series of buildings or not, it was a perfect house in itself, and its character is strictly domestic. It is about seventy feet long, and twenty-four broad, its walls, like those of the keep, being exceedingly thick. On the ground floor are a number of loop-holes: the ascent to the upper storey was by a stone staircase, part of which remains; the ground floor was divided by a wall, but the upper storey seems to have been a long room, lighted by three double windows on each side; near the centre of the east wall, next the river, is a large fireplace, to which the round chimney before mentioned belongs. At the north end, there appears to have been a large and handsome window of which part of the arch and shafts remain, and there is a small circular window in the south gable. From what remains of the ornamental part of this building, it appears to have been elegantly finished and cased with squared stones, most of which are, however, now taken away. There is a small projecting tower, calculated for a flank, under which the water runs; it has loopholes both on the north and east fronts, these walls are extremely thick. By the ruins of several walls, there were some ancient buildings at right angles to this hall, stretching away towards the keep. This was probably part of the residence of Baldwin de Redvers, Earl of Devon, to whom the manor of Christchurch belonged about the middle of the twelfth century."[7]

[6] Since rebuilt.

[7] Grove's "Antiquities," vol. ii. p. 178.

[Ill.u.s.tration: REMAINS OF THE NORMAN HOUSE.]

This building is much overgrown with ivy, which by a comparison of the ill.u.s.tration given in the work just quoted with its present condition, as represented in the photograph here reproduced, has increased considerably during the last fifty years. It is due to the memory of the Rev. William Jackson, who was vicar of Christchurch from 1778 to 1802, that it should be recorded that he saved this valuable relic of Norman domestic architecture from destruction. He was evidently imbued with a spirit of love for antiquity by no means common a hundred years ago, and far too rare even at the present day.