KENT: SURREY: SUSSEX: BERKSHIRE

MINSTER: FAVERSHAM: BATTLE: CHERTSEY: READING: ABINGDON
MINSTER (Benedictine)

710, Founded by Queen Sexburga, widow of Ercombert, King of Kent, on land given to her by her son Edward—Benedictine nuns established here—885, Danes burn the Abbey Church and disperse the nuns—1130, William de Corbeuil, Archbishop of Canterbury, restores the monastery and church—15—, Dissolved. Annual revenue, ￡129, 7s. 10d.—1881, Restored.

THESE ruins, containing the remains of what is probably the most ancient abbey church in England, stand on the north coast of the isle of Sheppey near Kent. In former times the monastery, dedicated to St Mary and St Sexburga, was situated about the centre of the island, but is now, owing to the rapid encroachments of the sea, not so far inland. Sheppey, or “isle of sheep,” a barren, treeless island, is eleven miles long, and is bounded by the ocean to the north and east, the Thames and Medway to the west, and the Swale to the south. Very little of the conventual church exists in the present somewhat peculiarly constructed building, which consists of two aisles, a south porch, and an unfinished tower at the west end. The middle wall of the church, with its Saxon windows, was formerly the south wall of the original Saxon building, this being pierced in 1130 to allow of the addition of St Katherine’s aisle. Many alterations took place in the 15th century, when also the erection of the present tower was begun. At this time the{77} nuns used the north side of the church, whilst the south side was appropriated by the parish folk. Nowadays one aisle forms both chancel and nave.

Among the many interesting memorials in this church may be mentioned a Decorated tomb in the south wall, on which lies a cross-legged effigy, supposed to be Sir Robert de Shurland, knight banneret in the time of Edward I.; an effigy in Purbeck marble of a knight who holds in his hand a symbol representing a soul in prayer; and also, in the chancel, a monumental brass of the 14th century. The latter commemorates Sir John de Northwode and Joan his wife. De Northwode was knighted by Edward I. at the siege of Caerlaserock in 1300. The knight’s shield hangs on his left hip, instead of on his arm, from which fact we may infer the brass to be of French origin, the French knights of that day having adopted the custom known as “Ecu eu Cauteil.” Sir John’s lady wears a fur-lined mantle, and the stiff wimple covering her neck and throat, which was then the mark of widowhood, indicates that she survived her husband. In the 13th century the legs of the knight having entirely disappeared they were replaced by modern ones with very incongruous effect, and in addition to this ill-judged restoration, a strip was cut out of the middle of the effigy in order to make the knight’s figure correspond in size to his lady’s.
FAVERSHAM (Cluniac)

1148, Founded by Stephen and Maud—Dedicated to St Saviour—153—, Dissolved—The site given to Sir Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports—The greater part of the monastical buildings pulled down. Annual revenue, ￡286, 12s. 6d.

The town of Faversham, formerly a Saxon centre of some importance, and situated on the river Swale, south of the Isle of Thanet, contains some scanty ruins of an abbey, in the precincts of which were buried its founder, King Stephen, as also his{78} Queen and son. Faversham was known in Saxon times as “Favresfield,” and there, in 930, King Athelstan held a Wittenagemot, or council of wise men. The town sheltered a succession of royal and distinguished visitors in the 16th and 17th centuries—amongst others, Mary, Queen of France, King Henry VIII., with Catherine of Aragon, Cardinal Wolsey and Warham, Archbishop of Canterbury. Queen Elizabeth “lay two nights” there. Nor was the place less favoured by the succeeding house of Stuart, for Charles II. dined with the Mayor of Faversham in 1660 at an expense to the town of ￡56, 0s. 6d. In the year 1688 James II. was arrested at Faversham whilst making his first attempt to leave England after the landing of the Prince of Orange.

At the time of the Dissolution of the monasteries, the site of this Cluniac monastic house and its adjoining lands came into the possession of Sir Thomas Cheney, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and by him they were afterwards alienated to Thomas Ardern, the hero of probably the most notable domestic tragedy ever dramatised in this country. There are three old editions of the drama, and at least one popular ballad on the subject. Thomas Ardern came from the neighbourhood of Canterbury to Faversham at the age of 56, with a wife 30 years his junior—who became so blindly infatuated with one Mosbie that “with callous depravity and cruelty she engaged hirelings to despatch her husband during the fair of St Valentine.” It says little for the morality of Faversham and its neighbourhood that no less than ten persons of decent social position were found ready to lend themselves to the murderous undertaking. Eight of these were in the long run actually executed. “Ardern of Faversham” (1592) is a drama of very slight pretension to literary art, and the republication of 1887 adds further errors to those of the original carelessly printed drama.{79}
BATTLE (Benedictine)

1067, Built and endowed by William the Conqueror—Rebuilt in the time of the Plantagenets in the form of a large quadrangle, one side of which was, after the Dissolution, converted into a private house by Sir Anthony Browne. Annual revenue ￡880, 14s. 7d.—1857, Sir Harry Fane restores the abbey and converts it into a mansion.

Battle Abbey was founded in 1067 by William I. in gratitude to God for the victory vouchsafed to the Norman arms at Hastings “that perpetual praise and thanks might be given to God for the said victory and prayers made for the souls of those who were slain” (Dugdale’s Monasticon). Of the few remaining portions of the abbey buildings, the grand entrance gate, consisting of a three-storeyed tower, embattled with octagonal turrets of the late Decorated period, is still in a good state of preservation. Adjoining it are the monastic offices, with square windows and an embattled parapet. A short drive from the abbey gate brings one to the Abbot’s Lodge—of picturesque and medi?val aspect, although hardly any of the ancient features are intact. The Abbot’s Lodge is now the residence of the Duchess of Cleveland, in whose absence only, the interior is open to visitors. The great hall is remarkable in its proportions—being as high as it is long—but all its details show signs of modern restoration. A few ruins lying a little to the south of the house are known as the old refectory. These are the remains of a fine Early English building, of which the roof has unfortunately disappeared, and beneath it are some vaulted crypts—also of the same period. During the excavations in 1817 the foundations of the eastern part of the abbey church were exposed, disclosing a triple apse and several bases of a crypt. Of the abbey church hardly one stone remains, its former site being now a flower garden.

William the Conqueror had planned the erection of the abbey on a vast scale, intending to endow it with{80} sufficient land to maintain seven score monks. Several Benedictine monks were transported from Marmontier in Normandy, and one of their number, Gausbertus, elected abbot. Many privileges were granted to the abbey by its royal founder, including sanctuary; freedom from the Bishop’s jurisdiction, treasure trove, and to the abbot, the right to forgive any condemned thief he might meet going to execution. According to some accounts William was present at the consecration of the abbey—while other historians write of that ceremony as taking place in 1094, seven years after the king’s death. The Roll of Battle Abbey was supposed to be a list of the barons, and other eminent persons, who accompanied the Conqueror to England, and to have been compiled by the monks of Battle and hung up in their monastery. An English version of some verses referring to the Roll was inscribed on a tablet in the parish church of Battle and ran thus:—
“This place of war is Battle called because in battle here,
Quite conquered and overthrown the English nation were;
This slaughter happened to them upon St Cecilia’s day,
The year thereof (1066) this number doth array.”

A considerable amount of historical research has been undertaken at different times with a view to establishing the authenticity of this list of names (notably by the Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A.), and not a few of our English aristocracy, whose ancestors came over with the Conqueror, trace their pedigree from some forefather whose name they claim to have been inscribed on the Roll of Battle Abbey. The site of the abbey at the Dissolution was granted to one Gilmer and passed through the hands of many families of distinction. In 1857 the estate was bought by Sir Harry Fane. Public admission to the historical field of Senlac is given only once a week. It is to be hoped that the site of one of the most memorable events in English history may some day{81} become national property and that the many tourists attracted to Battle Abbey may help towards safeguarding its interests as a sacred possession of the people.
CHERTSEY (Mitred Benedictine)

666, Founded by Frithwaldus, governor of the province of Surrey under Wulfar, King of Mercia—Church and conventual building burnt by the Danes in the 9th century—964, Refounded by King Edgar for Benedictine monks—1110, The abbey rebuilt—15—, Dissolved. Annual revenue, ￡659, 15s. 8d.

It is indeed a national loss that of this noble and extensive foundation, consisting formerly of a monastic church, a hospitium, two mills, a bridge and a few buildings beyond the Thames, practically nothing should remain save two walls and an arched gateway.

“So total a dissolution I scarcely ever saw,” says Dr Stukeley, “human bones of the abbots, monks, and great personages who were buried in great numbers in the church and cloisters were spread thick all over the garden so that we may pick up handfuls of bits of bones at a time everywhere among the garden stuff.”

Excavations undertaken by the Surrey Arch?ological Society have brought to light some of the foundations of the abbey, carved stones, stone coffins, and several monumental tiles illustrating the Arthurian legends. A piece of the chapter-house flooring and part of a stone chair have also been discovered. This ancient monastic foundation in Chertsey attained to great magnificence, its head becoming one of the mitred abbots, and consequently enjoying all the privileges of a seat in Parliament. The abbots of Chertsey suffered little, if at all, from molestations from without, or from rebellion and schism within. They cultivated vineyards, hunted hares and foxes, and retained peaceful and uninterrupted possession of the manor for close on 500 years. Though at the time of the Dissolution Henry VIII. appeared to{82} relent his drastic measures with regard to this foundation, yet one year only elapsed between the placing of the Chertsey monks in the refounded priory of Bisham in Berkshire and the compulsory surrender to the Crown of the newly formed religious establishment.

The irregularly built market town of Chertsey in Surrey is situated on the banks of the Thames, and is connected with Middlesex by the seven-arched stone bridge which spans the river. Here lived and died Abraham Cowley, a poet of great celebrity in his day, who, after being ejected from Cambridge as a Royalist in 1643, engaged actively in the royal cause and obtained at the Restoration the lease of a farm at Chertsey which he held under the Queen. In the old church of Chertsey the curfew is regularly tolled upon a bell which was used for generations in the abbey.
READING (Mitred Benedictine)

1126, Built and endowed by Henry I.—Dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St John the Baptist—1121-1467, Parliaments held here—15—, Dissolved. Henry Farringdon, last abbot of Reading, executed at Tyburn.

“Hugh, Abbot of Reading, and his convent, reciting by their deed that King Henry I. had erected that abbey for the maintenance of monks then devoutly and religiously serving God, for the receipt of Strangers and Travellers, but chiefly Christ’s poor people, they therefore did erect an Hospital without the gate of the abbey there to maintain 26 poor people; and to the maintenance of Strangers passing that way they gave the profits of their mill at Leominstre. Also Aucherius, Abbot of Reading, built near this abbey a house for lepers that was called St Mary Magdelene’s, allotting for their sustenance sufficient of all things as well in diet as other matters.”

The foregoing extract from Dugdale’s Monasticon indicates the pious and generous motives which inspired the endowment of the once important mitred{83} abbey of Reading. The abbots of Reading ranked next to those of Glastonbury and St Albans, their influence extending far beyond the precincts of the monastery.

Built upon the site of an ancient nunnery, the abbey ruins are beautifully situated on an eminence overlooking the river Kennet to the south and the Thames to the north. From the remaining portions it can be seen that the abbey church consisted of a nave and choir, both with aisles, transepts with eastern chapels, and also a Lady chapel—the entire length being 420 feet. The chapter-house on the east side of the cloister adjoins the south transept and possessed an apse in which were five large windows. On the south side of this cloister garth stood the Norman refectory. The stone facings of the buildings have been removed, leaving only flintstone, but fortunately the abbey mill still stands intact. Henry I. and his two queens, Matilda and Adeliza, were buried in Reading Abbey, though by some strange fancy of disseveration the king’s bowels, brains, heart, eyes and tongue were buried at Rouen. Many real or fancied relics of saints were presented to the abbey. Among other singular objects of the time was one assumed to be the head of the Apostle James—later the hand of this Apostle was brought from Germany by the Empress Maud—carefully enclosed in a case of gold, of which it was afterwards stripped by Richard I. It seems like some curious pioneer movement of foreign missions when one reads that the “maintenance of two Jewish female converts” was imposed on this house by King Henry III.{84}
ABINGDON (Mitred Benedictine).

675, Built and endowed by Heane, Viceroy of Wiltshire—955, Monks reinstalled by Edred, King of all England, after the ravages of the Danes—c. 955, Abbot Ethelwold builds the church, dedicates it to St Mary and institutes the rule of St Benedict—1071, Egclwya, Bishop of Durham, dies after imprisonment in the dungeons of the abbey—1084, William the Conqueror keeps the Easter festival at Abingdon—1146, Pope Eugenius III. grants many privileges to the Abbey—15—, Dissolved. Annual revenue, ￡1876, 10s. 9d.

One Aben, having escaped the cruel treatment Hengist perpetrated on the Barons and great men of the land, hid himself in the south of Oxfordshire for a great while, and the people of the place, pitying him, built him a house and chapel. This then was the beginning of the monastical institution in “Abendun,” so called, after the fugitive. The town of Abingdon, with its narrow winding streets and quaintly gabled houses, has grown up round the mitred monastery of many centuries ago. So closely are the ruins surrounded by houses that there is some difficulty in defining the original site of the abbey. The approach to the ruins is through a gateway of Perpendicular work, built probably about the end of the 14th century. The parapet is battlemented, and over the centre arch may be seen a canopied niche containing the figure of the Blessed Virgin, the patronal saint of the abbey. A few yards further on after turning slightly to the right one reaches the rest of the monastical remains, which consist only of the guest house, with its adjoining abbot’s or prior’s house.

The guest house presents at first sight a somewhat barn-like appearance; it is worthy however of closer inspection. It has two storeys—the ground floor forming the day room and the upper the dormitory. The prior’s house, built in the 14th century, is also a two-storeyed building. A flight of wooden steps, put up for the convenience of the visitor, leads through{85} a pointed doorway into the upper apartments. In a direct line with the entrance is a wall dividing the storey into two rooms, of which the one to the right contains some imposing remains of a columned fireplace, a blocked-up pointed window and stairway door; and the other to the left, a blocked-up window. There are open windows on either side of the entrance, each lighting up one of the apartments. The kitchen or crypt forms the ground floor of the prior’s house, from the one single octagonal column of which spring the ribs that support the groined roof. The fireplace is to the right and facing the entrance is a doorway which formerly communicated with the abbey brook, now known as the mill stream. After being used as a malt house for several years the buildings have been restored by the Abingdon Corporation, by whom the room over the gateway is used as council chamber. To the left on passing through the gateway is the site of the former magnificent abbey church, enclosed in the private grounds of the Bishop of Reading. The whole of the foundations are unfortunately covered by greensward; but it is still possible to gain some idea of the immense size and bold outline of the structure. William of Worcester gives the following dimensions—
Nave, 180 feet.
Two Towers west end, 100 feet high.
Large central tower, 36 feet square.
Choir, with chapel at east end, 162 feet.
Central transepts, 174 feet broad.
Other transepts, 138 feet broad.

At the upper end of the guest house a half circle of stone marks the site of Ethelwold’s church, built on the site of an earlier church erected by Heane in the 7th century. This was peculiar in form, having a circular east end. The fine carved roof of the Lady chapel in St Helen’s church is said to have been{86} removed from the abbey. Along its shields are slight indications of these words
“In the worship of our Lady
Pray for Nicholas Gold and Amy.”

The Chronicle of Abingdon, written by the monks at a time when they were sure of the confidence of the people, is a faithful record of the monastic life-work. A quotation from Mr Stevenson’s review on the translation of the Abingdon Chronicle may be of some interest, as it portrays not only the daily customs of the monks at Abingdon, but of many other monastic establishments.

“Most persons who have bestowed any attention to our early annals will admit, however strong may be their Protestant prejudices, that the best features of our modern civilisation are due to the social organisation introduced by the monks. Agriculture, for example, the parent of all other arts, was despised and neglected by the pagan tribes of German origin, whereas the rule of St Benedict, which was of primary authority with every monastic establishment, proclaimed the ‘nobility of labour’ as a religious duty, inferior in its responsibility only to prayer and study.

“Benedict thought it good that men should be daily reminded that in the sweat of their face they should eat bread, and day by day they toiled in the field as well as prayed in the church. After having been present at the service of Prime, the monks assembled in the chapter-house, each individual received his allotted share of work, a brief prayer was offered up, tools were served out, and the brethren marched two and two, and in silence, to their task in the field. From Easter until the beginning of October they were thus occupied from six o’clock in the morning until ten, sometimes until noon. The more widely the system was diffused the more extensive were its benefits. Besides the monks lay brethren and servants were engaged, who received payment in coin, and as by degrees more land was brought into tillage than the monastery needed, the surplus was leased out to lay occupiers. Thus, each{87} monastery became a centre of civilisation, and while the rude chieftain, intent on war or the chase, cared little for the comfort either of himself or his retainers, the monks became the source, not only of intellectual and spiritual light, but of physical warmth and comfort, and household blessings.”