simply mention Tavistock among the "houses of religion whose "certeyne other effects surrendered in the weste partes"; this includes the "superfluous plate" from the "Cathedral Churches of Exeter and Salisbury," the late abbaies or pryories of Torre, Buckfaste, Buckland Monachor, Plympton, Tavistocke, Hartland “and many more, the whole weighing, in gold plate wth. the stones and certeyn small perles cccciiij xiij oz, gilte plate broken and hole xvjm (16,000 ounces) parcell gilte broken and hole xvjm, white broken and hole xijm and vje iiij oz.” Perhaps what we most regret is the utter destruction of the books and manuscripts either burnt or sold for trifling sums to "grocers and soap-sellers," as when in the Scudamore accounts,1 "old books in the Choir are sold for 6d., "old books and a cofer in the library" 2s. 66 "The English monks," says Fuller, were bookish themselves and much inclined to hoard up monuments of learning"; this was certainly true of Tavistock, they had among other treasures, a life of St. Rumon (of whom so little is known) and a calendar from which William of Worcester quoted in 1478. The Cartulary of the Abbey which long after was in possession of Sir John Maynard must have been a very large and magnificent manuscript, judging from the fragments of its other manuscripts that survive, and the long quotation given by Sir William Dugdale. They had also the original Charter of King Ethelred. And what was perhaps most valuable of all, the original Charter for disafforesting Devon granted to the county by King John 18 May, 1203 (anno 5). This had always been preserved in the Abbey, probably because it was so near to the Moor, and also because of its early and long connection with the Stannaries. Its contents are now only known because Bishop Walter de Stapeldon, impressed by its great value, asked permission to have it copied into his register, where it still remains. It was sent up to London, where the Bishop then was, by the hand of Thomas Newbygyn, Clerk to the Abbot Robert Champeux (Campell) in 1320.3 The time (three months) that Tavistock Abbey remained 1 Add MSS., Brit. Mus. 2 Founder of Exeter College, Oxford. 3 Episcopal Register, Stapeldon, ed. by Preb. Hingeston Randolph, p. 139. in the King's hands was quite long enough to destroy the shrines, altars and tombs, to strip and entirely dismantle the interior of the Great Church, and the living places of the monks, the Cloister, Dorter (dormitory) and Frater (refectory), whose fittings, furniture, everything portable in fact, would be sold. These convent buildings clustered round the church; one walk of the cloister adjoined the nave, being sheltered by it and the south transept. From this went the night stair to the Dorter, situated above the East Walk of the Cloister. The Chapter House stood at the back of this East Walk; it was a fine building, circular or more probably polygonal, having six-and-thirty seats, wrought out in the wall, all arched overhead with curious hewn and carved stone.1 This was its usual place in a Benedictine house, as that of the frater was behind the South Walk that ran parallel with the church. This must have been its position at Tavistock; it communicated with the kitchen, which was of great size. In many abbeys there were two kitchens and sometimes a third for the Infirmary. The Abbot's lodging or house lay beyond; it included a great hall, a solar or chamber, and one or two bedrooms. Then there was the Infirmary, a large building or group of buildings, and a long range of storehouses, brewhouses, cellars, etc., surrounded by a high crenellated wall having three gates. After the furniture and internal fittings had been sold, the usual procedure was to sell the church bells, remove the lead from the roofs, and then destroy the "superfluous buildings. "In every case, as at St. Mary's, Winchester, the superfluous buildings were declared to be church, chapter house, dorter and frater, and those allowed to stand were the superior's lodging with offices."3 One of Crumwell's agents writes to him from Lincolnshire, where he was engaged in this work of destruction, that the walls were thick, and there were few to buy. "To pull them down," he says, will cost the King a good deal," and so it is best to get the bells and lead, "which will rise well"; and "this done,' to pull down the roof's battlements and stairs, and let the walls stand, and charge some with them as a quarry of stone to make sales of, as they that have need will fetch.4 66 1 Browne Willis, 1716. 2 Prince, 3 Henry VIII and the English Monasteries, Gasquet, p. 424. The Mayor and aldermen of Worcester purchased the friars' houses there to repair the walls, roads and bridges.1 At Canterbury one of the city gates needed repair in 1542–3. Nine loads of stone were obtained by the Mayor, etc., from the recently dissolved monastery of St. Augustine. Nothing was paid for the material, but a man received 13 d. for carriage and two labourers were paid for the destructive work, which lasted four days.2 The position of some of the conventual buildings has been indicated, but something may be said of the "Great Church," as it was generally called, with its Choir, where all the daily services of the monks took place. The nave in a monastery church was of far less importance, being only used for processions on Sundays and special occasions. The Choir thus was large, it had also an ambulatory and the Lady Chapel in the usual place at the east end. This is evident from William of Worcester's 3 measurements, who counts his steps beyond (not counting) the Chapel of Our Lady. The church contained, presumably, some early Norman work remaining from the second church, though its dedication in 1318 implies an almost complete rebuilding in the Early English style. This might be called the Third Church, but it was again repaired and probably altered in the fifteenth century in the Perpendicular style, when most of the conventual buildings that exist were built. 4 In 1420 Pope Martin V granted privileges "to penitents who visit and give alms for the repair and conservation of the Church founded in honour of St. Rumon the Confessor in the Benedictine monastery of Tauystochye" (Tavistock) "Exon dioc. and the Chapel of St. Mary the Virgin situate in the same Church.” The church had a fine bell tower or campanile containing six bells, whose size can be estimated from their weight when broken. Tradition places this tower at the west end of the church, where it is said to have stood until 1670, when its 1 R.O. Crumwell Correspondence, XII, 64. Hist. MSS. Comm. 9th Report, App., p. 153, City of Canterbury Records. 3 William Botoner, surnamed of Worcester, visited Tavistock in 1478, and sets down the measurements of its church. 4 Dated 4 July at Florence. 5 Rev. D. P. Alford, p. 119, quoting Browne Willis. materials were given to build a school-house, but at present no contemporary confirmation of this statement is known. The measures taken by William of Worcester in 1478 show the Church to have been very narrow in proportion to its length. The reason for this is difficult to understand. There is no mistake in the printed extracts; these have been kindly collated with the original by the Librarian of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge; but there may have been some error in copying the information furnished by the Tavistock notary, Thomas Peperell. One can but hope that further excavation may place the real dimensions, especially the width of the Abbey Church, beyond dispute. The size of the Cloister is more certain, for it was visible in 1716, and measured forty-five paces, or 135 feet in length. A few feet of its north wall is all that remains above ground to show what the Abbey once was. This piece of wall with the beautiful arch, which is considered to date from the middle of the thirteenth century, has been called for generations" Ordulf's Tomb," but it can hardly be that. The founder of the Abbey would be interred in a place of honour, in the Church or Chapter House, certainly not in the Cloister where the monks habitually sat. Recent excavations have proved this to be the walk of the Cloister next to the Church, where the Convent spent the hours of the day allotted to study and contemplation. The old saying as to theory and practice was corroborated emphatically by these excavations, for they definitely determined the site of the Great Church, and proved it to have been in quite a different position from that which had been assigned to it. Whether the buildings at Tavistock were destroyed by the King or his grantee, the procedure would be the same. On 4 July, little more than three months after its surrender, the Abbey and its lands with many other estates were granted to John Russell, knight, Baron Russell or Lord Russell,1 his wife Anne and their heirs male. The recital takes up more than four pages folio when printed. It was one of the grants "so great as to stagger credibility," which John Russell, who began life as a simple Dorset gentleman, received from Henry VIII and his successor, he managing to retain the favour of the capricious tyrant and his young son. The grant specifies "the house and site formerly the monastery and abbacy and the Church of the Blessed Mary Virgin and St. Rumon of Tavistock . . . now dissolved. And all the Church, bell-tower and cemetery of the aforesaid monastery with houses, edifices, granges, dovecots, mills, gardens, stables, etc." Whether any of the buildings had already been wrecked is not known; probably, the time being so short, most of them were still standing. The bells had been sold. Six great bells, weighing six thousand eight hundred pounds, are entered in the royal accounts as having been sold to John Servington, for 50li 108 6d.1 The Servingtons were an old Tavistock family, their arms with quarterings were in a window of the Parish Church near the Fitz monument in 1644.2 This John died before 26 November, 1576, " de bonis non." 3 The bells were no doubt broken, but the metal being valuable for making guns, etc., many men, especially London merchants, speculated in buying the broken bells. Whether the lead from the roofs was stripped off by the King's men or those of Lord Russell does not appear, but no time was usually lost in removing it and melting it down, for it was one of the most saleable effects of a monastery. "It was stripped from the roof of the finest church without hesitation, and melted at a fire made probably with the wood of the stalls, screenwork or rood."4 When Lewes Priory in Sussex was destroyed, men were brought from London, 17 persons, three carpenters, two smiths, two plumbers, and one that keepeth the furnace. Every one of them attendeth to his own office. Ten of them hewed the walls about, among which are three carpenters; these made props to underset where the others cut away; the others broke and cut the walls. These are men exercised much better than the men we find in the country. On Tuesday they began to cast the lead, and it shall be done with such diligence and saving as may be." 5 This removal of the lead left the buildings open to the sky, and so those of Tavistock remained for more than a hundred years." Lord Russell" with all the King's Council of Devon and Cornwall" was at Tavistock on 17 September, “and great appearance of suitors," he writes to Crumwell. 1 R.O. Ministers' accounts, 30-1 Henry VIII, 57,300. 2 Richard Symonds' Diary. 3 Act Book, P. C. C. Vivian. R.O. Crumwell Correspondence. 4 Gasquet, p. 419. |