VII.—Lacock Abbey, Wilts

Harold Brakspear

doi:10.1017/S0261340900011413

VII.—Lacock Abbey, Wilts

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011

Harold Brakspear

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The village of Lacock is about three miles south of Chippenham, near the river Avon, and formed part of the extensive possessions of the first Norman Earl of Salisbury, whose heiress, Ela, was married to William Longespee, natural son of Henry II., who in her right became possessed of all the titles and possessions of her wealthy house.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 57 , Issue 1 , 1900 , pp. 125 - 158

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261340900011413 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1900

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^{page 125 note a} MS. Vitellius A. VIII. ff. 129, etc. From such portions as can still be deciphered it appears that the transcripts made before the fire are fairly reliable.

^{page 126 note a} Bowles, and Nichols, , Annals and Antiquities of Lacock Abbey (London, 1835), appendix, iii. iv.Google Scholar

^{page 126 note b} Prima canonissa doubtless means a superior canoness and not the first of a number. It was probably always the intention of the foundress to enter the convent, and the post of abbess was unoccupied until such time as she might herself fill the office.

^{page 127 note a} P.R.O. Chantry Certificate No. 100, m. 2; vide The Wilts Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, xxviii. 310.

^{page 127 note b} Ibid. 315.

^{page 128 note a} These alterations are shown in a map dated 1764, belonging to Mr. Talbot.

^{page 128 note b} Most of these buildings were required in the new sixteenth century manor house, but as this monastic arrangement was doubtless inconvenient in situation, they were all rebuilt, and still exist round a large new court on the north side of the claustral buildings, forming one of the most interesting series of Tudor offices now extant.

^{page 129 note a} Lacook Cartulary, fol. 30 b.; see Bowles, and Nichols, , op. cit. appendix, xxii.Google Scholar

^{page 129 note b} Wiltshire. The Topographical Collections of John Aubrey (ed. Jackson, J. E., Devizes, 1862), 58.Google Scholar

^{page 130 note a} These consist of: in the first bay from the west, a large oriel window; in the second, a buttress, a small oriel, and a doorway on the ground level; of the next two bays all above the stringcourse has been destroyed to form a projection containing a large oriel; in the fifth bay, a large sixteenth-century window, altered into a sash window in the eighteenth century; and in the sixth bay, a small two-light window.

^{page 131 note a} S. and N. Buck's engravings, 1732.

^{page 131 note b} This passage had to be built up solid a few years ago to prevent any further settlement to this corner of the building, which showed signs of failure.

^{page 131 note c} The door was fastened with a draw bar on the inside, the slot hole for which is lined with wood.

^{page 131 note d} At the sister house of Burnham, in Bucks, where the dormitory stairs were arranged in a. similar position, there was never a night door to the church.

^{page 132 note a} The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, xvi. 350.

^{page 138 note a} The same arrangement of arches occurs across the transepts of the canons' church of Newark in Surrey, but formed part of the original design and were not insertions.

^{page 138 note b} In unblocking the east procession door there were found some small but very beautifully carved fragments of a monument of early fourteenth century work which may have belonged to this tomb.

^{page 134 note a} Jackson's Aubrey, 90.

^{page 134 note b} “Et solut. annuatim pro xliiij libris cere emptis pro manutencione xxv cerearum quolibet die per totum annum ardencium circa sepulturam domine Elie Longespe fundatricis monasterii de Lacok valoris cujuslibet ponderis communibus annis, vij d. Summa xxv s. viij d.” Valor Ecclesiasticus, ii. 117.

^{page 135 note a} The bracketed parts are now illegible and are filled in on the authority of Bowles and Nichols, op. cit. 5. There is a space at the end of the inscription that may have contained the date, but it is now obliterated.

^{page 136 note a} There is such a remarkable similarity of detail in cloisters of both the twelfth and thirteenth centuries as to lead to the supposition that they eminated from some central place. They are nearly always constructed in Purbeck marble, and considering the large number of abbeys being built at that period the demand at the quarries for this one sort of work must have been very great. To meet this demand it is almost certain the caps, bases, and columns were worked in large quantities and sent out in sets as the orders for the same were received. A parallel case is known to have existed in the fifteenth century with regard to alabaster images and carved panels. At first these were made at the quarries at Chellaston in Derbyshire, and later at Nottingham, by special “alablastermen,” in great quantities and sent thence to all parts of the country and even abroad.— Archaeologia, lii. 679–680.

^{page 137 note a} Although the style of the west bays and the rest of the south walk are so dissimilar, they were apparently built by the same masons, as the same marks occur on the stones in both sections of the work.

^{page 138 note a} Rites of Durham, (Surtees Society 15), 70, xli.

^{page 138 note b} There seems to have been a slight pause in the work, or possibly a change of masons, as no masons' marks occur on either this or the north alley.

^{page 138 note c} This is shown by the half-octagonal projection to carry the base of the vaulting shaft that remains under the seat.

^{page 138 note d} This has since been cut down and a doorway formed in its place.

^{page 140 note a} In the blocking of the chapter-house arches were some fragments of a monument of this description of fourteenth-century date, and as the wall in which they must have stood was exactly the same thickness (viz. 14 inches) as the division wall of these chapels, it is reasonable to suppose the fragments formed part of this monument.

^{page 141 note a} The windows removed by Ivory Talbot were square-headed two-light windows of the sixteenth century, and are shown in the engraving by S. and N. Buck, already referred to.

^{page 142 note a} I have to thank Mr. W. H. St. John Hope for pointing this out to me.

^{page 142 note b} These corner columns, as well as the responds under the cross arches, are completed down to the floor level and the bases chopped away. An alteration probably at the suppression, when the seats and platforms would be dispensed with on the conversion of this into a living room.

^{page 143 note a} At Waverley the stone pedestal on which the lectern stood is nearly 18 feet from the east wall and at Fountains 32 feet, but in these cases there was no central column, which at Lacock must have necessitated it being placed so far east.

^{page 143 note b} At Burnham the chapter-house has only one archway at the west end.

^{page 145 note a} At Burnham there was no structural passage through the eastern range to the infirmary, which occupied the same position as at Lacock, the only apparent access thereto from the cloisters being through the warming house.

^{page 145 note b} Shown on Buck's view already referred to.

^{page 147 note a} The Old English word “dorter,” meaning a sleeping place, occurs in the form of “dortore ” before the end of the thirteenth century. It is derived from the Old French dortoir, which in turn comes from the Latin dormitorium. See A New English Dictionary, iii. 607, s.v. Dortour, Dorter.

^{page 148 note a} As the head of this opening was above the level of the vaulting of the fifteenth-century cloister, the whole was refaced at that time by a smaller two-light window with cusped heads, protected with cross-bars but not glazed, and still retains traces of colour decoration.

^{page 148 note b} At Burnham the dorter was of one width throughout, the chapter-house alone projecting beyond the range and the projecting part being covered by a lean-to roof. At the small Cistercian house of Calder was a similar arrangement over the projecting part of the chapter-house as at Lacook, covered by a roof parallel to the dorter roof.

^{page 149 note a} At one time a transom has been inserted in this at half height but subsequently removed.

^{page 150 note a} The Old English word “frater,” meaning a dining-hall, is at least as old as the thirteenth century. It has nothing to do with frater, a brother; but is derived from the Old French fraitur, a shortened form of refreitor, which comes from the Middle Latin refectorium. See A New English Dictionary, iv. 515, s.v. Frater. The modern word “refectory ” was apparently never used before the suppression.

^{page 152 note a} Clark, J. W., The Observances in use at the Priory of Barnwell (Cambridge, 1897), 66.Google Scholar

^{page 154 note a} Valor Ecclesiasticus, ii. 115–118.

^{page 154 note b} The Wiltshire Archœological and Natural History Magazine, xxvi,.44.

^{page 155 note a} History from Marble (Camden Society 97), ii. ccccciii.

^{page 156 note a} History from Marble (Camden Society 97), ii. cccccv.

^{page 157 note a} These windows had rebates for shutters as well as grooves for glass.

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