♫ Claire ♫
The Waltham Abbey Madonna
This mutilated Reigate-stone statue of the Virgin Mary is dated to about 1380. The Christ child would have sat on her right knee.
After the Dissolution of the monastery in 1540, Henry VIII remained a Catholic, so the mutilation of this statue is likely to have been during the reign of his protestant son, Edward VI.
The statue would have adorned either the Chapel of St Mary's Gild in the parish church of St Lawrence, or the Lady Chapel of the Augustinian monastery at Waltham Abbey.
The statue was carefully buried in a ditch on the north side of Sun Street, probably a pious act of the person who found it.
The Waltham Abbey Madonna
This mutilated Reigate-stone statue of the Virgin Mary is dated to about 1380. The Christ child would have sat on her right knee.
After the Dissolution of the monastery in 1540, Henry VIII remained a Catholic, so the mutilation of this statue is likely to have been during the reign of his protestant son, Edward VI.
The statue would have adorned either the Chapel of St Mary's Gild in the parish church of St Lawrence, or the Lady Chapel of the Augustinian monastery at Waltham Abbey.
The statue was carefully buried in a ditch on the north side of Sun Street, probably a pious act of the person who found it.