Pershore Abbey

Pershore Abbey.

 

The two large flying buttresses were a later addition to prevent the collapse of the tower after the removal of the North transept. A smaller arch closer to us has remarkably remained intact. It is interesting to observe the little vertical slit windows in this view. Starting in the near corner of the South transept, we shall shortly climb the internal spiral staircase, follow an internal passage along the top of the West wall to the tower, and then climb to the top of the tower.

 

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Pershore Abbey.

 

 

ABBEY CHURCH OF HOLY CROSS WITH SAINT EDBURGHA, CHURCH WALK, PERSHORE, WORCESTERSHIRE

 

Heritage Category: Listed Building

 

Grade: I

 

List Entry Number: 1387027

 

National Grid Reference: SO 94785 45789

 

 

Details

 

SO 9445; 648-1/5/93

 

PERSHORE, CHURCH WALK (west side)

 

Abbey Church of Holy Cross with St Edburgha

 

(Formerly Listed as: Abbey Church of Holy Cross)

 

11/02/65

 

GV

 

I

 

Abbey, now parish church. Founded C7; present building C11-C13 with some later-medieval remodelling; some C17 buttressing following Dissolution; major restoration 1860s by Giles Gilbert Scott; further alterations early C20.

 

MATERIALS: mainly of limestone ashlar with parapeted plain tile, stone-tile and lead roofs.

 

PLAN: apse; chancel with choir aisles, N and S transepts and crossing tower; the nave demolished at Dissolution.

 

EXTERIOR: C19 apse has narrow lancets with continuous hoodmould; diagonal buttresses with offsets; corbel table; and steeply pitched roof. Chancel N aisle has moulded single-light windows; continuous hoodmould; plain corbel table; moulded plinth; offset buttresses which have moulded strings and crocketed pinnacles with geometric blind tracery and rise as flying buttresses extending to clerestory. N clerestory has single-light windows with deep moulded embrasures surmounted by continuous hoodmould; lombard frieze and embattled parapet; polygonal E end surmounted by crocketed pinnacles. NE chapel has coped gable with apex stone and Perpendicular tracery to its E window. S chancel aisle similar to N aisle with Perpendicular E, SE and S windows; clasping buttresses, some incorporating slender 3/4 round shafts; blocked pointed and moulded arch to former S transept chapel with clustered shaft piers and remains of springing to vaulting. South transept: mostly Romanesque. Its E wall has two further attached moulded pointed arches with blocked round-arched features; adjacent are three bays of C13 crocketed blind arcading of former sedilia and piscina, with quatrefoil mouldings; embattled parapet with lombard frieze incorporating grotesques. South transept S wall: chevron-moulded blind arcading to gable, interspersed with single round-headed lights; cable-moulded string course; remodelled triple lancet window; roofline of former monastic buildings visible; central pier and blocked doorway.

 

South transept W wall: similar lombard frieze; roofline of former nave S aisle visible, and blocked aisle round arch with adjacent 3-light Perpendicular window and lancets to corner stair turret. West wall has blocked round-headed crossing arch with relieving arch above; remains of nave and arcade walls have Romanesque piers with cushion capitals; heavily moulded former S doorway of six orders with stiff leaf capitals to E; inserted W window and door; the W wall all now heavily buttressed. North transept: remodelled and reinforced, but retains blocked round-headed arch to former N nave arcade.

 

Tower: of four stages, completed 1330; four octagonal pinnacles, embattled at base, surmounted by large crockets with weathervanes; ringing chamber has four windows to each side, of two lights with geometric tracery, each central pair louvred and flanked by blind outer windows; ballflower-moulded string course and parapet; third stage has embattled string course with ballflower mouldings at base and 2-light windows with trefoil-headed tracery; on W side, former nave roof-line is visible and small blocked round-arched window; on E, N and S sides, former chancel and transept roof-lines interrupt 2nd-stage windows; lancets to staircase corner turrets.

 

INTERIOR: comprises apse and former chancel of five bays, now used as church, and crossing with nave truncated at W arch. E apse, built C19 in Early English style on site of former Lady Chapel, is 5-sided with three narrow lancets to E end flanked by triple-arched blind arcades, all with narrow pointed moulded arches, stiff leaf capitals and detached shafts, some of Purbeck marble; vault has heavily-moulded ribs and central boss. Chancel: rebuilt following fire in 1223, has polygonal E end with pointed E arch of six orders with roll mouldings supported by stiff-leaf capitals above clustered piers of detached or 3/4 round shafts, some of Purbeck marble; similar, unmarbled, piers to chancel arcades; combined triforium and clerestory, rising above moulded string course, incorporate single pointed lights within triple pointed-arched arcades of tall clustered shafts with stiff-leaf capitals, blind at E end; tierceron vaults have ribs rising from stiff-leaf corbels and stiff-leaf bosses. Aisles: slender attached piers of clustered shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and quadripartite vaults with roll-moulded ribs; N aisle lancet windows are all moulded with shafts and stiff-leaf decoration. NE chapel: moulded piscina in S wall and trefoil-headed shallow niche on E wall; S aisle has mainly Perpendicular windows; SE chapel has medieval floor tiles and moulded piscina in S wall.

 

North transept: blocked Romanesque arch with moulded capitals to N choir aisle; above this, a later adapted opening, a blocked opening, and former roof-line; taller Romanesque arch with cushion capitals to former nave N aisle. South transept: mainly Romanesque; roll-moulded arch with cushion capitals to S choir aisle; wider arch to former E chapel, now blocked and with inserted later-medieval blind arcading of eight bays of cusped tracery surmounted by coving with leaf motifs; a deep, splayed, moulded round-arched window; blocked doorway above; remains of bead-moulded blind arcading, now shaftless, extends around SE and S walls; above is a Romanesque triforium arcade with heavy capitals rising from partly-moulded string course; similar clerestory arcade above with four pierced quatrefoils in S wall; round arch to SW staircase turret; blocked tall S nave aisle arch, as N aisle arch; cross-vault with moulded ribs and leaf bosses incorporating shields along ridge rib. Crossing has tall round arches with double 3/4 round shafts and some figurative, but mainly cushion, capitals; above, in tower, are 2 tiers of trefoil-headed arcading with heavily-moulded and partly-embattled string courses, part blind and part incorporating 2-light tower windows with trefoil heads, set back behind detached shafts; unusual bellcage erected 1864 by Gilbert Scott.

 

FITTINGS: Romanesque font at NW with seated figures under billet-moulded arcade; replaced lower pedestal and cover. Benefaction board to Henry Smith and others, 1626, on NE tower arch, has a painted inscription on painted boards within moulded wooden frame. C18 hatchment over N entrance, of painted canvas with motto Resurgam; further hatchments in SE transept with inscriptions Morses Omnibus Communis and In Coelo Quies.

 

MONUMENTS: freestanding effigies in S transept include: to E, an abbot, possibly William de Harvington or Abbot Hert, on tomb chest incorporating quatrefoils; to W, a cross-legged knight in chain mail, possibly Sir William de Harley, C13; on SW wall, painted Haselwood wall monument commemorates Thomas, d.1624, Elizabeth, and Sir Francis, and comprises one recumbent and 2 kneeling figures, a blank inscription panel within cartouche to rear, 3 free-standing piers supporting elaborately-carved arms, and chest with strapwork panels and scagliola decoration; further monument to Fulke and Dorothy Haselwood has 9 children in relief; other modest C18 and C19 wall monuments; in S transept, free-standing war memorial with cast bronze figure of Immortality by Alfred Drury; many ledger slabs in floor throughout. Parchment inspeximus of the Royal Privileges of the Abbey of Pershore, 1453, in metal case fixed to crossing S wall.

 

C19 wallpainting in medieval style to W wall of crossing; traces of medieval wallpainting on crossing piers. Section of late-medieval woodcarving incorporating inscription in NE transept; late-medieval wooden chest against W wall.

 

STAINED GLASS: includes windows by Clayton and Bell, Hardman and Co and Kempe.

 

(BoE: Pevsner N: Worcestershire: Harmondsworth: 1968-; Wilson M: Pershore Abbey: Much Wenlock: 1994-).

 

 

Listing NGR: SO9478845793

 

This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 27 October 2017.

 

 

Sources

 

Books and journals

Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (1968)

Wilson, M , Pershore Abbey, (1994)

 

Websites

 

War Memorials Online, accessed 27 October 2017 from www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/155580

 

War Memorials Register, accessed 27 October 2017 from www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/3141

 

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/138702...

 

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Heritage Category: Scheduled Monument

 

List Entry Number: 1005303

 

National Grid Reference: SO 94766 45750

 

 

Summary

Monastic buildings and associated buried archaeological remains 50m south-west of Abbey Church of the Holy Cross with St. Edburgha.

 

Reasons for Designation

Early monasteries were built to house communities of monks or nuns; sometimes houses were `mixed' and included both sexes. The main buildings provided facilities for worship, accommodation and subsistence. They included a series of timber halls and perhaps a stone church, all located within some form of enclosure. Benedictine monasticism had its roots in the rule written about AD 530 by St Benedict of Nursia for his own abbey at Monte Cassino. Benedict had not intended to establish an order of monasteries and wider adoption of his rule came only gradually. The first real attempt to form a Benedictine order came only in 1216. The Benedictine monks, who wore dark robes, came to be known as `black monks'. These dark robes distinguished them from Cistercian monks who became known as `white monks' on account of their light coloured robes. Over 150 Benedictine monasteries were founded in England. As members of a highly successful order many Benedictine houses became extremely wealthy and influential. Their wealth can frequently be seen in the scale and flamboyance of their buildings. Benedictine monasteries made a major contribution to many facets of medieval life and all examples exhibiting significant surviving archaeological remains are worthy of protection. Despite partial destruction, excavation, and the construction of road and path surfaces, the monastic buildings and associated buried archaeological remains survive comparatively well as buried features. The monument is of considerable interest with many differing features showing provision for worship and subsistence. The monument will include layers and deposits containing important archaeological information relating to its use and construction.

 

History

See Details.

 

Details

This record was the subject of a minor enhancement on 20 May 2015. This record has been generated from an "old county number" (OCN) scheduling record. These are monuments that were not reviewed under the Monuments Protection Programme and are some of our oldest designation records. As such they do not yet have the full descriptions of their modernised counterparts available. Please contact us if you would like further information.

 

This monument includes the monastic buildings of a Benedictine abbey situated on the eastern side of the River Avon at Pershore. The monument survives as the buried foundations of the cloisters, chapter house, southern transept, refectory and calefactory that were constructed of limestone from about 689 with many medieval additions.

 

The features of this monument are known only from archaeological excavations of 1929 and are represented by buried features within the constraint area.

 

The site was known as Pershore Abbey and was founded about 689 and refounded into the Benedictine order in 972. The first abbot was appointed in 984 and the abbey was dissolved in 1540.

 

Parts of the abbey church and further abbey features survive in listed buildings to the north-east of the monument, but are not currently included in the Schedule because they have not been formally assessed.

 

 

Sources

 

Books and journals

Pevsner, N, Brooks, A, The Buildings of England: Worcestershire, (2007)

 

Other

PastScape Monument No:- 118028

 

 

historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/100530...

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