Tewkesbury’s Star Turn

by Andrea Preston

Andrea Preston, a Stonewater customer, returns with some another cracking piece on her community. If you missed her last article on her love of llamas, check it out here.

Before I moved to Tewkesbury in 2021 I knew the town quite well. When I started work and bought a car in the late 70s I spent hours travelling round the Midlands looking at cathedrals, churches and abbeys. Some abbey sites were just ruins but when I came to Tewkesbury I found a complete building … and what a building! My favourite period of history is after the Norman conquest in 1066. I loved the Normans’ skills with stone and here it was in spades. I sold the car but I kept coming, using trains and buses. I came to learn about the history and to take photographs, little knowing I would end up living here.

I am fond of Tewkesbury Abbey for many reasons – the beauty of its stonework and setting, its fascinating history and the many musical events it hosts. I often drop in just to look and admire and enjoy. Let me share this special place with you.

Robert Fitzhamon was given the manor of Tewkesbury by William II, son of the Conqueror, in 1087. He founded the abbey, probably on a site which was already built on.

The Normans had a habit of pulling down Saxon churches and abbeys to build something bigger (though not necessarily better – they were not good with foundations and a lot of their towers fell down.) Tewkesbury already had a church, founded between the 7th and 11th centuries, but without written records it is imposssible to be sure if this is what happened here. A wall under the south side of the abbey, discovered in the 70s, proves that something existed so maybe this was the church. Tewkesbury Abbey seems to have been well-built; certainly the tower shows no signs of collapsing.

The Normans loved round arches and at the time this was the accepted style; pointed arches came later. They particularly loved big doorways with lots of carving, especially zig-zag design. When taken to extremes, walking through one of their doors can feel like being eaten by a beast with big teeth.

Fitzhamon was wealthy and rich people liked to found large buildings. The abbey was started in 1087. By 1102 it was big enough to be lived in and a company of Benedictine monks moved in from Cranborne in Dorset. The east end was six-sided with a processional way through it; this meant pilgrims could walk round the area without disturbing the monks who would be worshipping in their own area, the chancel. There is evidence that at first a stone wall separated the monks from the lay people. It was removed, possibly in the 16th century. The rounded east end was later rebuilt into a four-sided Lady Chapel which was itself demolished in 1543. The foundations can be seen in the grass outside the abbey’s east end.

Foundations of Lady Chapel

A steeple topped the tower but this blew down in a gale in 1554, leaving us with the handsome – and original Norman – tower, one of the finest in the country. Maybe that gale did us all a favour.

Tower

With only candles to light the place, fire was a constant threat. A large and damaging blaze in 1178 left red marks on some of the huge, round pillars in the nave, marks which can still be seen.

Life in a monastery sounds harsh but as medieval lives went, it wasn’t a bad one. In return for getting up in the middle of the night – twice – for services, routine and not a lot of freedom a monk received a home, food, clothing, the chance to learn a skill such as creating the beautiful and colourful books that still exist in some museums and cathedrals, care when he was sick and a quiet and gentle old age. It doesn’t sound too bad a deal to me.

Although the abbey remains pretty much as it was built, some remodelling work was carried out. Larger windows were fitted in the 14th century and one of the principal, and most popular, monuments was created - the ‘kneeling knight’ which sits on top of the chapel and tomb of Edward Despencer, Lord of the Manor of Tewkesbury until his death in 1375. Part of the pleasure of visiting the abbey is searching for him – he isn’t easy to find but most visitors seem to enjoy the hunt.

The kneeling knight, Edward Despencer

The Battle of Tewkesbury in May 1471, the final act of the Wars of the Roses which put the Yorkists on the throne, raged across a huge area including the meadows nearby. Some of the nobles were buried in the abbey, including Edward Prince of Wales the son of the blighted Henry VI. Most of the common soldiers’ bodies were thrown into a communal burial pit.

Henry VIII virtually ended monastic life in England. Peeved because the Pope would not allow him to divorce Catherine of Aragon who had given him a daughter but no son, he broke away from the Catholic church and appointed himself head of the Church of England. He had long had his eye on the revenues from monasteries. Now he sent in a team of commisioners to investigate the smaller places – those with an annual income of less than £200. When the amount of money this yielded didn’t satisfy Henry he told his men to deal with the rest. As one of the larger abbeys Tewkesbury was one of the last to be closed, in January 1540. Some monks received pensions, others took up work such as becoming priests. Some would have joined as novices when they were children and had known no other life. It must have been unsettling for them.

Tewkesbury could have ended up like so many abbeys – ruins such as Hailes near Winchcombe, or given to the king’s favourites as homes, but instead it was bought for £453. By June 1543 it belonged to the people of Tewkesbury. Not much has changed since then. Monuments have been added, mainly along the walls, a new pulpit introduced, the floor re-tiled and two organs installed. Now the skills of modern architects and masons keep it in good repair. In the autumn of 2023 a complete electrical re-wire was carried out and finished in time for the Christmas services.

The abbey belongs to us. It’s where local weddings and funerals take place. Visitors come to admire. They buy gifts in the shop, they stop for refuel in the adjoining tea rooms and the profits of both go towards the care of the building. Many give generously, using the donation points or lighting candles and feeding coins into a nearby metal box. A collection is taken at services which are mainly attended by local people. We keep the place going because we love it. Thanks to this love-inspired generosity Tewkesbury Abbey should be standing proud for many more generations.