Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury: with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst Gloucestershire — John Shaqi
Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury: with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst GloucestershireMassé, H. J. L. J. (Henri Jean Louis Joseph)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury: with some Account of the Priory Church of Deerhurst Gloucestershire
The chapel (marked Vestry in the plan) has an upper chamber with two
commonplace modern windows in it, the mullions having been destroyed.
There is a massive buttress attached to the wall of this chapel, much
larger than any of the other exterior buttresses. It is quite hollow,
and is entered from the interior of the chapel, which is now used as
the clergy vestry.
The windows of the choir are elaborately decorated with a crocketed
gable.
The east end of the church[5] and the exterior of the chapels on the
north side of the church are in private gardens, which unfortunately
extend up to the very wall of the church, and prevent access.
The actual east end now consists of an arch which was formerly the
entrance to the destroyed Lady Chapel, of which nothing remains but
the modern masonry in the arch, now walled up, and containing a modern
window of three lights; and above this is the original west wall above
the vestibule of the Lady Chapel, with a restored window of four
lights.
The parapet of open work which runs round the summit of the apse is
another beautiful feature of the exterior of the eastern part of the
church. It seems to be formed of stalks from a thorn tree intertwining
in such a way as to form triangular openings. This parapet or coronet
is as much like lacework as it is possible for stonework to be, and
gives to the building a peculiarly delicate and subtle finish.
A very good exterior view of this east end can be obtained from the
battlement of St. Faith's Chapel. The pitch of the roof and the
character of the mouldings can thus be seen.
=The Lady Chapel.=--Nothing is left but the partly concealed mouldings
of the arch in the east wall of the ambulatory of the choir. On the
outside of the east end may be seen portions of the lofty
vaulting--just where it sprang from the walls--which would indicate
that the masonry was very beautiful and delicate work.
Much uncertainty exists as to the size of the Lady Chapel, though
traces of the foundations have been found for some distance to the
eastward of the present building. Unfortunately the ground in which
the foundations are hidden is private property, and the chance of a
thorough investigation of the site very remote. Traditionally, the
Lady Chapel is said to have been 100 feet long, or about a third of
the length of the building. There is no documentary evidence to
support this tradition, and in the absence of such confirmation Mr.
Blunt supposes that there was no large Lady Chapel,[6] but that a
chapel somewhat similar to those still surviving, and specifically
referred to as "Capella Beatæ Mariæ Ecclesiæ Conventualis," was
destroyed not long before the Dissolution for the purpose of making
room for a larger and more splendid chapel. This chapel, Mr. Blunt
adds, was never completed, the plans of the builders being upset by
the general dissolution of the monasteries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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