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 tower is considerably larger from east to west than from north to
south, and on the ground and second stories is divided into two
unequal parts, the eastern being the larger. The eastern division has
formed the usual porch of entrance from the fore-court, with an arch
eastwards towards the church, and two small doorways north and south
from the covered walks of the fore-court. These doorways were
destroyed in the thirteenth century, or later, when the walls were cut
away and pointed arches as wide as the chamber itself inserted. On the
west, an arch rather lower than that towards the church leads to the
western division, which was not the baptistery, but a sort of
vestibule to it. The baptistery itself stood, in the usual way, west
of the tower and in the midst of the fore-court. A doorway of the
thirteenth century now fills up the arch between it and the tower,
which gives us the latest date up to which it can have stood.
"Ascent to the upper part of the tower must have been by wooden stairs
or ladders in the western division. The western room on the second
story probably had no use except as a landing. It received only a
borrowed light from the baptistery, which equalled in height two
stories of the tower. The eastern room was entered by a door from the
other. It has windows on the north and south sides, and a triangular
opening towards the church on the east. In the same wall, towards the
north side, is the doorway which led to the gallery in the church, and
which, I think, is an insertion of the tenth century or later.
"The third stage is now divided, but was originally one room, and
that, as appears by the treatment of its details, an important one. I
have suggested that it may have been used as a night quire. On the
east is the very remarkable two-light window towards the church. There
are windows in the middle of the north and south walls, and close by
each is a round-headed recess very like those on the walls of the
crypt at Ripon, and, I believe, like them, intended to hold lights.
"In the west wall is a doorway now towards space, but originally
leading to an attic in the gable above the baptistery. This room
cannot have been very convenient, but the treatment of its door-case
marks it as one of some importance. Perhaps it was the abbot's room.
"Only part of the fourth stage remains, but enough to show that it was
a single room like the one below; and on the east side, where the wall
remains higher than elsewhere, is a doorway which led up one or two
steps into the space between the ceiling and the roof of the nave.
This seems to point to that loft having been used as the general
dormitory.
"The tower must have gone up at least one more story, where the bells
would hang, but that has all been replaced by later work.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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