evesham abbey bell tower

Evesham Abbey Bell TowerArchitectural and topographical findings

George Demidowicz

A prospect of Evesham Bell Tower (anon) c. 1795Yale Centre for British Art , New Haven, Connecticut, USA

from David Cox’s booklet, Evesham Abbey and Parish Churches (1980)

Canterbury Cathedral

1218-1229 great bell tower mentioned, started by Master Sortes (sacrist)

1291 bell tower collapses, both timber and lead

1319-20 William Stow, sacrist, builds a new bell tower

1379-1395 Abbott Roger Zatton, previously sacrist, contributes to the construction of a bell tower in stone

1520s to early 1530s Abbot Clement Lichfield builds the fourth? and present bell tower

Clement Lichfieldc.1473 birth

before 1497 entered Benedictine Order

1497 ordained a priest, whilst scholar at Oxford,

probably at Gloucester College

1500 admitted as Bachelor of Theology

1500-1503 sacrist? Evesham

1507 Doctor of Theology

1508-1509? sacrist? Evesham

1510?-1513 prior, Evesham

1513-1538 abbot of Evesham

1546 death

bell at St Nicholas Church Gloucester

anchor: symbol of St Clement, 3rd bishop of Rome

martyred AD 98

The bell tower was the culmination of Lichfield’s campaign to enhance the public

precinct/churchyard at Evesham

The West Porch, All Saints

Prince of Wales: three ostrich feathersCatherine of Aragon: pomegranates

1501 Arthur, Prince of Wales, betrothed to Catherine of Aragon1502 Arthur dies1503 Henry betrothed to Catherine1504 Henry created Prince of Wales1509 Henry marries Catherine shortly before crowned as Henry VIII

Porch therefore built between 1501-1509 Clement Lichfield, sacrist? 1500-1503

1508-?

J M W Turner’s grand tour of the Welsh Marches in the mid 1790s included Evesham

Lichfield’s Chapel, All Saints c.1509-10

Initials of Clement Lichfield Prior on a pendant in the chapel….more pomegranates, but now with a crownIn 1509, after his marriage to Catherine, Henry was crowned king and Catherine, queen, in a double coronation

Lichfield is buried in his chapelat All Saints in 1546

recorded by Thomas Dingley (1670-1680)

Lichfield’s Chapel, St Laurence, early 1520s?

Is this evidence of the ‘very great and curious walk’ still visible in the 17th century(Habington)

The fan vault, Lichfield’s Chapel, St Laurence

The east window, St Laurence, built at same time as chapel?early 1520s William Tindal’s History and A of A and B of E… 1794

The earliest image of the bell tower by Thomas Dingley (1670-1680)

EAB Barnard’s pioneering work on Clement Lichfield and the bell tower provided a date for its construction (c1524 – c.1532)

Transactions of WorcsArchaeological Society

1927-1928

1910

Undercrofts St Mary’s Priory Coventry

NE SE NW SW

St Mary’s Hall Gatehouse, Coventry (1390s-1420s)

Abbot Roger Zatton’s 3rd bell tower 1379-1395

The bell tower plinth

Lichfield’s Chapel, All Saints, plinth

Pensions awarded to Evesham monks 1540 (TNA)

Robert Vertue Senior’s will 1506

Robert Vertue Snrone of the King’s master masons from 1487-1506responsible for design of :Henry VII’s chapel at Westminster

with his brother, William Vertue (fl. 1501-1527)designed the new church at Bath Abbey and began work on the vaults of St George’s Chapel, Windsor (1502-1503)

William Vertue was involved in the design of :King’s College Chapel, CambridgeCorpus Christi College Oxford

William was regarded as one of the greatest of English architectsBoth brothers were masters of the fan vault and the chapels at Evesham bear a close resemblance to their work

Bath Abbey

Lichfield chapel, St Laurence

If Robert Vertue, Master of the Works at Evesham in 1540, was son of the Robert Vertue snr, then it is not surprising that he followed in his father’s footsteps, but probably trained by another great mason and designer, his uncle, William. His father died when he was still a young boy.

He was too young to have designed the west porch and chapel at All Saints, but was old enough to have been involved with the chapel and west window in St Laurence and the bell tower.

Having also received a calling as a monk, an abbey mason’s workshop was an ideal position to combine both vocations

Later in 1540 he was recorded as a chaplain at All Saints church and was last heard of as vicar of Wickhamford in 1563

In the turbulent years after the Dissolution there was little work for a designer of ecclesiastical and monastic buildings

30 June 1538 Inventory of ‘stuff and plate’ delivered by Philip Hawford, abbot of the monastery of Evesham to Clement, late abbot

Contents of seven rooms listed:Hall, Best Chamber, Second Chamber, Kitchen, Buttery and PantryHall: a folding bord, a benche, a forme, a Copbord, 6 cussyons, a chayar, a chafurn dyshe with a fote, a Chafurn to hete water yn, a peyre off andyrnes and a Carplet

Offenham abbey manor house

30 Oct 1541 lease to Philip Hobycertain buildings were reserved for CL

30 July 1542 grant to Philip Hobydescribed as Chamberer’s Chamber, kitchen, garden, little court, Tailor’s house or Apple House and a little orchard in the park….

Evesham Bible, Almonry Heritage Centre

‘6 belles in the tower’

1546-1547 one bell yet rem[ains] in the Clocke house at Evesham (TNA)

c.1553-1554

A document listing lead and bells in Worcestershire delivered by John Scudamore, late receiver of the late Court of Augmentations, to William Sheldon, late receiver of the same Court (TNA)

Bells1540s -1663 1 bell

1664-1740 6 bells

1741-1910 8 bells

1910-1951 10 bells

1951-1976 12 bells

1976-1992 13 bells

1992 - present day 14 bells

‘One of the finest rings in the country’

Chris Povey

Valentine Green 1776 possibly exhibited at Royal Academy

Society of Antiquaries now in Almonry Heritage Centre

Plan of Evesham 1820 1827 N Izod surveyor Edward Rudge’s, A Short Account of History and Antiquities of Evesham

Rudge Estate, The Crown Inn

1902 lease plan

‘ The Church of St Lawrence, Evesham, seen through the Arch of the Bell Tower’ by J.M.W. Turner c.1794

Turner (c.1794)

Drawing initialled ‘J. J.’ in bottom right hand corner [John Instan, one of Peter Prattinton’s illustrators] from the Prattinton Collection, Society of Antiquaries, London.

1820 map

Frontispiece drawn and engraved by John Coney in drawn by J.P. Neale after a sketch by [Dugdale’s] Monasticon Anglicanum: A New Edition George May, engraved by T.C. Varrall

1819 1833

‘The Abbot’s Tower, Evesham Worcestershire’ drawn by Charles Wickes, engraved by Day & Son 1859

Bell tower from the south-east by Henry W. Taunt, Oxfordshire History Centre 1875

bell tower from the north-east by Henry W. Taunt, NMR

1875

1878

The bell tower from the south-east, photograph by Henry W. Taunt (Oxfordshire History Centre) 1883

Postcard of the bell tower from the west c.1900

OS 1:2500 1886

OS 1:500 1886

evesham abbey bell tower

Art & Photos