The Remains of Coggeshall Abbey (3)
By G F
Beaumont, F.S.A.
An extract from Transactions ‘n.s.’ Volume 15 part 1. This volume is available exclusively to
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The Church of St Mary
Of
this nothing now remains above ground, but
in any very dry summer the foundation lines of what must have been a very fine structure are clearly visible. Most
of the foundations
have been removed but fragments remain in
places.
The
south wall of the church was 80 feet from the north
wall of the Abbey house.
In
the August number of the Coggeshall Parish Magazine for
1871, the late Rev. W. J. Dampier
contributed the following
note, accompanied by a plan:- “The long drought had thrown up on the surface of the great field, near the abbey,
the plan of the cruciform abbey
church in parched-up grass on the foundation lines, so distinctly that the measurements of the several parts were easily taken, and were stepped
this day by me in the presence of
the Rev. R. Joynes, who put them down as above. - W. J. Dampier, June 29th;
1865. Width
of foundation walls, about 5 feet.” The plan gives the following measurements - Width of nave, chancel and
transepts, 24 feet; length
of chancel, 34 feet, transept 24
feet, nave 141
feet, making 199 feet; and
a lady chapel at the east of the
chancel is suggested in dotted line, and the measurements given are 24 feet as the width and 31 feet as the length. If the
measurement
of the chapel could be substantiated, the total length of the building
was 223 feet. The size of the church corresponded
in width, with that of the first church of Waverley abbey.[1] In length it seems to have exceeded Waverley and to have considerably
exceeded the present fine parish church of
Coggeshall without including the
lady chapel.
Our
honorary member, Sir Wm. St.
John Hope, commenced excavations on the site of the church in 1914, but, owing
to the war, they had to be abandoned. It is much to be desired
that the work may be resumed by him or some other learned antiquary at a future date,
and it is hoped that the foregoing
notes may then prove of some service.
That there should be practically nothing to record concerning this magnificent building; beyond its beginning and its ending, is strange indeed. Of its beginning, Ralph de Coggeshall,[2]
under date 1167, says: "At
Coggeshall the high altar was dedicated in honour of the glorious Virgin Mary and Saint John the
Baptist, on the day of the assumption
of the blessed Mary, by the Venerable Gilbert Foliot, bishop
of London, who on the same day on that
altar solemnly celebrated
Mass, Simon de
Toni being abbot of that place, "and of its ending, as we have seen, "the
church is clene prostrate and
defaced," a work which
was effected between the years
1538 and 1541.
Holman,[3] who wrote
about 200 years ago, says that there was a tradition
that the bells of the abbey church, after it was pulled down, were carried to Kelvedon. It seems, however, from
the grant to Seymour, that there
was only one bell, the reference in
this respect being in these words: "the whole church, bell and
churchyard." This is
consistent with the original rules of
the Cistercian Order, which prohibited high
towers and enjoined the use of only one or, at most, two bells.[4]
That there was a chapel
of St. Katherine the Virgin in St. Mary's church we know from
the will of John Newman,[5]
made on the 16th October, 1464, he being then chaplain of the chapel of Pattiswick. "My body
(he says) to be buried in
the church of the blessed Mary of Coggeshall, on the north side, over against
the chapel of St. Katherine the Virgin."
Sir
Humphrey Bohun, kt.,[6] by his will
dated 2nd November, 1468, desired to be buried "in the chapel
of the Blessed Mary of the abbey of Coggeshall, next to the faciem of the said church, if
I die in Essex."
Stephen Queram,[7] of Little
Coggeshall, who made his
will 22nd July, 1508, desired to be buried in the church of 'Coxsall' Abbey, before St. Anthony, and he gave "to the Rode Awter [rood altar] of Coxsall Abbey a chalice price 40s.
The
Colloquitory
The
Colloquitory or Locutory was evidently what is called on the plans
of several monasteries the monk's warming room, and was their common
room or parlour. In some cases
it formed part of the buildings which
surrounded the cloister court,
and in other cases it was quite apart from those buildings. It was generally in or near
the south-eastern corner of the cloister
court, and adjoined
the chapter house. This building appears to
have been standing in 1603, and
its
position was immediately in front or on the
western side of the Abbey
house, as appears from the description of the little
garden which
was said to lie next the Colloquitory on the west side and
the mansion on the east
side. As the building does not appear
in the deed of 1647, we may conclude
that it had been demolished in the meantime.
The Little Chamber or House called the Gatehouse
This was probably
not the principal gatehouse, which it is surmised was in
the Abbey lane, but a minor
entrance, on the eastern side of the precincts, by
the bridge over the old river, as it is stated to be situate between
the abbot's
stable and the bakehouse garden,
and reference is made later
in the same document to
the bakehouse
meadow, lying next the
bakehouse of the abbot and convent, and the meadow is alluded
to in conjunction with land called Samuels, and as Samuels was
in Feering
parish and held of Feering manor,
there can be but little doubt
that the bakehouse of the monastery
and the abbot's stables were situate near the bridge
referred to, and thus
situate the
bakehouse was conveniently near
the watermill of the abbey.
There seems to have been another gatehouse near the top of the Grange hill: it is referred to in the
grant to Ralph Wolley and Thos. Dodd, on 25th October, 1604,[8] of the Dairy House, at the Home Grange, then in the possession of John
Cowell, which comprised "the Shepenhouse next the Gatehouse on the King's highway on the part
of the north."
[1] Waverley Abbey, by H
Brakspear, p.18
[2] Chronicum Anglicorum,
Stephenson’s edit., p.16
[3] MS in Colchester
Museum
[4] Brit. Arch. Journal,
vol xli (1885) p. 369
[5] P.C.C.: 6,Godyn
[6] P.C.C.: 27,Godyn
[7] Colchester
Archdeaconry: 142, Clarke
[8] Duchy of Lanc. Misc. Books, No. 85, fols. 358-363.
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