WALTHAM ABBEY is no more than a fragment of what it was: a Norman nave, a
C14 chapel, a C14 W wall, and a C16 W tower.At the E end at least two
thirds of the building have gone, and nearly all the monastic buildings
have gone. The abbey was founded in 1030 as a collegiate church of
secular canons. It was built or rebuilt with some pomp by Harold and
consecrated in 1060. We have no date after that, until we come to 1177,
the re-foundation as an abbey of Augustinian Canons In 1184 it was given
the dignity of a ‘mitred abbey’, and it soon became one of the most
prosperous and important abbeys e in the country. It is teasing for the
historian that for the main part of the surviving building no dates
exist to guide him. In addition, until 1938, no guidance existed either
as to the extent and character of the work which followed the
re-foundation of 1177. The extent is now known, though not yet the
character. The one is due to excavations carried out in 1938-9, the
other to their limited scope. The Early English abbey meant the addition
to the Norman nave and crossing of a whole church, that is a choir
longer than the Norman nave, an E transept bigger than the Norman
transept and a long and large retrochoir. It must have dwarfed the
Norman parts completely, and may have looked something like Canterbury
Cathedral before the nave was rebuilt in the C14. But we do not know the
style of 1177 etc. at Waltham. The E parts of the abbey were pulled
down after the Dissolution.
The Norman crossing which had been
left standing in 1177 was then also pulled down. So all that survives of
Norman architecture is nave and aisles, a nave, no more than seven bays
long. It seems, except for C14 adjustments at the W end and C19
adjustments at the E end, to be all of a piece, but reveals to the
attentive observer many puzzling irregularities. The present E wall is
an infilling of the CI9 across the W arch of the crossing and the aisle
arches into the transepts. This is clearly visible from the outside,
where also one S transept W window can be noticed, which now leads into
the C14 chapel (see below). Below it is exposed coarse rubble masonry,
laid herringbone-wise.
The exterior of the nave is simple: aisle
windows with nook-shafts, circular gallery windows, and clerestory
windows with nook-shafts and some zigzag decoration - all much renewed.
The Norman S doorway of two orders, with an upcurved lintel and zigzag
in the arches is in its surface, it seems, wholly C19. The inside is
much more impressive. It has something of the sturdy force of Durham
Cathedral, though neither its size nor its proportions. The system of
elevation which applies throughout is that of nearly all major
Anglo-Norman churches: arcade-gallery-clerestory. It is baffling, though
only for a moment, that the gallery is deprived of its floor so that the
aisles are now much higher than they were meant to appear. The arcades
have supports alternating between superordinate composite piers, and
subordinate round ones. The gallery openings are large and
un-subdivided. The clerestory has the usual English arrangement of a
wall-passage and, towards the nave, an arcade of three arches for each
bay, with the middle arch wider and taller.
In detail the most
striking of all features of Waltham is the deeply grooved circular piers
- a detail familiar from Durham, and also from Norwich, nearer Waltham.
These piers are spiral-grooved in the first circular pair from the E,
zigzag grooved in the second, and left plain in the third. The composite
piers have a buttress-like broad flat projection to the nave with a
demi-shaft attached, and this projection with its shaft runs up to the
ceiling without any break. The capitals are big and heavy, single- or
double-scalloped. Above the first circular pier from the E they project a
little more boldly than above the others. These first circular piers
have also different bases, and the E respond (as also the E arch of the S
aisle), is different in one detail from the W responds. Of the four
capitals of the three respond shafts, the middle one is a little deeper
on the E side. In the arches a difference of a similar nature can be
detected. The arches have all zigzag ornamentation on the faces, but in
the E ones the inner zigzag goes fairly deeply into the soffits as well -
again a sign of a bolder, more three-dimensional treatment. It finds its
parallel in the W crossing arch high up.* Again, looking at the arcade
from the aisles, it will be noticed that in the W parts each pier,
including the subordinate circular ones, has attached demi-shafts,
introduced no doubt to carry transverse arches on which to support
groined vaults or simply the gallery floors. Only the eastern-most
circular pier has no such attachment. Finally, looking at the same pier
once more from the nave, a small corbel-head will be noticed, on the N
as well as the S side, immediately above the column, as if to support a
wall-shaft, never built. The wall-shafts start only at gallery level, as
they do in the W parts as well.
Now for the gallery. Here the E
bay piers have three shafts towards the arch openings, the W bays only
two. The existence of these shafts incidentally indicates that the
gallery openings were originally subdivided or meant to be subdivided.
In the W the arches themselves have billet-decorated hood-moulds; in the
E these are absent. Another distinction on the level of the gallery
refers to S as against N. The corbels on which the wall-shafts between
the arches rest are plain on the S side, but carved into heads on the N.
Perhaps that shows no more than that carving of such details, where it
was done, was done aprés la pose.
In the clerestory there are
even more differences. The W bays on the N side have round piers between
the arches and a plain moulding of the stilted centre-arches in each
group of three. The capitals are scalloped with a little decoration
between the scallops. On the S side the piers are quatrefoil in plan,
and the middle arches stand on a short second tier of shafts. The arches
themselves have roll-mouldings. The N and S E bays however have an
alternation of circular and octagonal piers and on both sides the
subsidiary shafts and roll-mouldings. .
Now what does all this
minor evidence indicate of the building history of the Norman nave?
Taken together it can mean only one thing: that the E double bay was
built later than the bays further W. That is surprising, because of the
familiar fact that medieval churches were built from the E to the W. It
is however quite conceivable that Harold’s chancel of 1060 was allowed
to remain, when a new nave was begun and that only in the course of
building the decision was taken to renew the E parts as well. As for
dates, the earliest grooved columns seem to be those at Durham of c.
1095-1100. Those at Norwich are datable before 1119. The plain, heavy
ground-floor capitals at Waltham Abbey look more C11 than C12. But the
arches have zigzag decoration from the beginning, and zigzag does not
occur anywhere in England before c. 1105-10. So that date may mark the
beginning of the W parts including their gallery. The clerestory was
then erected on the N side, then that on the S, and then finally the E
bays were tackled and erected including their clerestory and the arches
to the crossing and transept. They may well belong to the mid C12 or
even a little later.
Of the C13 - this has been said with regret
before - nothing can be seen and little said, before excavations have
been resumed and concluded.
The early C14 added a S chapel, W of
the W transept. It is now the Lady Chapel. Externally it has flint and
stone bands, a very unusual W window, of three times two-lights, with a
straight head and Dec tracery, three fine three-light S windows, also
with Dec tracery and buttresses between them enriched with recesses. The
chapel itself stands on a vaulted undercroft of two bays with chamfered
ribs and small windows decorated by head-stops. The chapel is not
vaulted. Inside the W window is a delightful detached three-light arcade
with pierced spandrels. Also early in the C14 the W end of the church
was rebuilt. To this rebuilding belong the westernmost windows of the
aisles with the pretty niches against the W buttresses, the arches
replacing the arches of the Norman gallery inside towards the W end, the
last bay on the S side of the clerestory and the W front. The remains
of this are now only visible inside the tower. The portal is single. It
is deep enough to allow for a very shallow vault which is carried on
four columns. The outer columns are a normal order of portal columns,
the inner are placed on diagonal seats which form the sides of the
little vaulted portal niche. The jambs and arch of the doorway are
decorated with fleurons. Above the doorway is a gable and in the spandrel
a circle with a quatrefoils placed. To the l. and r. of the doorway are
the beginnings of blank shafted niches as they were so usual in English
church fronts. The outer W portal of the tower is of the same date and
apparently re-used. It has three orders of columns with foliated
capitals and fleurons in the arches, all very defaced. In date all this
work seems a little earlier than the S chapel, as ogee arches do not
appear anywhere.
The W tower was added after the Dissolution in
1556-8, as a characteristic sign of the change-over from monastic to
parochial.+ It has irregular flint and stone chequer-work below, and
ashlar facing in the often restored upper parts. The stones were taken,
it is said, from the crossing tower which had collapsed in 1552. The
buttresses are placed diagonally and carry square pinnacles also in a
diagonal position. Each side has two two-light bell-openings. The E wall
was re-modelled by W. Burges in 1859-60 with all the robust ugliness
which that architect liked. Extremely short columns with thick
shaft-rings and thick crocket capitals, plenty of carved figure work and a
big wheel window above - astoundingly loud after the silent severity of
the nave.
FONT. Of Purbeck marble, octagonal, C12 or C13,
absolutely plain. - PULPIT. Good, mid C17. At the angles tapering
pilasters, in the panels elaborate frames crowned by open segmental
pediments. This pulpit is now kept in the S chapel. The new pulpit was
designed by Burges and made in 1876. - SCREEN, at W end of N aisle. The
heavy construction and the simple tracery indicate a C14 date. -
REREDOS. With four big carved reliefs. Designed by Burges. - SCULPTURE.
Exceedingly fine small early C14 figure from a former reredos, at the E
end of the S aisle. - PAINTING. On the E wall of the Lady Chapel. Doom;
CI4, very faded. - Ceiling of the nave, in the style of the original
work at Peterborough; by Sir Edward Poynter. - STAINED GLASS. The E
window by Burne-Jones, 1861, and made by Powell’s, in its vigorously
stylized composition and figure design and its glow of colour amongst the
best glass done in the C19, much bolder than most Morris & Co.
glass and much richer in the scale of colours used. Almost as remarkable
and as daring the E window of the S aisle by Henry Holiday, 1864. - The
recent glass by A. K. Nicholson looks very anaemic in comparison. -
PILLORY and WHIPPING POST now kept in the S chapel. - PLATE. Paten on
foot of 1561, with bands of ornament; large Cup of 1633; large Paten on
foot of 1674. -
MONUMENTS.- BRASSES with wood and stone surrounds of
1555 and 1576 (S aisle). - Sir Edward Denny d. 1599 and wife. Standing
wall monument. Two semi-reclining effigies, the man behind and a little
above the woman. Shallow coffered arch and flanking columns. In the
spandrels figures of Fame and Time. Strapwork cartouche against the back
wall. By Isaac James and Bartholomew Adye (Mrs Esdaile). - Lady Gray d.
1619. The stiff figure only is preserved. - Capt. Robert Smith d. 1697.
Tomb-chest with a relief of trophies and a ship, called Industria. To
the l. and r. arms and cherubs’ head used instead of volutes. - James
and Hester Spilman d. 1763. Fine monument with the usual cherub standing
by a sarcophagus against a grey obelisk. Two portrait heads in profile
at the foot. - Caroline Chinnery d. 1812. Plain, elegantly shaped urn on
a pillar. On the urn in good lettering the one word Caroline. - Thomas
Leverton (the architect) d. 1824. By Kendrick. The usual design with a
woman weeping over an urn.
The Cloister of the monastery lay N of
the long E.E. choir. All that remains of it is a PASSAGE which led N
from the NE angle of the cloister. It is of two bays, rib-vaulted on
shafts with waterleaf capitals, and must belong to the late C12. In
addition the Abbey GATEHOUSE survives, N of the W front of the church.
This is of the later C14 and has to the outside a wide entrance for
carriages and a small one for pedestrians. The large one has angels as
label-stops. Of the angle turrets only one is preserved. The S wall
should be examined with care, as it seems to have brickwork contemporary
with the building, that is of exceptionally early date. The BRIDGE
leading to the gatehouse is also attributed to the C14.
*
Another parallel is in the exterior in the clerestory windows, where the
E. bays have windows starting lower down, and zigzag etc. going into
the arch soffits.
+ Another parochial feature introduced at an unknown
date is the rood-beam, the sawn-off ends of which can still be seen
above the second piers from the E.
Thursday 23 May 2013
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