Bells Cathedrals: A Short Account of Romsey Abbey | Page 2

the division of the river Test into a number of streams, which again
flow together to the south of the town, and at last, after a course of
about seven miles, empty themselves into Southampton Water. But
several derivations have been suggested for the first syllable of the
name. Some writers derive it from Rome, and regard Romsey as a
hybrid word taking the place of "Romana insula," the first word having
been shortened and the second translated into Old English, or Saxon as
some prefer to call it. Now it is true that there were several important
Roman stations in the neighbourhood: Sorbiodunum (Old Sarum),
Brige (Broughton), Venta Belgarum (Winchester), and Clausentum
(near Southampton), and in passing to and fro between these the
Roman legions must frequently have marched either through or near to
the site of Romsey. Roman coins found in the immediate
neighbourhood clearly show that the place was inhabited during the
Roman occupation. Another derivation is the Celtic word "Ruimne"
(marshy); this would make the name mean "Marshy island," and there
can be no doubt that this would be an apt description of the place in
olden times; against this may be alleged that again the word would be
hybrid. Yet another derivation which avoids this objection is the Old
English "Rûm" from whence we get "room" and if we adopt this
derivation Romsey, or Rumsey as it is still sometimes written and more

often pronounced, would mean the roomy or "Spacious Island." The
reader can form his own opinion as to which is the most probable of
these three suggestions. The writer is inclined to favour the third. But
the visitor who, arriving at the railway station either by the branch line
via Redbridge or by that which runs from Eastleigh, or from Salisbury,
or Andover, proceeds to the Abbey, would not realize when he arrived
at his destination that he was in an island, for the minor streams are not
spanned by bridges, but have been completely covered in and run
through small tunnels beneath some of the streets.
We have no records of Romsey before the original foundation of the
Abbey, nor indeed for many years afterwards. The first authentic
mention of the abbey is found in the chronicle of Florence of Worcester,
who died in 1118, and whose work, at least that part of it which deals
with English history, is a Latin translation of the Old English Chronicle.
He writes "In anno 967. Rex Anglorum pacificus Edgarus in
monasterio Rumesige, quod avus suus Rex Anglorum Eadwardus
senior construxerat, sanctimoniales collocavit, sanctamque
Marewynnam super eas Abbatismam constituit."[1]
[1] In the year 967, Eadgar the Peaceable, King of the English, placed
nuns in the monastery which his grandfather, Eadward the Elder, King
of the English, had built, and appointed St. Meriwenna abbess over
them.
This Eadward, also surnamed the Unconquered, was the son and
successor of the greatest of the Old English Kings, Ælfred, and reigned
from 901 to 925. Sometime during his reign he founded the Romsey
nunnery. There is no documentary evidence to fix the exact date, but it
is generally assumed to have been 907. It is said that about two
centuries earlier there had been a monastery at Nursling nearer the
mouth of the Test, and on the tideway of the river. It was here that the
great missionary to the Germans Winfrid or St. Boniface had been
trained, but it was within reach of the ships of the Danish pirates, and in
716 they had ravaged it and reduced it to such utter ruin that scarcely
one stone remained on another to mark the site. This monastery was
never rebuilt, and Eadward, probably having its fate in mind, now

chose a safer position for the new foundation, for the river at Romsey
was too shallow to allow of the seagoing vessels of the marauding
Danes to reach it. Eadward's eldest daughter Ælflæd and her sister
Æthelhild both adopted the religious life, and lived for a time at the
monastery at Wilton. Here Æthelhild was buried, while Ælflæd was
buried at Romsey. Their half-sister St. Eadburh became abbess of St.
Mary's Abbey at Winchester; and it is highly probable that Ælflæd
ruled as abbess over the sister establishment at Romsey. Probably this
was only a small religious community. Whether it was continued or not
when she died no record remains to tell, but, as we have seen, it was
refounded by Eadgar the Peaceable in 967, and on Christmas day of the
year 974 St. Meriwenna was put in charge of the completed Abbey,
which was constituted according to the Benedictine Rule. Some traces
of this church still remain, though only discovered in 1900. Under the
pavement of the present church, immediately below the tower, the
foundations of an apsidal east