Bells Cathedrals: A Short Account of Romsey Abbey | Page 3

ending of a church were found; now as it
is well known that this is a Norman form for the east end, it must not be
supposed that this apse was built in the time of Eadgar, but it very
probably occupied the same position as the choir of his church. Other
foundations were then looked for and found. And as a result of this
investigation, it appears that the nave of Eadgar's church extended as
far to the west as the fourth bay of the present nave, that its crossing lay
immediately to the west of the present transept, and that the apsidal
choir was as wide as the present nave, and extended eastward as far as
the screen now dividing the choir from the transept. Thus the total
interior length of the church was about 90 ft. instead of about 220 ft.,
the length of the present building. Although the church was
comparatively small, Eadgar made provision in the domestic buildings
for one hundred nuns, a number rarely exceeded in after days. Peter de
Langtoft, a canon of Bridlington who died early in the fourteenth
century, writing of Eadgar says:
Mikille he wirschiped God, and served our Lady; The Abbey of
Romege he feffed richely With rentes full gode and kirkes of pris, He
did ther in of Nunnes a hundreth ladies.
Eadgar's church, however, was not destined to last long. Early in the

year 1003, according to one of the few legends connected with the
abbey, the form of St. Ælflæd appeared during mass to the Abbess
Elwina, and warned her that the Danes were at hand, and would
plunder and destroy the abbey; whereupon she, not disobedient to the
heavenly vision, gathered her nuns together, and, collecting all the
treasures that could be carried away, sought safety at Winchester, and
there they abode until the danger was past; on their return they found
the abbey in ruins. The inroad of the Danes in this year, led by Swegen,
was undertaken as a retribution on the English for the cowardly and
barbarous massacre on St. Brice's Day, November 13th of the previous
year, in which Swegen's sister, in spite of the fact that she had
embraced Christianity, had been condemned to death by Æthelred.[2]
There is no record of the rebuilding of the abbey after this destruction,
but it could not have been long delayed, since we hear that in 1012
Æthelred's wife Ælfgyfu (who afterwards married Knut, and is known
under the name Emma) gave lands to the abbey, and shortly after Knut
came to the throne, we learn from a still existing list that, including two
who are marked as abbesses, there were fifty-four nuns at Romsey.[3]
[2] According to some accounts, the raid in which the abbey was
destroyed took place in 994, but the later date is more probable since it
is said that Swegen's son, Knut, who was born in 994, took part in it.
[3] This list shows us what were the names most in favour at the time.
Eight nuns bore the name of Ælfgyfu, six of Ælflæd, four of Eadgyth
(Edith), four of Eadgyfu, three of Wulflæd; besides these there were
two, each bearing the names of Æthelgyfu, Ælfgyth, Ælfhild, Byrhflæd,
Wulfthryth, Wulfrun. It is worthy of note that none of these, and only
one of the remaining seventeen nuns, namely, Godgyfu, had a scriptural
or Christian name. The old names common among their heathen
ancestors still survived, no less than ten being compounded of the word
Ælf, the modern Elf, or mountain spirit.
The church restored after the raid mentioned above probably remained
untouched until after the Conquest, when possibly the apsidal east end
was built. It would seem that about 1120 the present church was begun,
as usual from the east. As this church is so much larger than the earlier

one, it is quite possible that its outer walls were built without in any
way disturbing the eleventh century church within them, so that the
services could be conducted without interruption. The general character
of the work is late Norman. At this time a double eastern chapel
measuring about 21 ft. from east to west and 25 ft. from north to south,
as we know from excavations made by the late vicar, the Rev. Edward
Lyon Berthon, was built to the east of the choir. This was entered by
two arches, which may still be seen leading out of the ambulatory.
Traces of the position of two altars were found; the floor was lower
than that of the rest of the church.
[Illustration: THE NAVE, LOOKING WEST]
The three western bays were added in the thirteenth century, and at the
end of the same, or the beginning of the fourteenth, two windows with
plate tracery were inserted in