Bells Cathedrals: A Short Account of Romsey Abbey | Page 4

the east wall, and two chapels measuring
forty feet from east to west took the place of the double Norman
chapels mentioned above.
It will be seen, then, that the church shows specimens of Norman, Early
English, and Decorated work, all of the best periods of the style, and
therefore it is a splendid example for the student of architecture. We
may be thankful that, with the exception of a few windows on the north
side there is no Perpendicular work. When we remember that the
wealth which flowed into the coffers of many cathedral and abbey
churches during the Middle Ages chiefly in the form of offerings from
pilgrims at wonder-working shrines, was often used in almost entirely
rebuilding, or, at any rate remodelling, the churches in the fifteenth
century, we may be surprised to find so little work of this period at
Romsey. Possibly it is due to the fact that it did not possess any such
shrine, and so did not attract pilgrims.
It is not improbable that Henry of Blois, the builder of the Church at St.
Cross, near Winchester, may have had something to do with designing
the Norman part of the church at Romsey. We know that Mary, the
daughter of his brother, King Stephen, was abbess from about 1155
until she broke her vows, left the Abbey, and married Matthew of
Alsace, son of the Count of Flanders, about 1161. Henry was Bishop of

Winchester from 1129 until 1171. What more likely, then, than that
Mary should consult her uncle, known to be a great builder, about the
erection of the large church at Romsey?
In the time of Juliana, who probably succeeded Mary, and was certainly
abbess for about thirty years before her death in 1199, the transitional
work in the clerestory of the nave was carried out.
[Illustration: JUNCTION OF NORMAN AND EARLY ENGLISH
WORK, ON THE NORTH SIDE OF THE NAVE]
In the next century the church was extended westward by the erection
of three bays and the west front with its three tall lancets and the small
cinquefoil window above the central one, all inclosed within a pointed
comprising arch. This work was done during the time when Henry III
was king; there are records of several gifts to the abbey of timber by
him from the royal forest. This was no doubt used in constructing the
roof of the westward extension of the nave and aisles. The next work
was the insertion of the two large east windows and the building of the
pair of Decorated chapels, one of which was dedicated to Our Lady,
and the other to St. Æthelflæd, or Ethelfleda, as her name was then
spelt. They were probably divided by an arcade, and stood until the
dissolution of the Abbey, when they were pulled down, being of no
further use in the church of the abbey which was purchased by the
people of Romsey and converted into a parish church.
[Illustration: VIEW FROM THE NORTH-WEST]
It has been said that little Perpendicular work is to be seen in Romsey
Abbey, but some did exist at one time. At Romsey, as at Sherborne,
there were disputes between the abbey and the town, though fortunately
at Romsey an amicable arrangement was arrived at. The north aisle of
the abbey church had been for many years set apart for the use of the
people of Romsey as a parish church, and was known by the name of St.
Laurence; in the year 1333 the abbess endowed a vicarage. As the town
increased in size the north aisle became too strait for the parishioners,
and at times of great festivals they used to encroach on the nuns' church.
This led to disputes, and the matter was referred to William of

Wykeham, the celebrated Bishop of Winchester, remodeller of his
cathedral church, and founder of Winchester School, and New College,
Oxford. He persuaded the nuns to give up the north arm of the crossing
to make a choir for a new parish church to be built adjoining the abbey
church, in such a way that the north aisle should be cut off by a wall
and included in the new church. The north aisle of the abbey church
thus became the south aisle of the parish church, the new building its
nave, and the north end of the transept of the abbey church the parish
chancel, the Norman apsidal chantry attached to the transept made a
fitting eastern termination to the chancel. A chantry of the
Confraternity of St. George, built on the north side of the new church,
took the place of a north aisle. This was separated from the nave by a
carved oak screen, part of which has been utilized in the construction of
the screen between the