Bells Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury | Page 7

of Tewkesbury, and had not been available for divine
service for a month, was cleansed with special ceremony by the Bishop
of Down and Connor, who was acting as suffragan to the Bishop of
Worcester and reconsecrated.
At the Dissolution the whole establishment, which, from the lists of
what was to be kept and what was to be destroyed, was of considerable
size, was seized by the King's Commissioners. The houses and
buildings assigned to remain "undefaced" were "The lodging called the
New Warke, leading from the gate to the late Abbot's lodging, with
buttery, pantry, cellar, kitching, larder, and pastry thereto adjoining; the
late Abbot's lodging; the hostery; the great gate entering into the court,
with the lodging over the same; the Abbot's stable, bakehouse,

brewhouse and slaughter-house, the almery, barn, dairy-house; the
great barn next Avon; the malting-house with the garners in the same,
the ox-house in the Barton, the Barton-gate and the lodging over the
same." At the same time "the Church, with chapels, cloisters, chapter
house, misericord; the two dormitories, infirmary with chapels and
lodgings within the same; the workhouse, with another house adjoining
to the same; the convent kitchen; the library; the old hostery; the
chamberer's lodgings; the new hall; the old parlour adjoining to the
Abbot's lodging; the cellarer's lodging; the poulter house: the gardner;
the almary, and all other houses and lodgings not otherwise reserved,"
were "deemed to be superfluous" and were committed to the custody of
Sir John Whittington.
The eight bells in the tower were estimated at 146 cwt., and were
ordered to be melted down, as was also the lead upon the roofs of the
choir, the aisles and the chapels annexed, the cloister, chapter house,
frater, St. Michael's Chapel, halls, farmery and gatehouse. The weight
of lead was estimated at 180 fodders, i.e., about 190 tons.
The jewels naturally were specially reserved to the use of the King's
Majesty, and the two mitres garnished with gilt, rugged pearls, and
counterfeit stones, and 1,431 ounces of silver and silver-gilt plate were,
together with the vestments, ornaments, and everything else of value,
taken away.
The public-spirited inhabitants of Tewkesbury, however, meant to
preserve their cherished Abbey from destruction if they could compass
it, and after petitioning their "most dread victorious sovereign lord,"
succeeded in doing so for a consideration, viz., the sum of £453. This
sum was arrived at by roughly valuing the lead on the roofs at 5d. a
square foot, and the bells at something like 2-½d. per lb. They had to
pay £200 down, £100 the ensuing Easter, and the balance, £153, at
Christmas. It was further stipulated that the said parishioners should
"bear and find the reparations of the said church perpetually."
The word "church" in this connection seems to be limited to mean that
part of the building other than the nave. The nave seems to have been
looked upon as belonging, as was the case elsewhere, to the inhabitants

of Tewkesbury, for their use, more or less as a parish church. Mr.
Hayman says that "parochial worship was enshrined there side by side
with the monastic, far in the past, before its re-foundation in the
eleventh century.... This parochial constitution survived the great
successive shocks of change which altered or cancelled everything else.
The change from Saxon to Norman, the havoc of civil war, the
concentration of power in the Tudor crown, the Dissolution itself, and
the Reformation which followed, all left this as they found it, or left it
stronger still. To this constitution alone the noble church was indebted
for its preservation. The King could grasp all else from pinnacle to
basement, but the nave was the parishioners', and that he could not
touch. The result is a church surviving entire and substantially as its
vanished patrons and banished brethren left it. Therefore if this church
is a monument of baronial and abbatial power long departed, it is yet
more so of the strength of the popular principle, and of the vitality of
the parochial system which survives."
In the same way the good people of Great Malvern, or Moche Malverne
as it was then termed, clubbed together and bought the Priory Church
for £200, to serve as their parish church in place of the older parish
church, which then, after two hundred and fifty years' use, was in need
of repair. Their Lady Chapel, cloisters, dormitories, Chapter House,
&c., were rased to the ground, and all that had a market value was sold.
After the purchase of the church by the good people of Tewkesbury, the
nave seems to have been utterly neglected, and only used for purposes
of burial and for the occasional performances of stage-plays. Such
plays were acted in 1578, 1584, 1585, as is shown by items which
appear in the