Bells Cathedrals: The Abbey Church of Tewkesbury | Page 9

opened, and shelving stones inserted instead.
One of the pinnacles was entirely rebuilt, and the three others repaired.
The turrets on the west front were also restored.
At this time also the transept walls and the roofs were repaired and
strengthened. The interior of the church previous to its colour-washing
was scraped and cleaned, and the walls and pillars were repaired,
pointed, and cemented. All the tombs were cleaned and most of them
restored. The greater part of the nave was paved with Painswick stone,
and in the rest of the church the gravestones were relaid.
[Illustration: THE WEST END IN 1840. By Rev. J.L. Petit.]
In 1825 the vicar and churchwardens posted to Worcester, that they
might inspect the colouring of the Cathedral and other churches there
with a view to decorating the Abbey. The committee decided in favour
of colour-washing the Abbey, and this was done three years later.
1828. The monuments of Sir Hugh le Despenser and Sir Guy de Brien,
being very dilapidated, were extensively repaired. Most of the
buttresses and pinnacles were entirely renewed. All this restoration
involved the outlay of a considerable amount of money, and if more
had been forthcoming more would have been undertaken, such as the
restoration of all the tombs and chapels, and the old windows in the
choir.
The font in 1828 was removed from the nave and placed in the apsidal
chapel in the south transept, from which position it was again removed
in 1878.

A final restoration was set on foot in 1864, and Sir Gilbert Scott
reported that £15,000 was necessary to make good the dilapidation and
decay which extended, in his opinion, from the foundations to the roof.
The necessary amount was not forthcoming for several years. Then a
new committee was appointed, with Sir Edmund Lechmere as its
chairman. In 1875 the restoration began, the choir being undertaken
first. For this purpose the church was divided into two parts by means
of a hoarding. When the pavement in the choir was removed, the graves
there were all carefully examined and their identification verified where
possible. Many fragments of historic stonework were found, and these
have been grouped together in the south-east chapel, which forms a
kind of museum.
After the work in the choir was advanced enough, the nave was
undertaken and thoroughly done; the floor was relaid on a foundation
of cement, all open graves being filled up.
On September 23, 1879, the building was re-dedicated with a service
modelled somewhat on the lines of the original dedication service in
1123.
During the last twenty years little has been done to the fabric. Windows
and other decoration have been lavished upon the interior, the money
expended amounting to several thousands of pounds, a sum which
might have been spent with more benefit to the fabric, upon purchasing
the precincts, and on repairing the timber-work which supports the
roof.
Interesting though the general question of the "restoration" of ancient
buildings is, and interesting though Tewkesbury is as a particular case,
this is not the place to go into it, but it may be well to quote from
Mackail's "Life of William Morris," vol. i., p. 340, a letter which
William Morris wrote to the Athenæum about the restorations proposed
at Tewkesbury.
"My eye just now caught the word 'restoration' in the morning paper,
and, on looking closer, I saw that this time it is nothing less than the
Minster of Tewkesbury that is to be destroyed by Sir Gilbert Scott. Is it

altogether too late to do something to save it--it and whatever else of
beautiful and historical is still left us on the sites of the ancient
buildings we were once so famous for? Would it not be of some use
once for all, and with the least delay possible, to set on foot an
association for the purpose of watching over and protecting these relics,
which, scanty as they are now become, are still wonderful treasures, all
the more priceless in this age of the world, when the newly-invented
study of living history is the chief joy of so many of our lives? Your
paper has so steadily and courageously opposed itself to these acts of
barbarism which the modern architect, parson, and squire call
'restoration,' that it would be waste of words to enlarge here on the ruin
that has been wrought by their hands; but, for the saving of what is left,
I think I may write a word of encouragement, and say that you by no
means stand alone in the matter, and that there are many thoughtful
people who would be glad to sacrifice time, money, and comfort in
defence of those ancient monuments; besides, though I admit that the
architects are, with very few exceptions, hopeless, because interest,
habit,