Glastonbury Abbey

From the North Transept to the Choir

Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset: once one of the oldest, richest and most powerful of the abbeys in Britain, it now lies in ruins: the site and the ruins belong to a charitable trust, known as Glastonbury Abbey.

The ruins are now a grade I listed building, and a Scheduled Ancient Monument and are open as a visitor attraction.

The abbey was founded in the 7th century and enlarged in the 10th, before a major fire in 1184 destroyed the buildings. It was rebuilt and by the 14th century and its wealth and power grew through the Middle Ages: the abbey controlled large tracts of surrounding land and was instrumental in major drainage projects on the Somerset Levels. The abbey was suppressed during the Dissolution of the Monasteries under King Henry VIII. The last abbot, Richard Whiting (Whyting), was hanged, drawn and quartered as a traitor on Glastonbury Tor in 1539.

From at least the 12th century the Glastonbury area was frequently associated with the legend of King Arthur, a connection promoted by mediæval monks, who asserted that Glastonbury was Avalon, a land of the legend, and who allegedly found the bodies of Arthur and Guinevere buried at the abbey. The monks further enhanced their status, and income from the swell of pilgrim visitors, by claiming that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea immediately after the Crucifixion.

History

Modern myth, inspired by Arthurian connections, has promoted the idea of Glastonbury as a site of religious importance in Celtic or pre-Celtic times: clkaim that are dubious to say the least. A town stood here before the abbey though: in 1955 Ralegh Radford's excavations uncovered Romano-British pottery at the west end of the nave. The abbey itself dates in some form at least to the early 7th century. Later legend promoted by the mediæval abbey claimed that the abbey was founded by Joseph of Arimathea in the 1st century. This fanciful legend is intimately tied to Robert de Boron's version of the Holy Grail story and to Glastonbury's connection to King Arthur, which dates at least to the early 12th century.

Glastonbury fell into Saxon hands after the Battle of Peonnum in 658. Cenwalh of Wessex conquered Somerset as far west as the River Parrett, but allowed the British abbot, Bregored, to stay in power. After Bregored's death in 669, he was replaced by the Anglo-Saxon Berhtwald, but British monks remained for many years.

Saxon era

King Ine of Wessex enriched the endowment of the community of monks already established at Glastonbury. He is said to have directed that a stone church be built in 712, the foundations of which now form the west end of the nave. Glastonbury was ravaged by the Danes in the 9th century. The contemporary reformed soldier Saint Neot was sacristan at Glastonbury before he went to found his own establishment in Somerset.

The abbey church was enlarged in the tenth century by the abbot of Glastonbury, Dunstan, the central figure in the tenth-century revival of English monastic life, who instituted the Benedictine Rule at Glastonbury. Dunstan became Archbishop of Canterbury in 960. Dunstan built new cloisters as well. In 967, King Edmund I was laid to rest at Glastonbury. In 1016, King Edmund II, Edmund Ironside, was buried there too. King Cnut's charter of 1032 was "written and promulgated in the wooden church at Glastonbury, in the king's presence".

The first Glastonbury Canal was built about the middle of the 10th century to link the River Brue with Glastonbury Abbey, a distance of about 1,900 yards. Its initial purpose is believed to be the transport of building stone for the abbey, but later it was used for delivering produce, including grain, wine and fish, from the abbey's outlying properties. Much of the stone came from the abbey's own quarries at Doulting, allowing access by way of the River Sheppey at Pilton. From the 11th century onwards Glastonbury Abbey became the centre of a large water-borne transport network as further canalisations and new channels were made in the region, including the diversion of the Brue to afford access to the important estate at Meare and an easier route to the Bristol Channel. In the 13th century the abbey's head boatman is recorded as using the waterways to take the abbot in an eight-oared boat on visits to the abbey's manors in the area.

Middle Ages

Photochrom (c 1900) showing the unrestored Lady Chapel

At the Norman Conquest in 1066, the wealth of Glastonbury made it a prime prize. The new Norman abbot, Turstin, added to the church, unusually building to the east of the older Saxon church and away from the ancient cemetery, thus shifting the sanctified site. This was later changed by Herlewin the next abbot, who built a larger church. Not all the new Normans were suitable heads of religious communities. In 1077, Thurstin was dismissed after his armed retainers killed monks by the High Altar. In 1086, when Domesday Book was commissioned, Glastonbury Abbey was the richest monastery in the country.

About 1125, the abbot Henry of Blois commissioned a history of Glastonbury from the esteemed historian William of Malmesbury, who was a guest of the monks. His work "On the Antiquity of the Glastonese Church" was compiled at some time between 1129 and 1139 as part of a campaign to establish the abbey's primacy against Westminster. It is the source for much of our knowledge of the abbey's early history, if it can be relied upon for this, but it includes forged histories invented by the monks and unsubstantiated early legends: even its list of the community's abbots cannot be reconciled with 10th-century originals subsequently discovered.

Early drainage work on the Somerset Levels was carried out in the later years of the 12th century, with the responsibility for maintaining all the watercourses between Glastonbury and the sea being placed on named individuals among whom were Ralph de Sancta Barbara of Brentmarsh. In 1129, the abbot of Glastonbury was recorded as inspecting enclosed land at Lympsham. Efforts to control flooding on the Parrett were recorded around the same date. In 1234, 722 acres were reclaimed near Westonzoyland and, from the accounts in the abbey's rent books, this had increased to 972 acres by 1240. In the 14th century a Fish House was built at Meare for the chief fisherman of the abbot of Glastonbury that was also used for salting and preparing fish. It is the only surviving monastic fishery building in England. At the time of the Dissolution in 1540, Meare Pool was said to contain a great abundance of pike, tench, roach and eels. In 1638 it was owned by William Freake, who described it as "lately a fish pool".

King Arthur's tomb

Site of the tombs of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere beneath the high altar

In 1191 the monks of Glastonbury Abbey discovered, within the abbey, the bodies of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. It was a remarkably fortuitous discovery: the abbey had burnt down in 1184 and wealthy pilgims had ceased to come, and the King faced simmering rebellion in Wales and in Brittany. The discovery turned the abbey's fortunes around immediately, and the body silenced an Arthurian fervour which insisted that Arthur the Briton would return to rescue his people from the English.

The discovery has all the elments of a mediæval pious fiction inteneded to repair the abbey's fortunes, which it did. A contemporaneous, though not an eyewitness account was given by Gerald of Wales in his De principis instructione ("Instruction of a Prince," ca. 1193) and recollected in his Speculum Ecclesiae, ca. 1216 according to which the abbot, Henry de Sully, commissioned a search, discovering at the depth of 16 feet a massive hollowed oak trunk containing two skeletons. Above it, under the covering stone, according to Giraldus, was a leaden cross with the unmistakably specific inscription Hic jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arthurus in insula Avalonia ("Here lies interred the famous King Arthur on the Isle of Avalon").

According to Gerald, the digging for the tomb was prompted by the intelligence obtained by King Henry II from an aged British (Welsh) bard (historico cantore Britone audierat antiquo). On the other hand, Ralph of Coggeshall writing somewhat later, states more prosaically that they came upon the older tomb by chance while removing the earth to bury a certain monk who had expressed strong desire to be buried there. Both Gerald and Ralph say that the spot lay in between two pyramids in the abbey. William of Malmesbury does not refer to Arthur's tomb but elaborates on the pyramids of varying height, upon which were statues with inscriptions "Her Sexi, and Bliserh... Pencrest, Bantomp, Pinepegn, etc."

William of Malmesbury's history of the English kings stated "Arthur’s grave is nowhere seen, whence antiquity of fables still claims that he will return" and his work "On the Antiquity of the Glastonese Church"—larded as it is with known and suspected pious forgeries—nowhere mentions a connection between the abbey and either Arthur's grave or Avalon. The fact that the search for Arthur's body is connected to Henry II and Edward I, both kings who fought major Welsh wars, has had scholars suggest that propaganda may have played a part as well. Gerald, a constant supporter of royal authority, in his account of the discovery clearly aims to destroy the idea of the possibility of King's Arthur's messianic return: "Many tales are told and many legends have been invented about King Arthur and his mysterious ending. In their stupidity the British [i.e. Welsh, Cornish and Bretons] people maintain that he is still alive. Now that the truth is known, I have taken the trouble to add a few more details in this present chapter. The fairy-tales have been snuffed out, and the true and indubitable facts are made known, so that what really happened must be made crystal clear to all and separated from the myths which have accumulated on the subject."

Bath and Glastonbury

In 1197, Savaric FitzGeldewin, Bishop of Bath and Wells, traded the city of Bath to the king in return for the monastery of Glastonbury. Savaric secured the support many leading ecclesiastics, but the monks who opposed him were supported by King Richard I, who allowed them to elect an abbot, William Pica, in place of Savaric. Savaric excommunicated the new abbot. After Richard's death in 1199, Savaric forced his way into the monastery and set up his episcopal see within the abbey. The bishops continued to use the title Bishop of Bath and Glastonbury until finally renouncing their claim to Glastonbury in 1219.

Services in the reconsecrated Great Church had begun on Christmas Day, 1213, most likely before it was entirely completed. King Edward I and Queen Eleanor attended the magnificent service at the reburial of King Arthur's remains to the foot of the High Altar in 1278.

14th and 15th centuries

The Abbot's Kitchen

In the 14th century, only Westminster Abbey was more richly endowed and appointed than Glastonbury. The abbot of Glastonbury kept great state, now attested to simply by the ruins of the abbot's kitchen, with four huge fireplaces at its corners. The kitchen was part of the magnificent abbot's house begun under Abbot John de Breynton (1334–42). It is one of the best preserved mediæval kitchens in Europe, and the only substantial monastic building surviving at Glastonbury. Archaeological excavations have revealed a special apartment erected at the south end of the abbot's house for a visit from King Henry VII, who visited the abbot in a royal progress, as he visited any other great territorial magnate. The conditions of life in England during the Wars of the Roses became so unsettled that a wall was built around the abbey's precincts.

The George Hotel and Pilgrims' Inn was built in the late 15th century to accommodate visitors to the abbey. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.

Dissolution

The suppression of lesser monasteries began in 1535, but in 1539 the greater monasteries were included. In September 1539, Glastonbury was visited by Richard Layton, Richard Pollard and Thomas Moyle, who arrived there without warning on the orders of Thomas Cromwell. The abbey was stripped of its valuables. Abbot Richard Whiting (Whyting) had signed his acceptance of the Act of Supremacy that made the King the head of the church, but he resisted suppression, and was hanged, drawn and quartered as a traitor on Glastonbury Tor on 15 November 1539.

After the Dissolution, two of the abbey's manors in Wiltshire were sold by the Crown to John Thynne and thereafter descended in his family, who much later became Marquesses of Bath. The Thynnes have preserved many of the abbey's Wiltshire records at Longleat up to the present day. The ruins of the abbey itself was stripped of lead and dressed stones hauled away to be used in other buildings. The site was granted by Edward VI to Edward Seymour, 1st Duke of Somerset who established a colony of Protestant Dutch weavers on the site. When Seymour was attainted in 1551, the abbey site reverted to the Crown, but the weavers remained until they were removed in the reign of Queen Mary. In 1559 Elizabeth I of England granted the site to Peter Carew, and it remained in private ownership until the beginning of the 20th century.

Further stones were removed in the 17th century, so that by the beginning of the 18th century the abbey was described as a ruin. The only building to survive intact is the abbot's kitchen, which served as a Quaker meeting house. Early in the 19th century, gunpowder was used to dislodge further stones and the site became a quarry. The Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882 stopped further damage to the site and led to the first historical and archaeological surveys.

Modern history

The ruins of Glastonbury Abbey were purchased by the Bath and Wells Diocesan Trust in 1908. The ruins are now the property of and managed by the Glastonbury Abbey trust. The trust appointed Frederick Bligh Bond to direct an archaeological investigation. Bond announced the discovery of the Edgar Chapel, North Porch and St Dunstan's Chapel; later though he revealed in his 1919 book, The Gates of Remembrance, that he had made many of his interpretations in collaboration with a psychic medium. He was dismissed by the Bishop in 1921.

A pilgrimage to the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey was held by a few local churches in 1924. Pilgrimages continue today to be held; in the second half of June for the Anglicans and early in July for Roman Catholic.

The abbey site is visited by over 100,000 a year.

Abbey retreat house

The Retreat House

Within the abbey wall, but closed to the public, is the abbey retreat house, which is now used by the Diocese of Bath and Wells. The Tudor Gothic house was built between 1829 and 1830 by John Buckler from the stones of the abbey ruins for John Fry Reeves. It was altered and extended between 1850 and 1860, with further alterations in 1957.

A view of the south side of the abbey

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Glastonbury Abbey)

• Glastonbury Abbey

References

Books

• Abrams, Lesley; Carley, James P. (1991). The Archaeology and History of Glastonbury Abbey: Essays in Honour of the ninetieth birthday of C. A. Ralegh Radford. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-284-4. 
• Ashe, Geoffrey (1960). From Caesar to Arthur. Collins. 
• Bond, Frederick Bligh (1920). An Architectural Handbook of Glastonbury Abbey with a Historical Chronicle of the Building. ISBN 978-1-4179-7776-5. http://books.google.com/?id=HBFENXKtu6wC&printsec=frontcover. 
• Carley, James P. (1988). Glastonbury Abbey: The Holy House at the Head of the Moors Adventurous. Guild Publishing. ISBN 0-85115-460-3. 
• Carley, James P.; Townsend, David (2009). Chronicle of Glastonbury Abbey An Edition, Translation and Study of John of Glastonbury's Cronica sive Antiquitates: An Edition, Translation and Study ... Sive Antiquatates Glastoniensis Ecclesie. Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-859-4. 
• Carley, James P. (2001) (preview). Glastonbury Abbey and the Arthurian Tradition. D.S.Brewer. ISBN 978-0-85991-572-4. http://books.google.co.jp/books?id=UI93dKBwWdMC. 
• Crake, A. D. (1915). The Last Abbot of Glastonbury. A R Mowbray. 
• Dowling, John (1845). The history of Romanism: from the earliest corruptions of Christianity to the present time:. http://books.google.com/?id=aQIQAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA231&dq=Glastonbury+Abbey+Great+church+height. 
• Gasquet, Francis Aidan (1908). Last Abbot of Glastonbury and Other Essays. Kessinger Publishing Co. ISBN 978-0-7661-6289-1. 
• Harris, Kate (1992). Glastonbury Abbey Records at Longleat House: A Summary List. Somerset Record Society. ISBN 978-0-901732-29-3. 
• Havinden, Michael (1981). The Somerset Landscape. The making of the English landscape. London: Hodder and Stoughton. ISBN 0-340-20116-9. 
• Hill, Rosemary (2009). Stonehenge. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-86197-880-6. 
• Hollinrake, Charles; Hollinrake, Nancy (2007). "Glastonbury's Canal and Dunstan's Dyke". in Blair, John. Waterways and Canal Building in Mediæval England. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-921715-1. 
• Knowles, David (2004). The Monastic Order in England: A History of its Development from the Times of St Dunstan to the Fourth Lateran Council 940–1216. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-54808-3. 
• Knowles, David; Brooke, C. N. L.; London, Vera C. M. (2005). The Heads of Religious Houses England and Wales, I 940–1216. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-02872-4. 
• Lance, Ron W.; O'Kennon, Robert J.; Phipps, James B. (2003). Hawthorns and Medlars (Royal Horticultural Society Plant Collector Guide). Timber Press. ISBN 978-0-88192-591-3. 
• Rahtz, Philip; Watts, Lorna (2003). Glastonbury: Myth and Archaeology. The History Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7524-2548-1. 
• Rouse, Robert Allen; Rushton, Cory (2005). The Mediæval Quest for Arthur. The History Press Ltd. ISBN 978-0-7524-3343-1. 
• Searle, Muriel V. (2002). West Country History: Somerset. Bristol: Venton Publications. ISBN 1-84150-802-0. 
• White, Richard (1997). King Arthur in Legend and History. London: Dent. ISBN 978-0460879156. 
• Williams, Michael (1970). Draining Somerset Levels. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-07486-X. 
• Willis, Robert (1866). The architectural history of Glastonbury abbey. Deighton, Bell, and co.,. http://books.google.com/?id=-GUsAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA29&dq=Glastonbury+Abbey+Great+church+height#v=snippet&q=Lady%20Chapel&f=false.