DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6913#0089
BUILDWAS ABBEY, SHROPSHIRE.
47
Abbot. There were also thirty-six servants of different descriptions. The whole
revenue amounted only to £142. 14*. G^d. annually, and had been improved since
™e last visitation ; yet the monastery possessed lands, manors, mills, rents, and
various privileges and claims in upwards of twenty parishes ; and, among other pro-
perty, eleven capital granges, in the counties of Salop and Stafford, exclusive of the
demesne lands of the abbey. But this improvident and exhausted state in which the
finances were found, at the dissolution, was common, in a greater or less degree, to
au the religious houses. So much were some reduced by extravagance, and letting
leases with fines, that in consequence of this practice, Bishop Burnet says, many
Monasteries rented at £200. per annum, were worth many thousands.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING.
The Cistercian Abbies, it has been observed, were usually placed on the northern
bank of some considerable river; and hence the arrangement of their offices, &c.
Was nearly similar. Buildwas being situated on the south side of the Severn, the
position of the whole is exactly reversed ; the cloister, chapter-house, and mansion
°f the abbot, are here on the north side of the church, in order to take advantage of
the river, as a drain.
The architecture of this monastery is of the genuine character of the age to
which it is referred ; and corresponds with the time when the building is supposed
to have been erected. No interpolations of style are visible in any part; but the
whole is uniform, and distinctly marked. The east and west ends, externally, pre-
sent good examples of the early Norman manner, having buttresses, which project
only a few inches before the plane of the main wall. They are placed at the corners
°f the church, and also between the windows, and are of smooth masonry.
The nave of the church consists of seven arches on each side, which, with the
four great arches supporting the tower, are all slightly pointed ; but the two large
windows at the west end, and the three long ones at the east, over the altar, as well
as those in the clerestory of the nave, are all round at the top. Indeed, the windows
in the dormitory, and those in all other parts of the church, are of the same form.
Jt is remarkable, that there is no great western door in the nave, contrary to the
Usual custom : it is, therefore, probable, that the richly ornamented door-way which
47
Abbot. There were also thirty-six servants of different descriptions. The whole
revenue amounted only to £142. 14*. G^d. annually, and had been improved since
™e last visitation ; yet the monastery possessed lands, manors, mills, rents, and
various privileges and claims in upwards of twenty parishes ; and, among other pro-
perty, eleven capital granges, in the counties of Salop and Stafford, exclusive of the
demesne lands of the abbey. But this improvident and exhausted state in which the
finances were found, at the dissolution, was common, in a greater or less degree, to
au the religious houses. So much were some reduced by extravagance, and letting
leases with fines, that in consequence of this practice, Bishop Burnet says, many
Monasteries rented at £200. per annum, were worth many thousands.
DESCRIPTION OF THE BUILDING.
The Cistercian Abbies, it has been observed, were usually placed on the northern
bank of some considerable river; and hence the arrangement of their offices, &c.
Was nearly similar. Buildwas being situated on the south side of the Severn, the
position of the whole is exactly reversed ; the cloister, chapter-house, and mansion
°f the abbot, are here on the north side of the church, in order to take advantage of
the river, as a drain.
The architecture of this monastery is of the genuine character of the age to
which it is referred ; and corresponds with the time when the building is supposed
to have been erected. No interpolations of style are visible in any part; but the
whole is uniform, and distinctly marked. The east and west ends, externally, pre-
sent good examples of the early Norman manner, having buttresses, which project
only a few inches before the plane of the main wall. They are placed at the corners
°f the church, and also between the windows, and are of smooth masonry.
The nave of the church consists of seven arches on each side, which, with the
four great arches supporting the tower, are all slightly pointed ; but the two large
windows at the west end, and the three long ones at the east, over the altar, as well
as those in the clerestory of the nave, are all round at the top. Indeed, the windows
in the dormitory, and those in all other parts of the church, are of the same form.
Jt is remarkable, that there is no great western door in the nave, contrary to the
Usual custom : it is, therefore, probable, that the richly ornamented door-way which