Waltham Abbey (abbey)
| Waltham Abbey | |
 Waltham Abbey
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 Waltham Abbey
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| Coordinates: 51°41′15″N 0°00′13″W / 51.6875°N 0.0035°W | |
| OS grid reference | TL3799300687 |
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| Country | England, United Kingdom |
| Denomination | Church of England |
| Website | www.walthamabbeychurch.co.uk |
| History | |
| Founded | 1030 |
| Dedication | The Holy Cross |
| Consecrated | 1060 (present church) |
| Significant associated people | King Harold; Thomas Tallis, former organist |
| Architecture | |
| Architectural type | Abbey |
| Style | Norman |
| Specifications | |
| Spire height | 210 feet (64 m) |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Waltham Holy Cross |
| Deanery | Epping Forest |
| Diocese | Chelmsford |
| Province | Canterbury |
| Clergy | |
| Vicar(s) | Rev Peter Smith |
| Laity | |
| Organist(s) | Stephen Bullamore |
The Abbey Church of Waltham Abbey has been a place of worship since at least 1030, and is in the town of Waltham Abbey, Essex, England. The Prime Meridian passes through its grounds. Harold Godwinson is said to be buried just outside the present abbey. Cheshunt Great House was located nearby.[1]
Contents |
[edit] History
Waltham Abbey was founded in 1030 to house a Holy Rood or Cross that was the subject of pilgrimage.[2] Legend says that at Montacute near Glastonbury, an Anglo-Danish Thegn called Tovi the Proud found a large black flint crucifix buried at the top of a hill, following a dream. He loaded the cross onto an ox-cart, but the oxen would only go in one direction and didn't stop until they reached Waltham, a journey of some 150 miles.[3] Harold Godwinson (later King Harold II) rebuilt, refounded and richly endowed the church in 1060; a legend says that this was because in his childhood, he had been miraculously cured of paralysis by the Holy Cross.[4] He stopped to pray at Waltham on his way to fight William of Normandy, and the battle-cry of the English troops at Hastings was "Holy Cross". After the battle, Harold's corpse is said to have been brought back to the abbey and buried there.
In about 1120 Harold's work was demolished and a new church with crossing tower and transepts was built in the Norman style.[5] In 1177 the abbey was re-founded once more, this time as an Augustinian foundation, by Henry II as part of his penance for the murder of Thomas Becket. At this point considerable additional building works were carried out, although the nature and extent of these still await detailed research. The rebuilding, in the Early English style, made the abbey far more extensive than the original Norman establishment, as can be seen today from traces in the abbey grounds. Those parts of the Norman church east of the crossing were demolished, and a new church, with its own nave, was constructed. The Norman nave was retained as a parish church, divided from the new work by a screen. A cloister was built to the north of the new nave. A short passage that led into the cloister still exists; this, and a fourteenth century gatehouse, are the only surviving monastic buildings.[6]
The Augustinian abbey was a popular place for overnight stays with kings and other notables who were hunting in Waltham Forest. It was the last abbey in England to be dissolved, in 1540. Thomas Tallis was the last organist at the Abbey prior to its dissolution. The Holy Cross disappeared without trace at this time. Henry VIII suggested Waltham as one of the new cathedrals for the Church of England, but the proposal was not implemented. The Abbey site was leased to Sir Edward Denny and the remnant of the nave became the town's parish church.[4]
[edit] Description
The monastic buildings and those parts of the church east of the crossing were demolished at the dissolution, and the Norman crossing tower and transepts collapsed in 1553.[6] The present-day church consists of the nave of the Norman abbey church, the 14th-century Lady Chapel and west wall, and a 16th-century west tower, added after the dissolution. Markers on the remains of the walls in the grounds indicate the location, before demolition, of the high altar, (beneath which some believe Harold Godwinson is buried),[7] and other parts.
The interior is notable for the massive Norman piers and also for the many carvings of human faces nestling in the stonework left by the original masons. Waltham Abbey is also renowned for its 15th-century Doom (painting).
[edit] Later architectural history
In 1859 the architect William Burges was appointed to undertake a restoration of the site and a refurbishment of the interior. The restoration was extensive; the removal of pews and galleries from the South and West, the a new ceiling (painted with signs of the zodiac as at Peterborough Cathedral), a new chancel and significant re-building. The designs were exhibited at the Royal Academy. Work was completed by 1876. In the view of Burges's biographer, J. Mordaunt Crook, "(Burges's interior) meets the Middle Ages as an equal." However the architectural historian Nikolaus Pevsner states that Burges's remodelling was carried out "with all the robust ugliness which that architect liked".[8] The revised Pevsner of 2007 takes a somewhat more sympathetic view, describing Burges' work as "pioneering (and) powerful".[6]
The Abbey's stained glass is particularly noteworthy, including early work by Edward Burne-Jones in the rose window and lancets of the east wall, and A K Nicholson in the Lady Chapel. Much was destroyed during The Blitz.
[edit] Links with Harold Godwinson
Harold's links with the area, (although only his connection with the original foundation can be proven) persist. The local secondary school, King Harold Business and Enterprise Academy, is named after the last Saxon King of England.
[edit] Organ
The church contains a large 3 manual organ, mostly by J. W. Walker & Sons Ltd. A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.
[edit] Organists
Its organists have included:
- Thomas Tallis
- Polly Thompson
- William Hayman Cummings 1847 - 1853
- Mr. Gibbons
- Mr. Banks
- Joseph Chalk 1859 - ????
- Stuart Nicholson
- Stephen Bullamore 2005 - current
[edit] Notes
- ^ "Waltham Abbey". Garden Visit. http://www.gardenvisit.com/book/london_and_its_environs_1927/55_epping_forest_waltham_abbey/waltham_abbey. Retrieved August 8, 2010.
- ^ http://www.britannia.com/church/waltham.html
- ^ Watkiss, Leslie; Marjorie Chibnall (1994). Waltham Chronicle. Oxford University Press.
- ^ a b http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/e-h/harold04.html
- ^ http://www.walthamabbeychurch.co.uk/history.htm
- ^ a b c Bettley, James; Nikolaus Pevsner (2007). The Buildings of England: Essex. Yale University Press. pp. 807–9. ISBN 9790300116144.
- ^ Butler, Denis: 1066: The Story of a Year, 1966, p. 292
- ^ The Buildings of England: Essex (1965)
[edit] References
- Crook, J. Mordaunt (1981). William Burges and the High Victorian Dream. John Murray.
- Pevsner, Nilkolaus (1965). The Buildings of England: Essex. Penguin. ISBN 0140710116.
- Bettley, James; Nikolaus Pevsner (2007). The Buildings of England: Essex. Yale University Press. ISBN 9790300116144.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Waltham Abbey |
- Church site
- Abbey gatehouse and bridge page at English Heritage
- Adrian Fletcher's Paradoxplace – Waltham Abbey Page
- Waltham Abbey Reflections Of the Past
- Waltham Abbey Genealogy site
- Waltham Abbey Historical Society
- Map sources for Waltham Abbey (abbey).
- King Harold Business and Enterprise Academy (King Harold School)
