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Evesham Abbey, Worcestershire

Location
(52°5′20″N, 1°56′50″W)
Evesham Abbey
SP 037 434
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Worcestershire
now Worcestershire
medieval not confirmed
  • G. L. Pearson

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Feature Sets
Description

Only a section of walling survives from the abbey church itself. Fragments of the 13thc. chapter house, the free-standing early 16thc. bell-tower and the gateway otherwise remain. The lower part of the gateway is built of stone, and of 12thc. date, the upper parts, probably dating from the 15thc., are timber-framed. Romanesque sculpture is found in the gateway arch (see para. III.1(i) below); some fragments in the museum may also come from the Abbey (see Evesham, Museum).

History

Evesham Abbey was a Benedictine house in the 8thc., and became one of the wealthiest abbeys in the country. At the Dissolution the early 16thc. bell tower was bought by the townspeople, but the rest of the site was used as a quarry, and plundered thoroughly.

Features

Exterior Features

Doorways

Comments/Opinions

The gateway is named locally after Abbot Reginald (1130-49), but Pevsner points out that its sculptural details look earlier than the 1120s.

Bibliography
The Victoria History of the Counties of England. Worcestershire,vol.II. London 1906, 112-127, 386-392, 389.
C. J. Bond, 'Church and Parish in Norman Worcestershire' in J. Blair (ed.) Minsters and Parish Churches: The Local Church in Transition 950-1200. Oxford University Committee for Archaeology Monograph 17. Oxford 1988, 119-58, 145.
N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Worcestershire. Harmondsworth 1968, 45, 145-146.