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Remains of Albot Ereginalds Gatehouse. Abbey recints:

1843. Published by George May. Bookseller, Evesham

JL. Williams fe

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CHAPTER VIII.

CHAPEL OF ST. LAWRENCE, IN THE DEANERY AND WITHIN THE PRECINTS OF THE MONASTERY.

PASSING from Bridge-street along the eastern side of the Marketsquare, the parochial-burial ground is entered through the remains of a gateway exhibiting features of a more remote antiquity than any other building-with one exception which we shall shortly notice at present standing in the town. The lateral walls of this ancient structure are relieved within by low semicircular arches resting on short semi-columns with indented capitals; the columns in front, which were also of similar character, are there partially preserved, and from these sprang the circular vault that formed the arch of the gateway. Some portion of its springing part may even yet be distinguished among the stonework at the north-western angle, behind the doorway of what is now a butcher's yard. The vault and upper portion of this gateway have wholly and together disappeared, and a timber-framed apartment now supplies their place. It is matter of regret-after the inhabitants and others have so laudably restored the Church of St. Lawrence, and while the municipal authorities have further improved the area of the market-square-that so confined and in every respect inappropriate a communication, as this has by encroachment become, should be suffered thus to continue. A few pounds contributed by the inhabitants would suffice to remove the shattered tenements that abut against and are reared upon the walls of the venerable gateway; and thus while the church-way path for the inhabitants of both parishes would be far more agreeable to those who frequent it; a very dense portion of the main street would also be additionally

ventilated, by the current of air that would then sweep from the meadows throgh the market-place. This gateway, being within the line of wall, still traceable to the Avon eastward, which abbot Reginald erected early in the twelfth century as the boundary of the abbey precincts, we consider to have been constructed at that time. In another portion of the same lofty wall, which encompassed the abbey, as well as the conventual and public burial-grounds, the contemporary relic before adverted to will be found. This is a low, circular, receding doorway, that formerly admitted to the great quadrangle of the monastey; it stands immediately southward of the chancel of St. Lawrence church, and presents the only specimen of a perfect Norman archway that remains within the town.

Having entered the public burial-ground, the spectator will regard with surprise the redundance of architectural scenery that suddenly presses upon his attention, in this retired portion of a country town. Two churches, each with its own tower and spire, in addition to the campanile or bell-tower of the monastery-being grouped together within the circuit of a few square yards. One of these churches will, from the original beauty of its architecture and the present renovated condition of the pile, immediately command attention. It is the parochial chapel of St. Lawrence, formerly subordinate to the abbey-church. This structure, as standing nearest to the site of the monastery and as being uniformly the first noticed in our ancient ecclesiastical returns, we for these reasons consider to be of much earlier origin than the adjacent building dedicated to All-saints; and therefore we proceed to notice it first in detail premising that this as well as the adjacent chapel were both founded by the inmates of the monastery, for the use of the inhabitants of the town. Thus the great church of the abbey could be exclusively appropriated to the multitudinous observances and ceremonials of the convent, without any partial reservation within that edifice for parochial use: thereby precluding there the intervention of secular worshippers, save as distant spectators, at all times.

The earliest notice of the chapel of St. Lawrence occurs among the abbey Institutes compiled by abbot Randulph in 1223, to which we have previously referred. At that early period the chaplain was supplied by the convent, of which he was an inmate; and there he daily received his corredy of bread and beer, in the same proportion

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