VII. COCKERSAND ABBEY AND ITS CHAPTER-HOUSE.

With but little variation the great majority of monastic establishments follow the well-defined lines which custom and the exigencies of the conventual life had laid down in the early years of the Church. It is consequently only occasionally that an abbey or priory ruin in this country presents any important deviation from the general plan of them all, and it is in the endless variety of their detail that most of their interest is centred. The Abbey of Cockersand is thus fortunate in having possessed and retained a chapter-house of that polygonal form which flourished in this island alone, and even here never became a common feature. In addition to this, the abbey choir stalls, a unique example of early wood-carving, have also been preserved, though removed from their original position. The chapter-house at Cockersand, while it does not challenge comparison with the great structures at Lincoln and York, being indeed of comparatively small size, is yet a refined and beautiful expression of “Early English” art which has hitherto almost escaped notice. The stalls also, though a cast of part of them rests in the Architectural Museum in Tufton Street, have hardly received the recognition they deserve.

Fig. 41.—PLAN OF ABBEY.

Drawn by

Alfred W. Clapham.

Situated on a flat tract of land lying between the estuaries of the rivers Lune and Wyre, half-way up the coast-line of Lancashire, the Abbey of Cockersand is remarkable for the dreariness of its surroundings. The level meadows, intersected in every direction by dykes that stretch for two miles inland from the ruins, were at one time little better than a great salt-marsh, inundated by the spring tides and fit for little else but pasture. The outer walls of the abbey itself, built upon a slight eminence looking over the desolate sands of Morecambe Bay, were again and again undermined by the attacks of the sea. “St. Mary in the Marsh upon the Cockersand” was indeed, in position and surroundings, no desirable retreat, and it is singular that a convent of considerable wealth and importance should have risen in so remote a spot. Founded first as a hospital towards the close of the twelfth century, it soon rose to the dignity of an abbey, being colonised by Premonstratensian canons from Croxton in Leicestershire. Its history is chiefly a record of disputes with the neighbouring priories of Lancaster and Cockerham, and presents few features of interest to the general reader. At the close of the fifteenth century the records of the successive visitations of Bishop Redman provide a more intimate picture of the life of the inmates. Excessive drinking, it appears, was indulged in, and two of the canons had to be exiled to other houses for a more serious offence. When the abbey fell amongst the greater monasteries in 1539, it was tenanted by twenty-three canons. Their home soon after came into the hands of the lords of Thurnham Hall, whose successors hold it at the present time. With the exception of the chapter-house there is little of interest to be found amongst the ruins. The accompanying ground plan (which is sufficiently indicated by the remaining fragments of walls and the mounds of fallen masonry) will show the general arrangement of the building. The aisleless nave of the church, a feature of common occurrence in convents of the Premonstratensian order, was no doubt similar to those still partially standing at Bayham, Titchfield, and Egglestone. The chapter-house was approached from the cloister by a vestibule, probably divided into three aisles and vaulted in stone. Externally the building has been refaced with a red sandstone, and consequently all the features of interest it may once have possessed have now disappeared. It is finished on the three eastern sides with an embattled parapet, and has a low-pitched pyramidal slate roof. The original entrance on the west face still remains, though the mouldings are much weathered. It is a plain semi-circular arch, formerly springing from side shafts, which are now missing, and probably dates from the foundation of the abbey. Internally the chapter-house is an octagonal apartment, 27 ft. 9 in. in diameter, having a fine vaulted roof springing from a central column and forming, on plan, four quadripartite bays. This arrangement is very unusual, as it throws the window openings out of the true centre of the vaulting cells above them. There is, however, no apparent awkwardness in the result. The central pier is formed of eight clustered and engaged shafts, keeled on the outward face and having each a moulded capital, the bell of which is ornamented with the stiff leaf foliage of the Early English period. The vaulting ribs, consisting of three main members divided by deep hollows, are all of similar section, except the wall ribs, which are formed with a simple hollow only. At the intersections are foliage bosses, four in number, of excellent workmanship. It is unfortunate that the building was for long used as a burial-place for the owners of the neighbouring Thurnham Hall, as this has necessitated the raising of the floor level, which is now some distance up the central column and above the sills of the windows, and has quite destroyed the original proportions of the building. The window tracery, if any existed, has now entirely gone, some portions of geometric work on the north side being of very doubtful date. Each opening had two shafts on either side, one free and one engaged, and the internal hood mouldings terminate in sculptured heads, all much defaced.

The polygonal or circular chapter-house became a favourite feature of English work in the thirteenth century. There is evidence of the existence of some twenty-four of these buildings, and of these ten still remain complete. The form was most popular amongst the secular canons, amongst whom it received its highest development. The Benedictines came second with five examples,⁠[21] followed by the Augustinians with five and the Cistercians and Premonstratensians with two each. The example at Alnwick Abbey, which with Cockersand is representative of the last-mentioned order, was a circular structure some 25 ft. in diameter, of which only the foundations remain. In regard to geographical distribution, these buildings were spread over the whole of England from Tavistock in Devon to Carlisle, while three instances occur in Scotland, at Elgin, Inchcolm, and Restalrig. Elsewhere they are almost unknown. The earliest example and the prototype of all the rest is the chapter-house of the Benedictine cathedral of Worcester, which dates from circa 1130. It was originally circular, and still retains this form internally, and is surrounded by a Norman wall arcade. It is possible that the form was suggested by the earlier round churches, some of which, as at Ludlow Castle, were aisleless and roofed with a timber pyramid “spire form.” The close proximity of other monastic buildings, and the consequent fear of fire, led to the insertion of the central column and the stone vault. The column was, however, always looked upon as an incumbrance, and was finally dispensed with and the building vaulted in one span. Of the later examples of this class of building the best instance is the beautiful little fifteenth-century chapter-house at Howden (Yorks), which apart from the fall of its vault, is still practically complete.

Fig. 42.—PIER-CAPITALS IN CHAPTER-HOUSE.

Fig. 43.—EXTERIOR FROM WEST.

Fig. 44.—EXTERIOR FROM EAST.

The traditional removal of fittings and furniture from the dissolved monastic houses to neighbouring parish churches is generally found on examination to be devoid of any foundation, the unusual richness or lavish decoration of a screen, a roof, or a piece of tabernacle work having alone given rise to the popular belief. There are, however, a few instances of the genuine transfer of monastic “loot” to parish churches, which are all the more surprising when one considers the low repute into which the Gothic craftsmanship was rapidly falling at that period. The choir stalls at Richmond, Yorks (brought from Easby Abbey), and the still finer series at Whalley, Lancashire, are well authenticated instances of this practice, while at Lancaster there is every probability that the magnificent fourteenth-century stalls in the parish church originally adorned the choir of Cockersand Abbey. It is true that an alien priory was long attached to the church at Lancaster, but the fact that the existing fabric is almost entirely of later date than the confiscation of the alien houses makes it more than improbable that the stalls were transferred from the earlier church. On the other hand there is the persistent tradition of their Cockersand origin and the neighbouring instance of a similar transfer at Whalley.

As at present arranged they stand on either side of the sacrarium, the returned stalls (two on each side) being placed against the east wall. The seats, fourteen in all and 2 ft. 5 in. from centre to centre, are provided with misericordes more or less mutilated and carved with grotesque figures. The canopies are supported on buttressed shafts at the back and front, carried up in the form of crocketed pinnacles and finished with carved finials of unusual form. Above each seat is an ogee arch richly crocketed and filled in beneath with a pierced panel of flamboyant tracery, each bay being of different design. Rising slightly behind these arches are lofty gables filled with similar panels, the crockets forming a nearly continuous edging of carving and presenting an almost infinite richness and variety. The comparative scarcity of “Decorated” woodwork adds largely to the value of the present example, which is undoubtedly the richest specimen of fourteenth-century wood-carving now remaining in this country.

The church of Cockerham is said to possess the Cockersand bells, and at Mytton near Clitheroe is a rood-screen said to have been derived from the same source. In the latter instance, however, the screen was undoubtedly intended for its present position, and was erected at the cost of the abbey, which then held the advowson of the church. Be this as it may, the forgotten and inconspicuous Lancashire convent has transmitted to the present day, in its octagonal chapter-house and its splendid stalls, some indication of the beauty and originality of monastic work even in the remoter parts of England, and has preserved for itself two monuments of its days of prosperity, while the very existence of so many of its greater fellows is rescued from oblivion only by lingering tradition and their written records.

Fig. 45.—STALLS FROM THE ABBEY (NOW IN LANCASTER).

Fig. 46.—MISERICORDE FROM STALLS.

Fig. 47.—ANOTHER MISERICORDE.

The foregoing notes, with the accompanying photographs, should therefore be of value to all who take an interest in mediæval architecture, more especially in those examples which are not rendered familiar by constant illustration.

—A. W. C.

THE REBUILDING OF CROSBY HALL AT CHELSEA

Fig. 48.—THE ROOF.

Photograph by

London News Agency.