The Abbeys of Great Britain

by H. Claiborne Dixon

CHAPTER II
LANCASHIRE

[FURNESS: WHALLEY]

THE precise date of the introduction of Christianity into Lancashire is not known, but it is an established historical fact that the Christians in Britain were persecuted at the beginning of the 4th century by the Emperor Diocletian and that the death of the first recorded martyr, St Alban, took place in 304 near the city which now bears his name. In 311 Constantine the Great was converted to Christianity and this illustrious Emperor exercised a powerful influence over the spiritual affairs of Lancashire. In 627, Edwin, King of Northumbria, became converted through the agency of his wife Ethelburga. This conversion led to war between Edwin and the King of Mercia, when the King of Northumbria was killed at the battle of Hatfield. By the end of the 7th century, Northumbria had become a Christian and powerful kingdom and the “literary centre of the Christian world in Western Europe. The whole learning of the age seemed to be summed up in a Northumbrian scholar—Baeda, the Venerable Bede later time styled him.”—Green’s History of the English People.

Between the 7th and 9th centuries several monasteries are believed to have been established in Lancashire. The invasion of the Danes during the 8th and 9th centuries disturbed the existing order of things, and for many years before and after the event the ecclesiastical history of the kingdom is almost a blank. The new occupiers of Northumbria were mostly from Denmark—a great point of difference between the conquered and the conquerors being that, whilst the settlers in Britain had to a great extent adopted the new religion and devoted themselves to peaceful pursuits, the Danes continued to worship Odin and other kindred gods, and were still a lawless set of pirates, distinguished for courage, ferocity, and hatred of Christianity. Persecution followed as a natural consequence, and the religious progress of the previous two centuries was almost wholly annihilated. Between this period and the election of Edward the Confessor, Christianity made some progress, a bishop of Danish blood actually occupying the Episcopal chair of York, in which diocese Lancashire was at that time included. The Doomsday book gives positive evidence of at least a dozen churches in Lancashire.

[FURNESS (Cistercian)]

1127, Founded by Stephen, Earl of Morton and Boulogne (afterwards King of England)—1240, The abbey receives benefactions from William de Lancaster—1539, Surrendered by Roger Pyke, last abbot. Annual revenue, £805, 16s. 5d.

To realise fully the important position Furness Abbey held, both in things spiritual and temporal, it must be remembered that the abbot of this monastery possessed not only the power of jurisdiction over the monks, but governed also the wild and rugged region of Lancashire which is divided by an arm of the Irish Sea from the rest of the country and known as Furness. Many viceregal privileges were vested in his high office, and to some extent even the military were under his orders. He held a court of criminal jurisdiction in Dalton Castle, where also he had a gaol; issued summonses by his own bailiffs; while the Sheriff with his officers was prohibited from entering the territory of the abbey under any pretext whatever. The diversity of his offices and responsibilities entailed a keeping of a numerous retinue of servants and armoured followers, a certain number of his vassals being at the service of the Crown according to the feudal system. As in the case of other monasteries, and as time went on, numerous benefactors arose. Many of the wealthy bestowed lands and further privileges on the monks—not a few in consideration of the favour of obtaining a last resting-place in the abbey. They—

“Loved the church so well and gave so largely to’t
They thought it should have canopied their bones
Till doomsday—but all things have their end.”

The evidence in a petition made in the Duchy Court in 25 Elizabeth (1582) by the tenants of Walney disclosed a curious system of barter carried on between the abbots and their tenants. In return for certain “domestical” provisions, such as calves, sheep, wheat, barley, etc., the tenants received from the abbey, “great relief, sustentation and commodities for themselves and their children.” All the tenants had weekly one ten-gallon barrel of ale, also a weekly allowance of coarse wheat bread, iron for their husbandry, gear and timber for the repair of their houses. In addition to these grants, all men who owned a plough could send two men to dine at the monastery once a week—from Martinmas to Pentecost. The children of tenants who had found the required provision were educated free, and allowed every day a dinner or a supper, so that as far back as the 6th or 7th centuries, the responsibility for feeding and educating children was considered to go hand in hand. The question at issue between the tenants and Attorney-General in the petition referred to was that while he claimed the “domestical” provisions, he refused the recompenses, alleging that these were merely bounties given by the abbots out of their benevolence and for the good of the neighbourhood. The result of the petition was in favour of the tenants.

The ruins of this once important and richly endowed religious house stand in a fertile district watered by an estuary of the sea, and are surrounded by the romantic and wild country so characteristic of the northern counties. In this Bekangs-Gill, or vale of deadly nightshade, the extensive remains of Furness, built of red sandstone, now covered by luxuriant foliage, occupy a very beautiful position. Gently rising in the distance stand the hills of Low Furness, and, overlooking the Abbey and all the surrounding district, is a commanding hill on which the monks erected a watch-tower, enabling them, if surprised by an enemy, to give warning to the neighbouring coast. The nave of the church is of nine bays, divided from its aisles by eight massive columns. The roof, as in many of these early churches, was composed of wood. A beautiful Norman door in the north transept formed the entrance to the church. This, as well as the great north window, has unfortunately been crookedly set, producing an unsymmetrical and unpleasing effect. In this same transept are three eastern chapels or chantries. The south transept has an aisle of two bays, but the north-eastern chapel—of the three corresponding with those in the north aisle—has been prolonged into a sacristy. This adjoins the south wall of the choir and is of the same length. Though the choir was begun in 1127 the church was not finished for many years. Part of the work is excellent Norman. In the middle of the 15th century the east end and the transepts were rebuilt, the whole edifice strengthened in many ways, and the western tower erected over the site of the original west front. The cloisters are on the south side of the church, and, adjoining the south transept, stands the chapter-house, a building of three compartments, above which was the scriptorium, a staircase to which still remains in the south transept. The refectory of thirteen bays is to the south of the chapter-house, the dormitory being formerly above the monks’ dining hall. Over the alley of the cloisters and joining the western angle of the cloister garth was the guest house. Besides the great guest hall (130 feet by 50 feet—built at the beginning of the 14th century) some further conventual buildings remain to the south of the refectory and fratry, and are fortunate in still retaining some of their groining. These buildings include a Decorated chapel which may perhaps have belonged to the infirmary, standing as they do at a considerable distance from the cloisters.