| £ | s. | d. | |
| In the diocese of Hereford, at | 14 | 0 | 1 |
| „ Bath and Wells | 11 | 0 | 0 |
| „ Worcester | 7 | 5 | 0 |
| -- | - | - | |
| Total | 32 | 5 | 1 |
Ere long it acquired the dignity of a mitred abbey, though never of a peeral one, its abbot being summoned to Parliament 21st Edward III. During the reign of Richard II. these additional grants were made to it:—“Certain tenements in Leye, Bosteley, and Rodley; the manor and impropriate church of Flaxley; the manors
of Blaisdon, Newnham, and Ruerdean; distinct manors in the parishes of Dean Parva, Dymock, and Arlingham, with a house in Abbenhall.” A document in the Chapter-house at Westminster, dated 10th Edward II., has the abbot’s seal attached, representing an abbot standing erect with his crosier under a canopy slightly ornamented, with the legend s . abbatis . de . flaxle. The counter seal is a hand with a crosier, and other ornaments, viz., a fleur-de-lis, &c., surrounded by the words contra sigillum abbatis de flaxle. The names and dates of the following abbots have been preserved:—
| Elected. | |
| 1288 | Nicholas. |
| 1314 | William de Rya. |
| 1372 | Richard Peyta. |
| 1509 | John ---. |
| 1528 | William Beawdley. |
| 1532 | Thomas Ware. |
The last of these, Thomas Ware, survived the suppression of the house and the dispersion of its brethren, of whom there were nine at that time, the abbey being delivered up to the King’s Commissioners in 1541, valued at £112 13s. 1d., according to Dugdale. Tintern Abbey was suppressed four years previously. Ware retired to Aston Rowant, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, where he spent the rest of his life in seclusion, and was there buried in 1546.
The vicissitudes of 300 years have left little of the original structure remaining: only in 1788 the pavement of the Chapter-house was discovered at a small depth, on the east side of the refectory, extending about 45 feet, and 24 wide. At the upper end a circular stone bench was exposed, and in the centre the carved base of a pillar. Several coffin-lids of stone were likewise found, sculptured with ornamented crosses, and upon one a hand and arm holding a crosier, under which probably one of the abbots was interred. The view of the abbey as it appeared about the year 1712, according to Sir R. Atkyns’s print, exhibits traces of the ancient residence of the abbot and monks, respecting which the Rev. T. Rudge remarks—“It was low, but long in front, being 60 feet in length, 25 feet wide, and only 14
high; the whole arched with stone, and the vault intersected with plain and massy ribs, and seems to have formed the refectory. The first floor contained a long gallery, and at the south end one very spacious apartment which was supposed to have been the abbot’s chief room. The dormitories or cells were connected with the great gallery.”
