The Chapter House, Cockersand Abbey

SD 45 SW THURNHAM

11/203 The Chapter House, Cockersand 2-5-1968 Abbey (Formerly listed as Remains of Cockersand Abbey under General)

• I

Chapter house of Cockersand Abbey (Premonstratensian, founded 1180-90), early C13th, converted into burial chamber for Dalton family probably mid C18th. Red sandstone rubble with slate roof. Octagonal plan, now squared off on west side to make it appear externally as a rectangle with a 3-sided projection at the east. The west wall appears to be much rebuilt and has a doorway, now partly blocked and with a smaller door, with a round arch moulded in 2 orders and capitals for angle shafts, now missing. The 3 sides visible from the east have an embattled parapet, and buttresses with offsets at their angles. Each side has a blocked window with a sill at the level of the springing of its moulded pointed arch. The mouldings are made with cement, and rebuilding below sill level suggests that the openings were once larger. Inside, a vaulted roof with foliated bosses is carried on a central compound pier with stiff-leaf capital. The stonework is limewashed and some of the details, including the carved head stops to the hood moulds, have been restored in cement. The walls are arcaded, with pointed arches moulded in 2 orders with angle shafts, the outer ones now missing. Some of the arches are filled by inscribed slate memorials to the Dalton family of Thurnham Hall (q.v.), including Robert Dalton (d, 1785). Scheduled Ancient Monument. A plan, section and elevation, together with Buck's engraving of 1727, are reproduced in Swarbrick, J. 'The Abbey of St. Mary-of-the-Marsh at cockersand', Trans. Lancs. & Ches. Ant. Soc., vol. XL, 1922-3.

Listing NGR: SD4270653761