St Marys Abbey Remains Church

St Mary's Abbey Remains: Church

An abbey church, now ruined, founded in 1089 with major rebuilding carried out between 1270 and 1294. The remains are constructed of magnesian limestone incorporating some reused Roman gritstone.

The church followed a substantial plan comprising an eight-bay nave with aisles, three-bay transepts with aisles, and a nine-bay east arm with aisles, originally with a central tower.

East Arm and Transepts

The east end survives only as base courses of the buttressed wall and north wall. The north transept shows base courses of the east and north walls with fragments of a buttress. The south transept preserves base courses of the east wall and buttresses, with lower courses of the west wall visible including a buttress with moulded bases of triple attached angle shafts. A south-west buttress is now contained within the basement of Tempest Anderson Hall.

Nave

The north side stands on a bold plinth articulated by two-stage buttresses. One bay towards the western end contains a moulded doorway with a two-centred arch springing from piers of alternately attached and detached shafts with decayed capitals, set beneath a hoodmould on stops. Narrow pointed blind arches flank each side. Windows are similarly arcaded with alternating two- or three-light arched windows, originally with traceried heads and flanked by recessed pointed blind arches. The arcade was carried on detached shafts (mostly now missing) with stiff-leaf capitals, largely decayed. Window mullions were originally multi-shaft piers with moulded capitals, now decaying. A sillstring runs below the windows. On the south side, lower courses of five bays and fragments of buttresses with splayed angles and triple engaged shafts are visible.

West Front

Set on a moulded plinth, the west front is buttressed and arcaded in three tiers of trefoiled blind arches springing from tripled shafts with moulded or foliate capitals under crocketed gables. The north side of the west doorway arch survives, comprising five orders (one attached, four detached) enriched with vine trail mouldings. Only a decayed north jamb remains of the west window. Remains of a three-light west window to the north aisle show a moulded arch on jambs of engaged shafts with moulded soffit.

Interior

East End

The plan of the 1089 church is set out in stonework on the ground. In the north aisle, bays are articulated by the lowest courses of triple engaged shafts rising from a wall bench. The east respond of the north arcade has five filleted or keeled shafts. On the south side, lower courses of four arcade piers of octofoil plan with filleted and keeled shafts have been reconstructed.

Crossing

The north-west pier, asymmetrical on plan, survives intact to springing height with multiple filleted and keeled shafts, moulded bases and stiff-leaf capitals. The remaining three piers have been rebuilt to a height of five courses.

North Transept

Lower courses and vestiges of wallbenches of two north bays of the west wall survive. Both bays are arcaded in two pointed arches with hoodmoulds, each over twin subsidiary arches springing from shafts (now missing) with moulded capitals and moulded uncusped roundels in the spandrels. The third bay has a two-centred arch of three moulded orders to the nave north aisle. Above survives one bay of triforium with a two-centred arch of two orders over a blind arcade of four trefoiled lights and quatrefoil tracery. The south jamb of the middle bay window has three engaged shafts with decaying moulded capitals and bases.

Nave Arcades

Nothing survives of the north arcade. Of the south arcade, only base courses of one octofoil pier with one trefoiled shaft towards the south aisle remain. The west responds are multiple-shafted, keeled and filleted, with triple roll-moulded bases and foliate capitals. The north aisle wall is articulated by full-height triple engaged shafts with moulded bases and foliate capitals. Each bay is arcaded as in the north transept but with tripled arches rather than two. The north doorway, blocked with railings and incorporated in the arcading, has a stilted segmental rere-arch beneath a hoodmould to its inner face. In the westernmost bay is a plain blocked doorway to a vice. In the upper stage, external window detailing is repeated on the inside. The south aisle wall survives only in base courses of three bays, fragments of wallbench, a flight of door steps and the base of one triple-shafted pier.

West End

The west doorway is flanked by two-arched arcades as in the north transept and by single trefoiled arches as on the exterior of the west end.

The site is scheduled as an Ancient Monument and is located in the Museum Gardens.