England in the 1640’s, a rough place and a tumultuous place. Castles blown apart, families too, cousin versus cousin. Choose your side and pray you back the winning one.
How did England fall into this frenzy? The seeds were scattered lay 100 years previous, all it took was a prayer book, imposed by a headstrong king to finish the job off, the torch paper, already smouldering suddenly burst into flames.
For the modern time traveller, should you wish to witness one of the largest wholesale sell offs to the woven architectural fabric of England, you’ll have to set your mind machine back to the 1540’s. Destruction of rebirth, it’s all in the perspective.
During the haphazard and stuttered reordering of the Church of England, many of its buildings up and down the land which had previously been under the control of European sister monasteries, in a heartbeat became untethered, their roofs ripped off, ruined, left to gather moss. The nuns and monks who once dwelt within, cast into the harsh world of everybody else’s reality, a place they knew very little about. Left abandoned, to fend for themselves, many without the practical skills or a pension to care for them.
For the fortunate few, church buildings that is, local townspeople scrimped and cashed in their savings (see Beverley, St. Albans, Romsey) to buy it back, see it serve the community again. For most though, the roof was simply stripped of valuable lead, statues pilfered, stone shipped off for many of the King’s new projects. A few monastic vestiges lingered, to be transformed into new palatial Tudor homes for the wealthy (see Syon House, Lacock Abbey, Forde Abbey, Centre Abbey).
Here in Malmesbury, the former abbey church was shorn of its nave, central tower and transepts to the rather charming stump which remains. What was lost was huge, but what remains appears no less impressive, and in many ways, enlivens the view.
It really is rather fascinating piecing puzzles together. What went before? A 3 legged dog is still a dog, so Malmesbury Abbey is no less impressive should the monks roll up in its car-park tomorrow morning.