Old Bits and Pieces 2

Malmesbury Abbey

17th June 2012

We were disappointed to learn that during our trip to Norfolk we could have stopped enroute and visited the burial place of King Harold Hadrada – the guy that William the Conqueror conquered. This weekend – with Mark having to go to Bristol for a conference – we chose to head off in that direction and look for a dead king. We ended up at Malmesbury and Dyrnham House, and spent the night in Bristol. Cal then drove home on Monday, and Mark went to work – conferencing to his heart’s content.

Malmesbury is about due north from Salisbury, through Mr TomTom doing his usual trick, took us via the most direct route via single track country roads – but at least we had some interesting sights on the Salisbury Plains, with plenty of signs of tank crossings (we didn’t have the camera at the ready – must stop off and get a photo later).

First order of the day was lunch near a stream and a car park, following which was a steepish walk up from the valley floor to the abbey.

Along the way we walked past a number of plaques celebrating the past 2500 years of history:


500 BC Iron Age settlements   941 AD, King Æthelstan is buried in the abbey.  
675 AD Benedictine monastery founded by Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex.
880 AD Malmesbury is given borough status by King Alfred
1180 AD The Norman abbey is completed.
1539 AD King Henry VIII dissolves the abbey and it passes to William Stumpe.

Today the Abbey is a thriving place of Christian worship, as the parish church of Malmesbury.

Malmesbury Abbey, which funnily enough is at Malmesbury in Wiltshire (no kidding), was founded as a Benedictine monastery around 676 AD by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex. It is one of the few religious houses that has a continual history from the 7th century through to the Dissolution of the Monasteries through to the current day.

  

In 941 AD, King Æthelstan (the glorious) was buried in the Abbey. Æthelstan – two years after he died in Gloucester in October 939 (go figure – they were probably working out where to plant him). Actually, they don’t really know where King Æthelstan is actually buried (exactly) due to the destruction of the parts of the abbey under the tower (see later). There was, however, a 14th Century memorial to the king, which is now in the abbey.

It’s amazing what you learn after you visit a place. We really should visit Google before visiting the sites!

In the case of Malmesbury, we learned that by the 11th century it contained the second largest library in Europe and was considered one of the leading European seats of learning. This piece of vellum is from a 14th century four part bible (actually from Belgium) – the colours were so vibrant.

Such was their learning (so advanced that is!) that they had a monk who aspired to be an aeronautical engineer (and we all know how smart (arsed) they can be ☺). In 1010 Monk Eilmer attempted flight by flying a primitive hang glider from a tower. Eilmer flew over 200 m before landing, breaking both legs. He later remarked that the only reason he did not fly further was the lack of a tail on his glider – just think what could have been!!!

To give some indication of the heights – the tower of Salisbury Cathedral is 63.8 metres (209 ft) (without spire), and the height of the spire (now the tallest church spire in the United Kingdom) is 123m (404 ft). Malmesbury Abbey had a 131 m (431 ft) tall spire, so one might reckon that the tower is also a little taller than that of Salisbury – that’s a glide slope of about 1:3 – no wonder he broke his legs , particularly if he flew off towards the valley side.

So what happened to the spire (mine’s bigger than yours)? Around 1500 AD, the spire, and the tower it was built upon, collapsed in a storm and destroyed much of the church, including two thirds of the nave and the transept. The west tower fell around 1550, demolishing the three west-ernmost bays of the nave. As a result of these two collapses, less than half of the original building stands today. Better stick to aeronautical engineering – civil engineering wasn’t their strong point. However, having said that, we should point out that the Abbey is still incredible – so much light, and some wondrous heights.

We couldn’t resist some pics outside the Abbey – the pub would have scored one of us four runs had we been in the car!

Below is a photo of a statue just outside a garden near the abbey (you have to pay to get into it). The reason why we include the photo (other than the fact that it is right next to the abbey) is that on the way down to the car (as we walked by the garden) we looked into the garden and saw a portly male naturalist wondering through the gardens – just as well we didn’t spend our money and explore the garden in detail!!

Dyrnham Park

Dyrnham park was a National Trust house/garden nearby to Malmesbury and on the way to Bris-tol, so definitely worth a quick stop. The name Dyrham derives from the Saxon 'Deor hamm', meaning 'deer enclosure'. So, Dyrnham has Saxon beginnings, and in 577 AD, the Saxons won an important battle against the British kings, thereby gaining control of Gloucester, Cirencester and Bath.

We didn’t get an opportunity to look inside the house – but apparently Dyrnham Park House (it’s baroque, so you shouldn’t fix it) was designed and built for William Blathwayt, Secretary at War during the reign of William III (of Orange) in the late 17th century. The 17th century collections reflect the fashion for all things Dutch, including paintings and furniture. This was mainly due to Blathwayt’s royal connections, and his influential uncle, Thomas Povey. The collection includes delftware, paintings, and furniture.


The house is set in 274 acres (1.1 km²) of gardens and parkland – and comes complete with deer – funny that ☺.









There are also many flowers to take photos of – and even have the house all blurry in the background ☺.

     










Adjacent the house are more formal gardens (including a croquet lawn) and ponds. 

St Peter's Church is also in the grounds (see above), so we took a gander at that as well. We loved some of the sculp-tures in the church – as well as the brass and floor tiles.