Evesham Abbey (2)

The building of the great abbey church, which, besides the magnificent shrine of St. Ecgwine, contained fifteen altars, was begun in the eleventh century by Abbot Walter and gradually completed by several subsequent abbots. It was cruciform, with a central tower, and was nearly 300 feet in length. The previous bell tower having collapsed, after being struck by lightning, a magnificent detached campanile, still treasured by the town, was built by Abbot Clement Lichfield around 1533.

Within the abbey precincts and under the very shadow of its minster, were two parish churches, erected by the monks for the use of the people of the town of Evesham that had grown up around its walls. St. Lawrence dates from the thirteenth century and All Saints is of a century later. The last of the great abbots of Evesham, Clement Lichfield, who reigned from 1514 to 1539, added chantries to both of these churches. Unwilling to yield to Henry VIII's commissioners when the suppression of the monasteries was threatened, Abbot Lichfield resigned his abbacy acting, it was said, on Thomas Cromwell's suggestion. His successor was Philip Hawford, who surrendered the abbey into the king's hands in the same year, 1539. For this service he was rewarded with a pension of £240, and afterwards became first Protestant Dean of Worcester, in which cathedral his tomb may still be seen. The revenues of the abbey at the time of its suppression are given by Dugdale as £1183. The demolition of the buildings commenced almost immediately, and the ruins became, as in the case of so many others, a stone quarry. Besides the two parish churches and the bell tower, only a gateway, a cloister arch, parts of the Almonry, and a few other isolated fragments remain intact to show the glory of Evesham Abbey.

The point of contact for Evesham Abbey is the Almonry Heritage Centre, which is housed in the Almoner’s House of the Abbey, immediately adjacent to the site of the Great Gatehouse.