OLD ENGLISH ABBEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 5 January 1939, Page 8

OLD ENGLISH ABBEY

BUILDING AT WALTHAM. Although it has long been known that the Abbey at Waltham, about 12 miles from London on the Hertfordshire and Essex border, had been an important one dating back to the days of King Harold, the full realisation of the original size has only recently been discovered. The first church on the site was built 'in 1030 A.D. by a nobleman named Tovi, who was standard-bearer to King Canute. This gave place in 1060 to a much large building erected by Harold, the last of the English Kings before the Norman Conquest at the Battle of Hastings in 1066. It is believed that it is the nave of this church which exists today as the Abbey and Parish Church of Waltham Holy Cross (says the “Christian Science Monitor”).

About a century later in 1177 Henry 11, changed the status of Waltham Collegiate Church to that of an Augustinian Priory. Repairs and extensions were made with all the buildings necessary to house an abbot, prior, and monks. What has not been known, however, is that the extension made the building into one some 400 ft in length, this, tod, not taking into account any chapels which may yet be discovered at the east end.

A curious architectural feature laid bare by the excavations is that there were two large central towers, both with transepts, and separated by a nave about 160 ft long. After the passing of Thomas a Becket, Henry II made a vow of penance to found some religious houses, one of them being at Waltham. But, except for details which are extant giving the cost of materials used in the building, no plan has been found to show what a splendid edifice it must have been.

It is strange to read of the cost of building in those days, the total expenditure for the great abbey spread over about seven years being something over £l4OO. This included.the cost of bringing the lead for the roof from Derbyshire, 265 cart loads of it, by road and water, and timbei’ from the Gloucestershire forests.

Why the Essex Forests closq by should not have been selected to supply it must remain a mystery. Such a building in these days might run into hundreds of thousands of pounds. But the wage of a labourer in those days was only a penny a day, and pennies bought much more than they do now.