Abbey Dore, Herefordshire : its building and restoration / by Edwin Sledmere ; with 27 ill., of which 20 are drawings from photographs, by Cuthbert Ernest Sledmere.

  • Sledmere, Edwin.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Abbey Dore, Herefordshire : its building and restoration / by Edwin Sledmere ; with 27 ill., of which 20 are drawings from photographs, by Cuthbert Ernest Sledmere. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and where his supposed tomb with recumbent figure in full armour may still be seen. He also, as the Cartulary of the priory of Ewias shows, made five grants to the monks of Ewias, and he was also a benefactor to the alien priory of Crasswall. He was very wealthy and well able to make such generous gifts to the church, for the lord- ship of Ewias, which fell to him, contained, according to one account, no less than forty-seven fees held direct from the king, with others. He was not only a man of the very noblest birth, but also of the highest courage, and, unlike his grandfather, was a warrior from his youth up, living only to fight the ever restless Welsh on his western border. To enable us to follow the growth and gradual expansion of the abbey until it attained to its full development, and thence to its ultimate decline, the following dates, particulars of benefactions, and of some persons of “ polite learning, strict religion, and great policy that adorned it,” are given in chronological order :— 1128. Introduction of the order of Cistercians into England by William Giffard, Bishop of Winchester, at Waverley in Sussex. 1147. The probable date of the foundation of the Abbey. 1149. The fourteenth of Stephen, and two years after the presumptive founda- tion of the monastery, Walter de Scudamore, knight, gave a parcel of his ground called Fulke’s Mead to the abbey. 1170 (circa). The Sitsylts, ancestors of the great family of Cecil, were bene- factors to the Abbey. “ Baldwyn Sitsylt, Knight, gave certaine lands in the township of Kigestone (sic) [parishes of Kingston and Dore] unto the Moonkes of Dore, and granted unto the same Moonkes freedom of common and pasture and other liberties in his woods.”* 1185. Probably the date of the completion of the enlargement of the presby- tery and additions of choir aisles and eastern aisle. 1200. “ Adam, a Monk of Dore, a Man of great Note, was educated here ; where he very profitably spent his younger Years in the Study of the liberal Arts * Dr. Powell’s “Historie of Cambria,” 1584.