Image ID: 15295

Blyth Church

Blyth
Nottinghamshire
England

The Church of Blyth Priory originally consisted of a short, aisleless, apsidal choir; with short north and south transepts, also without aisles, and a nave of bays with north and south aisles; rude, plain, and uniform from end to end. Over the crossing of the transepts there would be a low lantern tower supported by semi-circular arches, of which the westernmost still remain. The date of this early church is 1088, of which the present nave and north aisle formed a part; and there is an indication in the lower part of the north wall, that the original setting out of bays was square instead of oblong. About a hundred years later (1180) a large south porch was added; and about two hundred years later (1290) the south aisle was widened with a wooden roof only, and the early south porch taken down and rebuilt. It seems a mistake to speak of it as of the same date as the widened aisle. The noble outer doorway and the entrance doorway to the church still remain unaltered. About 1230 A.D. the original flat wooden ceiling was replaced by a quadripartite stone vault, and about 1287 a new south aisle was erected, somewhat wider than the nave and nearly three times wider than the original aisle. The eastern wall of this aisle was the western wall of the Norman transept, and gives us its dimensions. It was pierced with two richly moulded arches on octagonal pillars, but the transepts having been destroyed, these arches are now blocked up. The object of this extension was to give the parishioners a church of their own. Wm. de Flechem, A.D. 1256, was vicar for forty years, and had a long dispute with the priory about vicarial tithes, which was settled by deed of endowment, 1287 A.D. The early unribbed Norman vaulting of the north aisle was left undisturbed. Towards the end of the fifteenth century another alteration was made in the fabric, when a stately western tower was begun and erected slowly in stages. The period occupied in its erection may be fairly indicated by the following bequests. In 1476 Thomas Chamberlain left 6s. 8d. 'fabricae ecclesiae,' and in 1509 Richard Adamson left 3s. 4d. 'Campanae in eadem ecclesia. There are many examples of these western towers of fifteenth century and early sixteenth century date, notably Malmesbury, Furness, Wymondham, Shrewsbury, Bolton, Fountains, and others. Some time or other after the Dissolution the northern triforium was spoilt by the insertion of square-headed three-light windows of a Debased type; the lean-to roof of the north aisle being at the same time lowered and made nearly flat. The original arrangement may be seen in the easternmost secularized bay, now standing in the Hall grounds. As in many other places the grantees pulled down the whole eastern limb and transepts, and, selling the materials, left only those portions of the fabric standing to which the parishioners could lay claim. The blank wall at the east end of the church has been built up into the archway which gave entrance to the mediaeval monastic choir, and was probably the work of the monks, undertaken with a view to privacy of life and worship; though it may be as late as the Dissolution. An entry in Mr. Edward Mellish's account book of work done by him about 1684 speaks of his 'repairing the church end'; and this entry led the late Mr. Raine to attribute erroneously the destruction of the conventual buildings to Mr. Edward Mellish himself; in whose day the Abbey House was certainly rebuilt, and a clean sweep made of the conventual remains; but the actual destruction of the conventual portion came a hundred years earlier. Of the fittings in the Church, the old transverse screens, with painted figures of saints, are to be seen, and at the west end there are also a few seventeenth century pews. The screen now placed under the extreme archway is in all probability a good deal further east than it was originally. The screen in the south aisle was formerly as now, the rood screen of the parish church. Among the monuments in the church are the fragments of a tomb with the recumbent effigy of a knight of the period of Richard I. In the reign of Henry VIII the priory was of the annual value of

Date: 1900

Organisation Reference: NCCN001724

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