Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, is a former Benedictine abbey dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It was one of the few English religious houses with a continuous history from the 7th century through to the Dissolution of the Monasteries.
Monastic history
In the later seventh century, the site of the Abbey was chosen by Máel Dub, an Irish monk who established a hermitage, teaching local children. Towards the end of his life, in the late seventh century, the area was conquered by the Saxons. Malmesbury Abbey was founded as a Benedictine monastery around 676 by the scholar-poet Aldhelm, a nephew of King Ine of Wessex. The town of Malmesbury grew up around the expanding Abbey and under Alfred the Great was made a burh, A mint was founded at the Abbey around this time.
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| 673
| Irish hermit and founder of Malmesbury
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| Aldhelm
| 639
| 709
| first Old English writer in Latin, scholar and poet
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| Eaba ???
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| known only from a letter to Lullus
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| Ethelhard
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| a signatory to a charter of 749
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| Cuthbert
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| attended the council of Clofeshoh in 803
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| Alfred of Malmesbury
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| 999
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| Ælfric of Crediton
| 974
| 1010
| known for building work and his prophecy of the Viking sacking of Malmesbury
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| Æthelweard
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| Cineweard
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| Beorhtelm
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| Beorhtold
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| sold off portions of the abbey lands
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| Eadric
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| Wulfsine
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| 1034
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| Godfrey
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| Eadwulf
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| a monk of Winchester, expelled by Roger of Salisbury
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| Roger of Salisbury
| 1118
| 1139
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| John of Malmsbury
| 1139
| 1140
| appointed by King Stephen after he took the abbey during the Anarchy
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| Peter Moraunt
| 1141
| 1159
| obtained a bull of Pope Innocent II
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| Gregory
| 1159
| 1168
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| Robert
| 1172
| 1176
| a physician to Henry II
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| Osbert Foliot received papal bull from Innocent III <br/>and gained permission from King John to demolish Malmesbury Castle.
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| John Walsh
| 1222
| 1246
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| Geoffrey, sacristan
| 1246
| 1260
| a monk of Malmesbury
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| William of Colerne
| 1260
| 1296
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| William of Badminton
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| 1296
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| Adam de la Hoke
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| a monk of Malmesbury
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| Adam by John of Tintern
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| 1349
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| Simon de Aumeney
| 1348
| 1361
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| Walter de Camme
| 1362
| 1396
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| Thomas Chelworth
| 1396
| 1424
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| Roger Pershore
| 1424
| 1434
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| John Bristow
| 1434
| 1456
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| John Andever
| 1456
| 1462
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| John Ayly
| 1462
| 1480
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| Richard Frampton
| 1480
| 1515
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| Richard Camme
| 1515
| 1533
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| Richard Selwyn
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| surrendered the Abbey to Henry VIII in 1539
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Parish church
thumb|upright=1.25|The remaining part of the nave of Malmesbury Abbey, blocked off to the west, currently used as the parish church
The abbey, which owned in the twenty parishes that constituted the Malmesbury Hundred, was closed at the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539 by Henry VIII and was sold, with all its lands, to William Stumpe, a rich merchant. He returned the abbey church to the town for continuing use as a parish church, and filled the abbey buildings with up to 20 looms for his cloth-weaving enterprise.
The west tower fell around 1550, demolishing the three westernmost bays of the nave. As a result of these two collapses, less than half of the original building stands today. During the English Civil War, Malmesbury suffered extensive damage evidenced by hundreds of pock-marks left by bullets and shot which can still be seen on the south, west and east sides of the building.
In 1949, the church was designated as a Grade I listed building. Historic England added it to their Heritage at Risk Register in 2022, stating that the roofs of the nave and aisles were leaking and in need of repair.
Today Malmesbury Abbey is in full use as the parish church of Malmesbury, in the Diocese of Bristol. The remains still contain a fine parvise (a room over the porch) which holds some examples of books from the abbey library. The Anglo-Saxon charters of Malmesbury, though extended by forgeries and improvements executed in the abbey's scriptorium, provide source material today for the history of Wessex and the West Saxon church from the seventh century.
Vicars of St Paul's and the Abbey Church, Malmesbury
From 1301 until the mid-16th century, the parish church of Malmesbury was St. Paul's. This stood in what is now Birdcage Walk (its tower and steeple remains, and is now the Abbey belltower). In 1539 Malmesbury Abbey ceased to exist as a monastic community and in August 1541 Thomas Cranmer licensed the abbey church to replace St Paul's as the parish church of Malmesbury. In 1837 the ancient chapelries of Corston and Rodbourne were made into a separate parish, called St Paul Malmesbury Without, and St Mary Westport was united to the abbey church.
Organ
thumb|upright|The current organ, dating from 1984
The earliest organ was obtained in 1846 and had formerly stood in the church of St Benet Fink, Threadneedle Street, London; it had been manufactured in 1714 by Abraham Jordan. In 1938 a new organ was provided by Henry Willis, which had formerly been owned by Sir George Alfred Wills, Baronet of Bristol. Eventually it too was replaced.
The current organ dates from 1984 and was built by E.J. Johnson of Cambridge at a cost of £71,000 (). A specification of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.
Notable burials
thumb|upright=1.3|An early 20th-century engraving of King [[Æthelstan's tomb]]
- Máel Dub, who founded the first monastic community in Malmesbury and gave his name to the town. His bones were cast out of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul by the Norman abbot Warin of Lyre, and relegated to a far corner of St. Michael's Church. According to William of Malmesbury, Æthelstan's body was disinterred in the 11th century and reburied in the abbot's garden (now Abbey House Gardens) to avoid Norman desecration. He is commemorated by an empty 15th-century tomb in the north aisle.
- Daniel, Bishop of Winchester
- Hannah Twynnoy, supposedly the first person to be killed by a tiger in England, is buried in the churchyard, her gravestone inscribed with a poem. She was killed on 23 October 1703 after teasing a tiger in a menagerie stabled in the White Lion public house where she worked.
Legacy
In 2009, historian Michael Wood speculated that Malmesbury Abbey was the site of transcription of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf.
See also
- List of English abbeys, priories and friaries serving as parish churches
- Monk of Malmesbury
- The Old Bell, Malmesbury
Images
Notes
Sources
- Smith, M Q: The Sculptures of the South Porch of Malmesbury Abbey: A Short Guide, 1975
Further reading
External links
- Malmesbury Abbey at Window on Wiltshire's Heritage
- Image directory of Malmesbury Abbey at ArtServe
- Malmesbury Abbey at The Normans: A European People