Buildwas Abbey Comprising Guardianship Monument and Part of Claustral Ranges in Grounds of Abbey House

Details

BUILDWAS C.P. WENLOCK ROAD SJ 60 SW (west side) 5/21 Buildwas Abbey comprising 13.6.58 Guardianship monument and part of claustral ranges in grounds of Abbey House (Previously listed as GV Buildwas Abbey.)

Abbey, remains of. Founded 1135 by Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield; present buildings mainly late C12 and completed by c.1200. Regularly coursed limestone rubble, now roofless except for east range of claustral buildings and transeptal chapels of church. Remains consist of the church: nave, crossing tower, transepts and presbytery together with the foundations of its aisles and south aisle chapel; and north claustral buildings: east range comprising sacristy, chapter house and parlour, plus the foundations of the lay brothers' quarters in the west range and the footings of the cloister itself; the refectory lay on the north side but its foundations are now in the grounds of Abbey House (q.v.). Church; nave: circular piers with scalloped capitals supporting blunt-pointed transitional 7-bay north and south arcades; clerestory above moulded string course has round-headed windows (formerly with nook-shafts and the remains of foliated capitals internally) linked by a continuous hoodmould, shallow pilaster buttresses with the remains of a plain corbel table on north side; austere west front has 2 tall round-arched windows and pilaster buttressing; bluntly pointed arches to crossing, those to east and west springing from decorated corbelled responds and those to north and south from composite piers with waterleaf capitals; presbytery in 2 bays, formerly rib-vaulted, the springing remaining at wall tops; early C13 sedilia with dogtooth ornament on south, tall lancet to east; 3-light east window said to be C18, replacing an early C13 window of 6 lights (blocked openings still visible); transepts: both have 2 pointed arches to east leading to small square-ended chapels, which have the remains of groined vaulting and round-arched recesses in their south walls; there is a crypt below the north transept and a door- way in the south wall of the south transept formerly led to the monks' cemetery, pointed arches also lead to aisles, of which (except for part of a round-headed window at the west end of the south aisle) only foundations survive; on the south are the foundations of the late C14 south aisle chapel, this contains a number of 013 and C14 grave slabs, some embellished with floriated crosses. To north are the claustral buildings; east range: at south corner a segmental-headed doorway with round-arched hood leads to the groin-vaulted crypt beneath the north transept (see above); this is followed to north by the sacristy, approached through a round-arched doorway; vaulted in 2 bays, originally ribbed, with a flight of 8 steps leading up from the east bay into the north transept; next comes the chapter house, entered by a plain round- headed doorway of 3 orders with nook-shafts (only one of which remains) and flanked by round-headed windows of 2 orders with the remains of decorated capitals; the building, which is below the level of the cloister, is divided by 4 piers, 2 round and 2 octagonal, into 9 rib- vaulted compartments; lit by 3 round-arched windows in east wall and formerly by 2 others (now blocked) in the north and south walls of the east bay; contains a good set of glazed floor tiles (?C14), some grave slabs and various other architectural fragments; at end of range is the parlour, entered through a doorway with segmental head under a round-headed arch of 2 orders, formerly with nook-shafts; its interior is rib-vaulted in 2 bays and doorways in the east wall and the east end of the north wall formerly led to an undercroft: this is now represented by the late C12 three-bay arcade, attached to the north-east corner of the parlour, in the grounds of Abbey House (q.v.); the arcade consists of 3 bluntly pointed arches aligned north-south with 2 circular piers having multi-scalloped capitals and square abaci, walls projecting at right-angles to west on north and south (latter still showing traces of former vaulting) enclose a rectangular area: the function of the under- croft is uncertain but it may have been associated with the abbey's dormitory, a small round-headed window of which can be seen above the south arch of the arcade, or with the refectory, the foundations of which lie to the west: the roof-line of a former building projecting to the east is visible above the south arch of the arcade. The west range now comprises only the foundations of the cellar beneath the lay brothers' quarters. Extensive earthworks to north-west include the abbey's former fishponds. Buildwas Abbey is a Scheduled Ancient Monument in guardianship (A.M. County No.2). B.o.E., Pp.88-90; H.M.S.O. Guide (2nd Edn.1978); V.C.H. II (1973), Pp.50-9; The Builder, Vol.79 (1900), Pp. 292-4

Listing NGR: SJ6434104299

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

258803

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Guide to Buildwas Abbey, (1978)
Page, W, The Victoria History of the County of Shropshire, (1973), 50-9
Pevsner, N, The Buildings of England: Shropshire, (1958), 88-90
The Builder in The Builder, Vol. 79, (1900), 292-4

End of official list entry

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