Buckfast Abbey, Main Block

Details

BUCKFASTLEIGH

SX7467 BUCKFAST ROAD, Buckfast 1011-1/5/28 Buckfast Abbey, main block 10/01/51 (Formerly Listed as: BUCKFAST ROAD, Buckfast Chapel of St Anne, Buckfast Abbey) (Formerly Listed as: BUCKFAST ROAD, Buckfast Abbot's Tower, Buckfast Abbey) (Formerly Listed as: BUCKFAST ROAD, Buckfast Remains of house incorporated into Abbey to SW of Abbey Church)

GV II*

Abbey. Includes the probably C14 Abbot's Tower, a c1800 mansion built for Samuel Berry, incorporating a medieval vaulted undercroft, and a building programme begun in 1883 to the designs of FA Walters for the Benedictine monks who purchased the site. Local grey limestone rubble, some Bathstone and Ham Hill stone dressings; slate roofs. Walter's designs are a simplified Romanesque "no doubt influenced by the history of the site" (Pevsner). Plan: the programme begun in 1883 largely followed the site of the medieval cloister and incorporated the Berry house with undercroft, the Abbot's Tower and an 1882 church (now the chapter house) into a courtyard range. The 1882 church preceded Walter's rebuilding of the abbey church, largely on the foundations of the medieval abbey church. The Abbot's Tower is at the south end of the west range with Berry's house at the north end; church south of and broken forward from the Abbot's tower. North and east ranges to Walter's designs. EXTERIOR: Abbot's Tower. 3 storeys. Octagonal stair turret at SW corner. Set-back buttresses with parapet above moulded string. 2-light stone mullioned windows to west and north faces upper windows with flamboyant tracery. Berry House. Partly concealed by Walter's building, the 3-storey c1800 building reused medieval masonry. The house was originally castellated, the entrance, with octagonal corner towers and a central projecting bay with 2-light transomed mullioned window is visible above the single storey gabled entrance block of the Walter phase. Church. West end has blocked ground-floor doorway, 3-light west window with intersecting cusped tracery and lancet windows to the sides. Claustral buildings. West elevation, the most prominent, has a 7-bay Romanesque-style front, the bays divided by pilasters, corbelled eaves. Ground floor has round-headed windows with recessed architraves, glazed with square leaded panes. Round-headed doorway in the 2nd bay from the north with double chamfered arch. Battered string at first-floor level rises as a gable over the door, gable carved with 'pax' the motto of the Benedictines. First-floor windows in large round-headed recesses. Windows mostly paired and round-headed, glazed with square leaded panes. First-floor windows, similarly glazed, also paired to each bay with blind round-headed tympana. North and east claustral ranges in the same style. INTERIOR: plain medieval vaulted undercroft below Berry House, with access from the abbey church (qv). Interior of other buildings not inspected but Pevsner notes classical fireplaces in Berry House. The Grade II* reflects the importance of the medieval buildings incorporated in this complex and the significance of the whole site. (Buildings of England: Pevsner N: Devon: London: 1989-: 222-226; Proceedings of Devon Archaeological Society, No 46 (1988): Brown S W: Excavations & Building Recording at Buckfast Abbey, Devon: Devon: 1988-).

Listing NGR: SX7414167369

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

392218

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Cherry, B, The Buildings of England: Devon, (1989), 222-226
Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society in Proceedings of the Devon Archaeological Society, Vol. 46, (1988)

Other
Brown, SW , Excavations and Building Recording at Buckfast Abbey Devon, 1988,

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