Romsey Abbey

Having devoted much of our 2019 UK visit to parish churches on the east side of the island, we thought we'd take in a few on this garden-tour visit too. Romsey Abbey is just a few miles from Hillier Gardens, and it is highly rated as parish churches go. It was a Benedictine nunnery for several hundred years until the town bought it outright from Henry VIII in the Dissolution--similar to Tewkesbury further west and north--and others. Thus a large old abbey church became a large old parish church. 

But there's more. According to Wikipedia,

"Despite the faithful service in prayer of many of the nuns over many centuries, there are scattered traces of irregularities in the conduct of the house, of which the evidence would merit impartial investigation with modern historiographical methods, rather than stale prejudice. Some sources accuse the abbess Elizabeth Broke (1472-1502) of ruling over a period of scandal, including allowing poor dress standards for nuns, allowing nuns to go to the towns taverns, poor account keeping and an unhealthy relationship with the Chaplain."

So what's wrong with a little stale prejudice? I ask. In any case, for further light on the matter watch  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwOslM8JN0I&ab_channel=Duke, and you'll see more of why Romsey Abbey appealed. 

We'll get to the sculptural program in the next post

Elevation: notice the first pier is rounded and definitely on the
Romanesque side; the next three bays' arches are Romanesque; 
the rest Gothic...it takes time to build an abbey, and fashions
change...

"Welcome, gentle sir knight1"

Foundation of the preceding Saxon church

Program for the Tudor painting below

Lower left, depicting Elizabeth Ryprose, the last Abbess at Romsey

Chancel lancet windows

Some of the original paint in one of the transepts

Looking astern, from abaft the beam

Among the more colorful memorials in the church,
mid-17th

"Lord Louis," as he was called by those beneath him...member of

the royal family, among Allied leaders in WWII certainly the most

dashing, presided over India's independence, rose to even greater heights

in the armed services in the 50s; assassinated by the IRA in 1979 

Romsey's deed of sale for the abbey from Henry VIII

Moving outside and some of the sculptural program
we'll get to in the next post

Street scene in beautiful Romsey

Two building in age comparable with the abbey

"Fred and Erma" style, as Vicki calls it