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Description: | PRN 20551
THIS IS THE RECORD FOR CROWLAND ABBEY AS REFOUNDED IN THE MID TENTH CENTURY UNTIL THE DISSOLUTION OF THE MONASTERY IN 1539.
The original monastery, founded in the early 8th century (on the site of the hermitage of the Anglo-Saxon Saint Guthlac), was destroyed by the Danes in 870 and re-founded as a Benedictine abbey in the mid-tenth century. From the tenth to the fifteenth centuries the monastic buildings were repeatedly extended and rebuilt. The abbey was finally dissolved in 1539 and all the monastic buildings demolished except the nave and aisles of the abbey church which were taken into use as the parish church. The legally designated scheduling of this monument includes the ruins of part of the abbey church, the buried remains of the Anglo-Saxon hermitage, the Anglo-Saxon monastery (23519), medieval monastic buildings and the earthworks of the civil war defences (22051). Excluded from the scheduling are the walls and fabric of the present parish church and its tower, though not the ruins attached to them; the churchyard walls and gateways, which are listed; and all gravestones, 161 of which are listed; the ground beneath these features is, however, included. In the south-western part of the churchyard, which is still in use as a cemetery, the graves, gravestones and earth to a depth of 2m, are excluded from the scheduling although the ground beneath this depth is included. There is a full description in the revised scheduling document 22613. {11}
Stained glass in this church dates to the 14th or 15th century. One fragment displays the rare technique of annealing. {13}
A watching brief at the north side of the Abbey, adjacent to the vestry built in 1933, produced a few unstratified medieval and post medieval artefacts including a decorated bone apple corer of 13th to 17th century date and a few scraps of medieval window glass. A mortar and stone layer was seen at a depth of 1.8m below existing ground level, but further investigation of this feature was not possible due to the unstable nature of the trench. Two recent (late 19th century or later) interrments were also encountered, as was an unstratified fragment of human bone with wool shroud fragments still adhering. {14}{15}
The Abbey church, the churchyard’s west wall and gate and numerous gravestones, table tombs, coffins and a monument are all listed. For full descriptions see the listing descriptions. {16}
Over one hundred fragments of medieval architectural stone originating from the abbey or its associated buildings were recorded and photographed prior to their re-use in an extension to the vestry of the abbey church. {17} | Subjects: | General Archaeology | Temporal: | 971 - 1539 | Source: | Lincolnshire County Council | Identifier: | http://www.lincstothepast.com/Records/Re... | Go to resource |
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