File:Vanishing England (1911) (14771496665).jpg

Identifier: vanishingengland00ditc (find matches)
Title: Vanishing England
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Ditchfield, P. H. (Peter Hampson), 1854-1930
Subjects: England -- Description and travel England -- Antiquities
Publisher: London : Methuen
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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due to theRev. Canon Jones, Vicar of Bradford. At the Reforma-tion with the dissolution of the abbey at Shaftesbury ithad passed into lay hands. The chancel was used as acottage. Round its walls other cottages arose. Perhapspart of the building was at one time used as a charnel-house, as in an old deed it is called the Skull House. In1715 the nave and porch were given to the vicar to beused as a school. But no one suspected the presence ofthis exquisite gem of Anglo-Saxon architecture, untilCanon Jones when surveying the town from the height ofa neighbouring hill recognized the peculiarity of the roofand thought that it might indicate the existence of achurch. Thirty-seven years ago the Wiltshire antiquariessucceeded in purchasing the building. They cleared awaythe buildings, chimney-stacks, and outhouses that hadgrown up around it, and revealed the whole beauties ofthis lovely shrine. Archaeologists have fought many battlesover it as to its date. Some contend that it is the identical
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Saxon Doorway in St. Lawrences Church, Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts i44 VANISHING ENGLAND church which William of Malmesbury tells us St. Aldhelmbuilt at Bradford-on-Avon about 700 a.d., others assertthat it cannot be earlier than the tenth century. Itwas a monastic cell attached to the Abbey of Malmes-bury, but Ethelred II gave it to the Abbess of Shaftesburyin 1001 as a secure retreat for her nuns if Shaftesburyshould be threatened by the ravaging Danes. We neednot describe the building, as it is well known. Our artisthas furnished us with an admirable illustration of it. Itsgreat height, its characteristic narrow Saxon doorways,heavy plain imposts, the string-courses surrounding thebuilding, the arcades of pilasters, the carved figures ofangels are some of its most important features. It ischeering to find that amid so much that has vanished wehave here at Bradford a complete Saxon church thatdiffers very little from what it was when it was firsterected. Other Saxon remains are not want

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