Historic Churches 2023

38 BCD SPECIAL REPORT ON H ISTOR I C CHURCHE S 30th ANNUAL ED ITION was continuously modified throughout this time, notably with the construction of new cloistral buildings, chapels, and the repaving of the entire building with encaustic tiles in the early 14th century. Excavations within the abbey nave uncovered an intact part of this floor two metres below the modern floor. These tiles, which were probably laid on the orders of Bishop Droxford in the late 1320s, were manufactured at the Nash Hill tilery, near Lacock, Wiltshire. The tiles were decorated with the arms of England and de Clare, an abbey front, fleur-de-lys, as well as figurative representations of birds and griffins. THE REBUILDING OF BATH ABBEY The see of Bath and Wells was moved to Wells in the 13th century, and by the late 15th century, Bath Priory was showing its age. The Norman church, with its thick walls and narrow windows, would, compared to the many new churches springing up around the county, have seemed a dark and outdated building that was far too large for the modest needs of a provincial priory. Rebuilding of the priory probably commenced around 1480, but progress remained slow until c 1500, when the new bishop, Oliver King, brought enthusiasm, funds and royal masons to work on the project. Bishop King died in 1503 and progress again slowed. When the antiquarian John Leyland visited Bath in the 1530s, the roofless remains of the Norman east end were still firmly attached to the incomplete Perpendicular church. The Dissolution of the Monasteries brought about further ruination: the church was stripped of salvageable metal and glass, and most of the cloistral buildings and the Norman east end were demolished and quarried for stone. Despite these ravages, the basic structure of the church survived, and in 1572 it was given to the people of Bath for use as a parish church. Repairing the building was a monumental task that wasn’t fully completed until the 1610s. The nave was eventually covered with a low arched timber roof decorated in an ornate Jacobean style with plaster rib work and decorative bosses. This roof survived until the 1860s, when it was replaced by Gilbert Scott’s fan vaulting that matched the 16th-century vaults of the chancel. Excavations in the abbey nave found large quantities of the Jacobean plaster buried beneath Scott’s floor. BATH ABBEY IN THE 21ST CENTURY As well as ‘restoring’ the abbey, Gilbert Scott’s work aimed to solve the perennial problem of subsidence caused by the intramural burial of some 6,000 individuals between 1576 and 1845. To do this he cast a thick limecrete slab throughout the building. He also installed the building’s first underfloor heading system, powered by twin GN Haden & Sons coal-fired boilers. Unfortunately, Scott’s floor eventually failed and by the mid 20th century the problem of subsistence had reemerged. Heating the building was also a problem: the boilers were replaced in the 20th century, but the Victorian pipework remained woefully inefficient. By the late 20th century, Bath Abbey had become a major tourist attraction, with an active congregation, choir, and many other users, but it lacked the necessary support facilities and space for interpreting the abbey’s history. The Bath Abbey Footprint Project (http://bc-url.com/hc23m1) was a solution to all these problems: the sagging floor was permanently restored; the Victorian pews were removed to create a more versatile nave; and an eco-friendly heating system, using energy captured from the outfall of the hot springs, was installed to heat the building. Adjacent buildings were also converted for use as the Song School, and the underground vaults to the south of the abbey have been adapted for use as the Discovery Centre, a space which is used to explain the building’s complex history and to showcase some of the artefacts that have been found on the site (http://bc-url.com/hc23m2 ). CAI MASON is a senior archaeologist with Wessex Archaeology and he led the archaeological investigations at Bath Abbey. 14th-century tiled floor uncovered in the cathedral priory