Editing Tewkesbury Abbey (section)

==History==
[[File:Oddo&Doddo SaxonFoundersOf TewkesburyAbbey.jpg|thumb|200px|Oddo and Doddo, brothers and Dukes of Mercia, Saxon founders of Tewkesbury Abbey. Latin titulus above: ''Oddo : Doddo duc(es) duas Marciorum et primi fundatores Teokburie'' ("Oddo & Doddo two Earls of the Marches and first founders of Tewkesbury"). Each knight is in armour and bears in his hand a model of a church. Both are supporting a shield (affixed to a pomegranate tree) bearing the [[attributed arms]] of themselves and of the Abbey ''Gules, a cross raguly or''.<ref>Otherwise: ''Gules, a cross engrailed or''</ref> Tewkesbury Abbey Founders Book, folio 8 verso, [[Bodleian Library]], Oxford]]
[[File:Southwest face, Tewkesbury Abbey - geograph.org.uk - 1037447.jpg|thumb|200px|The tall Norman arch of the facade is unique in England]]

The ''Chronicle of Tewkesbury'' records that the first Christian worship was brought to the area by Theoc, a missionary from [[Northumbria]], who built his cell in the mid-7th century near a gravel spit where the [[River Severn|Severn]] and [[River Avon (Warwickshire)|Avon]] rivers join. The cell was succeeded by a monastery in 715,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/monasticonanglic00dugd|title=Monasticon Anglicanum, or, The history of the ancient abbies, and other monasteries, hospitals, cathedral and collegiate churches in England and Wales. With divers French, Irish, and Scotch monasteries formerly relating to England|last=Dugdale|first=William|publisher=Sam Keble and Hon Rhodes|year=1693|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/monasticonanglic00dugd/page/15 15]|translator-last=Wright|translator-first=James|access-date=27 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190321052657/https://archive.org/details/monasticonanglic00dugd|archive-date=21 March 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> but nothing remaining of it has been identified.

In the 10th century the religious foundation at Tewkesbury became a [[priory]] subordinate to the [[Benedictine]] [[Cranborne Priory|Cranborne Abbey]] in Dorset.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40142|title=The priories of Cranborne and Horton|publisher=British History Online|access-date=20 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818175642/http://british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=40142|archive-date=18 August 2011|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1087, [[William the Conqueror]] gave the manor of Tewkesbury to his cousin, [[Robert Fitzhamon]], who, with Giraldus, [[Cranborne Priory|Abbot of Cranborne]],<ref>{{cite web|last1=Page|first1=William|title='Houses of Benedictine monks: The priories of Cranbourne and Horton', in A History of the County of Dorset: Volume 2|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/dorset/vol2/pp70-73|website=British History Online|publisher=Victoria County History|access-date=28 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160618094145/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/dorset/vol2/pp70-73|archive-date=18 June 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> founded the present abbey in 1092.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Page|first1=William|title=Houses of Benedictine monks: The abbey of Tewkesbury in A History of the County of Gloucester: Volume 2.|url=http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol2/pp61-66|website=British History Online|publisher=Victoria County History|access-date=28 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160911225714/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol2/pp61-66|archive-date=11 September 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Building of the present abbey church did not start until 1102,<ref name=":0" /> employing [[Caen stone]] imported from [[Normandy]] and floated up the Severn.<ref>{{cite web |title=The misericords and history of Tewkesbury Abbey |url=http://www.misericords.co.uk/tewkesbury.html |publisher=Misericords |access-date=21 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191222153931/http://www.misericords.co.uk/tewkesbury.html |archive-date=22 December 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Robert Fitzhamon was wounded at [[Falaise, Calvados|Falaise]] in [[Normandy]] in 1105 and died two years later, but his son-in-law, Robert FitzRoy, the natural son of [[Henry I of England|Henry I]] who was made Earl of Gloucester, continued to fund the building work. The abbey's greatest single later patron was [[Eleanor de Clare|Lady Eleanor le Despenser]], last of the De Clare heirs of FitzRoy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Stober |first1=Karen |title=Female Patrons of Late Medieval English Monasteries |journal=Medieval Prosopography |date=2016 |volume=31 |pages=115–136 |jstor=44946944 }}</ref> In the High [[Middle Ages]], Tewkesbury became one of the richest abbeys of England.

After the [[Battle of Tewkesbury]] in the [[Wars of the Roses]] on 4 May 1471, some of the defeated Lancastrians sought [[sanctuary]] in the abbey.<ref>{{cite web |title=Battle of Tewkesbury (1471) |url=http://www.battlefieldsofbritain.co.uk/battle_tewkesbury_1471.html |publisher=Battlefields of Britain Trust |access-date=21 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190829121357/http://www.battlefieldsofbritain.co.uk/battle_tewkesbury_1471.html |archive-date=29 August 2019 |url-status=live }}</ref> The victorious Yorkists, led by King [[Edward IV of England|Edward IV]], forced their way into the abbey; the resulting bloodshed caused the building to be closed for a month until it could be purified and re-consecrated.

At the [[dissolution of the monasteries]], the last [[abbot]], [[John Wakeman]], surrendered the abbey to the commissioners of [[Henry VIII of England|King Henry VIII]] on 9 January 1539. As a former monk of an endowed community, he received an annuity. This was the relatively large sum of 400 [[Mark (money)|mark]]s, but would have ceased when he was [[Ordination#Christianity|ordained]] as the first [[Bishop of Gloucester]] in September 1541.<ref>{{DNB|wstitle=Wakeman, John}}</ref> Meanwhile, the people of Tewkesbury saved the abbey from destruction. Insisting that it was their [[parish church]] which they had the right to keep, they bought it from the Crown for the value of its bells and lead roof which would have been salvaged and melted down, leaving the structure a roofless ruin.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Bells of Tewkesbury Abbey |url=https://tewkesburyhistory.org/The-Bells-of-Tewkesbury-Abbey |publisher=Tewksbury History Society |access-date=21 July 2020}}</ref> The price came to £453.

The bells merited their own free-standing belltower, an unusual feature in English sites. After the dissolution, the bell-tower was used as the gaol for the borough until it was demolished in the late 18th century.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=The borough of Tewkesbury: Churches|pages=154–165 |title = A History of the County of Gloucester|volume=8|chapter-url=https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol8/pp154-165 |website=British History Online |publisher=Victoria County History |access-date=21 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151209165538/http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/glos/vol8/pp154-165 |archive-date=9 December 2015 |url-status=live }}</ref>

The central stone tower was originally topped with a wooden spire, which collapsed in 1559 and was never rebuilt. [[Victorian restoration|Restoration]] undertaken in the late 19th century under Sir [[George Gilbert Scott]] was reopened on 23 September 1879.<ref>{{cite news|title=Religious Intelligence|work=The Cornishman|issue=64|date=2 October 1879|page=8}}</ref> Work continued under the direction of his son [[John Oldrid Scott]] until 1910 and included the [[rood screen]] of 1892.<ref>{{cite book |last1=David Verey and Alan Brooks |title=The Buildings of England Gloucestershire |volume = 2: The Vale and the Forest of Dean |publisher=Yale University Press |pages=712–730}}</ref>

Flood waters from the nearby River Severn reached inside the abbey during severe floods in 1760, and [[2007 United Kingdom floods|again]] on 23 July 2007.<ref>{{cite web |title=Tewkesbury Abbey, Gloucestershire |url=https://www.uksouthwest.net/gloucestershire/tewkesbury-abbey/ |publisher=UK Southwest |access-date=21 July 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170704140003/http://www.uksouthwest.net/gloucestershire/tewkesbury-abbey/ |archive-date=4 July 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Construction time-line===
[[File:Richard Burchett - Sanctuary (1867) contrasted.jpg|thumb|''[[Sanctuary (painting)|Sanctuary]]'' by [[Richard Burchett]], 1867 depicting the aftermath of the [[Battle of Tewkesbury]] in 1471]]
[[File:Richard de Clare coat of arms.jpg|thumb|Arms of [[Richard de Clare, 6th Earl of Gloucester]], Founders’ Book of Tewkesbury Abbey, c. 1525]]
* 23 October 1121 – the choir consecrated
* 1150 – tower and nave completed
* 1178 – large fire necessitated some rebuilding
* ~1235 – Chapel of St Nicholas built
* ~1300 – Chapel of St. James built
* 1321–1335 – choir rebuilt with radiating chantry chapels
* 1349–59 – tower and nave vaults rebuilt; the [[Lierne (vault)|lierne vaults]] of the nave replacing wooden roofing
* 1400–1410 – [[cloister]]s rebuilt
* 1438 – Chapel of Isabel ([[Isabel le Despenser, Countess of Worcester and Warwick|Countess of Warwick]]) built
* 1471 – [[Battle of Tewkesbury]]; bloodshed within church so great that it is closed for purification