10 



This was one of the mutterings which preceded the storm that was soon to 

 break over the monastic orders. Thirty -three years afterwards, in 1534, all the 

 smaller monasteries, those worth less than £200 per annum, were dissolved, and 

 Dore abbey among them. The abbot, John Radburn, and eight monks went out 

 to live on the scanty pensions allowed them. The abbey and its lands were 

 granted to John Scudamore, one of whose descendants bought the great tithes 

 that had belonged to the abbey. 



The destruction of the abbey buildings began at once, and progressed as fast 

 as the need for building materials arose in the neighbourhood. Of all the endow- 

 ments that had existed for religious purposes there was left only one sum of fifty- 

 eight shillings per annum, and before the church came to be restored, one John 

 Gyles, [called "Sir Gyles" — as was the habit in those days] — used to come and 

 read prayers in the ruins, standing under an arch to keep his book from the wet. 



Such was the condition of things which was waiting amendment, and had to 

 wait for just one hundred years. The story of the restoration of Dore abbey by 

 John Viscount Scudamore belongs to another chapter of English history. The 

 Reformation had been accomplished, the Puritans were getting the upper hand, 

 literature and the arts were different in the minds and hands of the third gener- 

 ation of men. John Abell, the carpenter who put the new roofs upon the church, 

 set about his work in a way that was then new, but is now old and forgotten. 



I hope at some early opportunity to contribute to our Transactions that por- 

 tion at least of the history of the restoration of Dore abbey. 



The following list of Abbots is taken from Dugdale's Monastieon — 



Adam the 1st. 



Adam the 2nd, a.d. 1200. 



Gothefridus, a.d. 1240. 



Stephen de Wigorn, a.d. 1251. 



Henry, a.d. 1263. 



Hugh, elected a.d. 1293. 



John, elected a.d. 1298. 



Richard Straddel, elected a.d. 1330. 



John, elected a.d. 1361. 



Richard Rowcester, elected a.d. 1440. 



Philip de Lluellin, elected a.d. 1478. 



John Glynn, occurs 1523. 



Thomas Clebury, died 1529. 



John Radborn was the next, and last. He had a pension of £14 a year 

 granted to him at the dissolution 



