Ixxx. FORD ABBEY. 



dwell therein from Gilbert, Abbot of Waverley, in Surrey. This small com- 

 munity remained at Brightley for five years, when they, " by reason of great 

 want and barrenness, could abide there no longer," and commenced a return 

 journey to their original home in Surrey. On their way they passed through 

 Thorncombe, the parish wherein Ford is situated, where they encountered 

 Adeliza, who, hearing with great regret of the failure of her brother's enterprise, 

 exclaimed : " Behold my manor w r here you now are, which is very fruitful and 

 well wooded, which I give you for ever in exchange for your barren lands at 

 Brightley, together with the mansion-house and other houses. Stay there until 

 a more convenient monastery may be built for you upon some other part of the 

 estate." The site selected by the monks for the erection of the Abbey was in a 

 valley, on the left bank of the river Axe, at a place called, according to Leland, 

 "Hertbath" (balneum cervoruni), and which, from its nearness to a ford 

 crossing the river at this spot, subsequently became known as Ford. 



Such is the accepted origin of the splendid pile of buildings which sprang up in 

 this fertile and sequestered valley in 1148, and which still, notwithstanding the 

 pillage at its dissolution and its many structural alterations, still commands our 

 admiration and our attention, although, if we except some small portion of what 

 is known as " the chapel," at the eastern end of the south front, nothing now 

 remains of the original foundation erected by the pious Adeliza. 



The original purpose of this ancient part of the building, known as ' ' the chapel," 

 is somewhat obscure. It has been commonly regarded as that portion of the 

 religious house which its name indicates, and as being the burial-place of its 

 founder and other benefactors. Dr. Oliver, however, in the supplement to his 

 Monasticon, speaks of it as the " Chapter House "a likely suggestion. In his 

 Memoir of Thomas Chard, JV.D., Dr. J. H. Pring writes : 



"That except in the deed of surrender, and a short reference made to it by 

 Hearne, I have not been able to discover the slightest notice of ' the Church of 

 the Blessed Virgin Mary of Ford ' in any of the numerous accounts which have 

 been given of the abbey ; though when we read of frequent interments, some on 

 the north, others on the south side of the choir others, such as that of Robert 

 Courtenay, who, we are told, was buried on the 28th July, 1242, in the chancel, 

 before the high altar, under a stately monument exhibiting the figure of an armed 

 knight there can be little doubt, I think, that these took place, not in what is 

 now known as the Chapel, but in the Abbey Church, which stood at the east end 

 of the abbey, about two hundred feet above the chapel.' 



This portion of the edifice, whose original uses are conjectural, shows, both 

 inside and out, considerable vestiges which appear to suggest a Norman origin, 

 and which we may assume were possibly erected under the immediate auspices, if 

 not under the personal superintendence, of the Lady Adeliza. The exterior angles 

 of the eastern end exhibit the quoins so characteristic of the Norman style of 

 building, and the interior has many fine examples of Anglo-Norman work, in the 

 pillars, the groined stone roof, the arches at either end, of a slightly pointed 

 character, with the well-known zig-zag or chevron moulding. The eastern 



