A HISTORY OF LANCASHIRE 



dc Lacy, and in i 306 ' a great part ' of the abbey and 

 the whole precinct were consecrated by Thomas Bishop 

 of VVhithern.*'* The 'great part' did not include 

 the church, the fratcr or refectory, or the monks' 

 dorter, which were not yet begun. Probably it con- 

 sisted of the north-west gateway, the marking out of 

 the precinct and the plotting of the cloister with its 

 surrounding buildings, and the erection of the lower 

 portion of the south wall of the church, the southern 

 end of the lower stage of the east range, with its 

 external stage, and the reredorter adjoining it. 



In the succeeding decade it seems likely that a 

 temporary oratory was built, pending the completion 

 of the quire, for a magnum altare was consecrated by a 

 suffragan of Walter de Langton, Bishop of Lichfield, 

 who died in 1 3 2 1, before the high altar of the church 

 could have been consecrated. 



In 1319 the grant of a quarry from Adam de 

 Huddleton indicates building activity. In 1330 

 Abbot Robert de Topcliffe began the building of the 



between the 

 ground stage 



Whalley Abbky : Dormitory. 



church,*^'' and further grants of three quarries were 

 made to the abbey in 1334. and I 336. There are no 

 exact data as to the completion of the church, but it 

 would appear to have been finished about i 345. The 

 sacristy was probably built at the same time as the 

 south transept. The tiles in the quire discovered by 

 Whitaker in 1798 appear to have been of the latter 

 half of the 14th century, and John de Kuerdale was 

 buried in the new church in 1 345. In 1 3 39 a licence 

 was obtained to build and crenellate a stone precinct 

 wall. From 1339 to 1425 building operations around 

 the cloister were continuous. The frater and kitchens, 

 forming the south side, were followed late in the 14th 

 century by the chapter-house, adjoining the sacristy 

 on the south, and another chamber to the south again, 

 completing the east side of the cloister. Next the 

 upper stage of this range, being the monks' dorter. 



was completed from end to end. The • new do ter, 

 which was consecrated in 1425, may be either this 

 upper stage or the whole building of the west range, 

 commonly known now as the dormitory. 



The Lady chapel was added to the church by 

 Paslew, the last abbot, between 1 5 2 1 and 1536. He 

 also rebuilt the abbot's lodging about the same time. 

 The north-east gateway is of his time or a little 

 earlier. 



The actual remains at present are small. The 

 church is all gone, except the south jamb of a window 

 at the west end of the south aisle, which abuts against 

 the west wall of the western range, a portion of about 

 half the length of the south wall of the church, and 

 of the south-west walls of the south transept. The 

 general lines of its plan were recovered by Whitaker. 

 The whole of the west range of the cloister is standing 

 and is still roofed. The lower portion of the frater 

 wall and the ground stage of the eastern range and 

 the reredorter are still above ground, as well as the 



stair to the destroyed 

 dorter, 

 dorter 



and the site of the 

 frater. The gate- 

 houses are both stand- 

 ing, the north-west 

 gate-house nearly, and 

 the north-east quite, 

 to the full height. The 

 abbot's lodging, which 

 became the residence 

 of the Asshetons after 

 1536, is practically 

 intact in its north and 

 east portions. The 

 south and west sides, 

 which contained the 

 infirmary, and are 

 earlier than the lodg- 

 ing, are ruined, but 

 standing to some 

 height, and the north- 

 west angle has been 

 added since the Dis- 

 solution. The abbey 

 mill, to the south-east 

 of the lodging, has been destroyed since 1 8 1 8. 



The destruction in 1536 was not so complete as 

 this. In 1 661 and 1662 Sir Ralph Assheton pulled 

 down the 'old steeple and the walls adjoining,' the 

 'high cloister walls next the dove-cote,' and the 

 'great window or door at the head of stairs in 

 the cloisters ' — doubtless the dorter door. 



The church consisted of a quire of three bays, with 

 north and south aisles, central tower, north and south 

 transepts, each with an eastern aisle of three bays 

 divided into chapels, and a nave and aisles of ten 

 bays.*^ The vaulting of the aisles was supported on 

 corbels, of which two remain on the north \\all of the 

 west range. The west wall of the south transept also 

 shows the vaulting corbels, indicating that the transept 

 was vaulted in three bays, the vault resting on an 

 arcade on the east side of three arches opening to at 



41a whitaker, Hht. o^ Whalley, 67. 



•lib Cotton, MS. Titiis, F 3. 



" Internal dimensions : Quire, 52 ft. 



6 in. Dy 28 ft. 6 in. ; quire aisles, 12 ft. 

 wide ; crossing, 33 ft. by 30 ft. ; tran- 

 septs, 45 ft. east to west by 56 ft. wide; 



nave, 172 ft. long by 28 ft. 6 in. wide ; 

 aisles, 12 ft. wide. Total length of 

 church, 257 ft. ; total width, 142 ft. 



