Friday, August 15th. 4-53 



the following passage in William of Malmesbury 's " Gesta Ponti- 

 ticum " : — " Moreover, a general opinion has grown up that a third 

 monastery was erected by St. Aldhelm at Bradford . . . And 

 there remains to this day in that place a little Church, which he is 

 said to have erected to the name of St. Lawrence. However both 

 the monasteries of Erome and Bradford have altogether disappeared, 

 and there remains only the empty name." St. Aldhelm died in 

 709. William of Malmesbury says the Church remained whilst 

 the monastery had disappeared. We know that the Danes raided 

 these parts long after St. Aldhelm's time, and it is improbable that 

 they would destroy the monastery and yet leave the Church 

 standing. In 100 L Ethelred gave the manor of Bradford and the 

 monastery which had perhaps been rebuilt with the Church on its 

 original site by Edgar or Ethelred, to the Abbess of Shaftesbury, 

 that the nuns might there have a safe refuge from the Danes, and 

 the bones of St. Edward and other saints might be preserved there. 

 On the restoration of peace the nuns were to return to Shaftesbury. 

 but some were to remain at Bradford if it should be thought fit. 

 Probably the abbess decided against continuing to use the small 

 monastery at Bradford and it was abandoned and had disappeared 

 by 1125, when William of Malmesbury wrote, leaving the Church 

 standing. This seems not to have been used as a Church during 

 the Middle Ages, and the nave is described in old deeds as a skull 

 house, which suggests that during the Middle Ages it was used as 

 a charnel house and so may have escaped alteration or destruction, 

 If it had been used as a Church continuously it would surely have 

 been altered. Judging from the style the building appears to date 

 between 959 and 1000. It is probable that the S. porch — now 

 destroyed — possessed no external doorway, for the ground at this 

 point was formerly 5 or 6ft. below the present level, and conse- 

 quently some ten to twelve steps would be necessary between the 

 floor of the Church and the ground. The appearance of the Church 

 on this side would thus be much loftier than at present, and the 

 windows in nave and chancel much higher from the ground, as we 

 should expect, for defence and safety. " The walls stand on a 

 square plinth, and are divided in the lower part by pilasters into 



