By Harold Brakspear, F.S.A. 461 



Owing apparently to the influx of pilgrims to St. Aldhelm's 

 shrine in the thirteenth century the presbytery was lengthened 

 eastward, which work encroaching on the cemetery doubtless 

 caused the building of the charnel for the reception of the disturbed 

 bones. This was endowed with land at Fowleswick in 1267 for a 

 chaplain, and a house was given for his use in East Street. 1 



William of Colerne became abbat in 126,0, and died in 1296. 

 He was a great benefactor to the convent, and during his abbacy 

 caused to be made (1) a hall, with kitchen, larder, and a camera, 

 next his garden ; (2) the carpenter's shop with two houses ; (3) the 

 dorter to be remodelled ; (4) the chapter-house to be re-modelled ; 

 (5) a garner next the bakehouse ; (6) a new brewhouse ; (7) a new 

 forge; (8) a poor house and stables; (9) a mill; (10) the chapel of 

 St. Aldhelm in the garden; and (11) a new infirmary. 2 In 1284 

 the water-pipes to the offices of the abbey were put down, and 

 water first flowed into the lavatory on St. Martin's Day. The 

 expense of laying on the water from Newnton was £100, 3 



In the fourteenth century the central tower was raised and a 

 high spire added, vaulting was put to the transepts and nave, and 

 the clearstories were remodelled. Quite at the end of the century 

 a square tower was built over the two western bays of the nave. 



In the fifteenth century a new building was erected over the 

 south aisle of the nave, and the alleys of the cloister were re-built 

 and vaulted. 



William Worcester, a native of Bristol, visited Malmesbury in 

 the fifteenth century, and, as was his custom, stepped the principal 

 sizes of the church, which steps, judging by dimensions which can 

 be tested, are tolerably accurate and work out at about 19£in. 4 



1 Beg. Malrnes., ii., 123, 125. 

 2 Ibid, ii. 365 (see Appendix I.). 



3 Ibid, ii. 361. " Expensae circa conductum aquae. In aqua ducta ad 

 officinas abbathiae per conductum anno Domini M°CC octogesimo quarto 

 et anno regni regis E. xii. Et die Sancti Martini annis supradictis primo 

 fluebat in lavarium, c. Ii." 



4 Itinerarium Willelmi Botoner (Cambridge, 1778), p. 83. At Tintern he 

 says, " Mem. quod 24 steppys sive gressus mei faciunt 12 virgas. Item 50 

 virgae faciunt 85 gradus sive steppys meos." An average of these two 

 values seems about the correct unit. 



2 H 2 



