was not the Church of the Priory. 



23 



was still standing, about 70 yards west of the present house. This 

 carries us, T think, to a still further distance from the Church. " It 

 had been converted into a stable, but the circular-headed windows 

 and massive concrete wall told plainly of what it had once formed 

 a part." This was destroyed about fifty"years before the date at 

 which he wrote, therefore about 1826. Mr. Edwards also alludes 

 to the same fragment, in another pamphlet printed on the same 

 occasion, as follows : — " A wall, which no doubt was the last relic 

 of the Abbey buildings, above ground, was that forming the south- 

 west end and gable of the stable, which stood between the west 

 front of the present mansion and the river and in it there were 

 several round-headed windows.'' 



Mr. Kemm says further that: — "In the winter of 1859 and 

 spring of 1860, in digging out for foundations at the rear of the 

 mansion, extensive remains of the thick walls of the ancient 

 conventual buildings were struck upon, and the nearly entire 

 (though much patched and mended) floor of a room was uncovered. 

 It was nearly three feet below the present level of the soil, and 

 appeared to have had a stone seat or ledge all round it, about the 

 ordinary height of a chair, as if it had been a chapter-room or 

 other place for the assemblage of the inmates. The measurements 

 of the room were, roughly speaking, 31 feet by 23 to 24 feet; 

 the width of the seat, or ledge, was 16 to 20 inches, out of a 

 thickness of 3 J to 4 feet, except on the west side, where the width 

 of the ledge was 2 feet 9 inches, out of a considerably greater 

 thickness of wall. There were places in the wall indicative of 

 doorways and probably a fireplace/'' All this sounds very like 

 the remains of a chapter-house. The dimensions, I believe, would 

 be suitable, and the wider seat, or ledge, with indications of 

 apparent doorways and fireplace, on the west side, might well 

 be the sills of windows and entrance arch. Of course, if it was 

 the chapter-house, it settles the question, and the present Church 

 could not possibly be the Priory Church, on account of the 

 distance. Mr. Kemm says that " a stone coffin and slab were 

 found in these excavations,"" apparently in situ, at a distance 

 of, at least, 850 feet from the Church. Such an interment 



