18 Amesbury Church. Reasons for thinking that it 



The work, says Canon Jackson, took ten weeks. The spire 

 appears to have been demolished in Easter week, 1541, and on the 

 2nd J uly the glass was pulled out and the iron weighed. On the 

 20th July, John Andrews of Amesbury had certain timber of the 

 spire, as rafters, with other short pieces of the north aisle. On the 

 26th July, Bawden, (or Baldwin) Lenton of Durrington had two 

 pieces of timber from the spire. On the 24th September John 

 Coulls of Amesbury had broken wood that fell down of the spire 

 and of the roof of south aisle. On the 2nd October, William 

 Ratway of Amesbury had one rafter piece from the spire. 



It appears to be between the 4th of February and the 25th of 

 April, 1542, that Sir Stephen Liones, described as the Yicar, 

 which no doubt means the perpetual curate of Amesbury, had six 

 pieces of the timber of the steeple, which we are asked to believe to 

 be the spire of his own Church, to the demolition of which he would 

 apparently be a consenting party, knowing well that another roof 

 would have to be substituted. 



There are numerous items of tiles and tile shards, but I have 

 only noticed those distinctly stated as being from the Church. 



There is some further difficulty about a date in document No. 3 ; 

 " Payments for taking down the roofs of the Church, the choir, 

 dorter [or dormitory] with the other buildings there, 21st day 

 August, 34th of Henry VIII." This gives the date 1542. I 

 should have expected 1541, but it will not do to assume a mistake, 

 if one can help it, and it shows how very inconvenient it is to deal 

 with documents at second hand. It may possibly be that whilst 

 the spire and the roofs of the north and south transepts were 

 demolished in 1541, the roof of the great choir, the roof over the 

 high altar and those of other buildings were not demolished till 

 August, 1542, but the earlier would be the more probable date. 



In one place, there is a payment to Humphry Lovyngbone and 

 John Rogers, " for taking down the ceiling of the choir, and to 

 carry and lay the same in the plumbery loft, 30 s - 4' 1 ." : in another, 

 a payment for taking down the " roof of the great choir, 27 s - 44 d -" 

 Does this refer to the same work, transport being included in the 

 one case and not in the other ? This is followed by an item " for 



