24 
PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 
1915 
the 15th century they inserted a perpendicular east window and altered the 
Norman Chancel to its present form. There is a campanile for two bells at 
the west end and the remains of a sanctus bell-turret over the chancel arch. 
“ Until a few years ago the altar stood table- wise in the middle of the 
chancel, with .seats for the communicants on every side of it ; a Puritan 
arrangement similar to that which formerly existed at Leonard Stanley and 
Deerhurst.” 
From the Church the Members went to view the ruins of the Abbey, 
which have been so carefully studied by Mr St. Clair Baddeley^ and Canon 
Bazeley and railed in by the owner, Mr Andrews, of Toddington. 
Hayles Abbey was a Cistercian Abbey, and was founded by Richard Earl 
of Cornwall. It was dedicated on November 5th, 1251, in the presence ol 
Henry III., Queen Eleanour, twelve Bishops, Barons, Knights and Esquires. 
Richard had been driven on to the Scilly Isles by a gale in 1242, and, 
being saved, vowed that he would found an Abbey for Cistercians in his Manor 
of Hayles. He colonised it with twenty monks from Beaulieu, and his .son, 
in 1270, presented it with its famous relic — some of the Blood of Christ. To 
house the relic suitably, the east wall of the church was taken down and a fine- 
sided apse with semi-octagonal chapels was thrown out beyond. In the midst 
was set up a magnificent jewelled shrine for the relic. This work was com- 
pleted by 1277. Pilgrims flocked to the sacred relic, and the Abbey became 
very wealthy. Edward I. vi.sited it in 1300, when his cousin Edmund, 
Earl of Cornwall, was buried here. Late in the 15th century the cloisters 
were rebuilt and the Chapter House re-floored with beautiful tiles. In 1539, 
however, came the Dissolution, and the Abbey and all its possessions were 
surrendered to Henry VHT.’s commissioners by Stephen Sagar, the last Abbot. 
The Abbey at its prime was a large one, its precinct- wall including the 
entire present field, and perhaps the Parish Church as well, which latter may 
have been u.sed as a Gate-House Chapel. The Gatc-Hou.se probably stood 
just beyond the present one that gives acce.ss to the Abbey-field. 
It appears that when the cloisters were re-built late in the 15th century, 
the west walk — three inner arches of which are still standing — was allocated 
to the lay brothers, and later to the Abbot for lodgings. After the Dis- 
solution these portions were converted into the Mansion of the Hobys, Strat- 
fords and Tracys. As their re.sidence, until 1683, it was figured in Atkyns, 
and by Buckler and Lysons. In 1899 were found six heraldic bosses— 
bearing the arms of Huddleston, Percy, Evesham .\bbey and Compton— 
dating from Henry VII. 
The Abbots of Hayles had a summer residence on the hill-side at Cos- 
combe, and to the last ;\bbot, Sagar (of Whalley), Coscombe Hou.se and a 
pension of £100 was granted b}^ his friend, Thomas Cromwell, in 1 539. Mean- 
time, Church, chapter-house, dormitory, infirmary, warming-parlour and 
refectory (or frater) were used as a cpiarry ; while the lead from their roofs 
w£is transferred to the Ordnance Department. 
In the south walk of the cloister is still to be seen the (mended) 15th 
century lavatory, also the entrances to the Refectory, warming-parlour, and 
stairs of dormitory (south-east corner). The fine refectory door of 124O was 
ill-treated in the i6th century, and shows degenerate insertions. Fi'om the 
lavatory the monks went to the refcctor^^ and from the latter — after the mid- 
day meal — to the “ Capitulum,” or chapter-house, where business trans- 
actions and the regulations of the Monastery were daily recited in the presence 
of the Abbot and Prior, and disciplines for misconduct were pronounced and 
administered. 
The excellent little Mu.seum was visited, after which Mr Carles theinked 
Mr Baddeley on behalf of the Club for the very fascinating manner in which 
he had de.scribed the Church and Abbey and pictured to them monastic life 
in this part of Gloucestershire. 
I “A Cotteswold Shrine” (iyo8). J. Bellows, Gloucester. 
