SELBY ABBEY AND ITS BUILDERS. 
39 
of wood. This oratory appears to have been the first church iu 
Selby of any sort. Subsequently it is again mentioned in the 
record of a great flood, as the Chapel of the Town, and as being 
near the course of the river. Another record says “ that it was in 
the same place where to this time the Chapel of the Town remains 
standing.” The site is on the south side of Water Lane. 
But this was after the Norman portion of the Abbey had been 
built. Somewhat later, and during the reign of King Stephen, we 
find another mention of the Chapel, from which it may be inferred 
that the original wooden building was then standing, for St. 
Germain is reputed to have interfered in its behalf to save it from 
the flames, while the surrounding houses were being consumed by 
a fire which destroyed a portion of the town. 
The subsequent history of the Church is soon told. From the 
registers of Archbishop Giftard (1265—1279) we learn that “the 
Church of St. Germanus in the town, is a chapel ; the rite of 
Baptism was administered in it till children were carried to the 
Monastery. The chapel and its altar are not dedicated, because 
the dead are interred in the burial ground of the Abbey ” ; it 
henceforth continued as a chapel of ease, served from the 
Monastery, the Church of which became the Church of the town, 
the Nave being used as the Parish Church. 
In 16th year of James I., the whole Church was by letters 
patent made parochial, and the burden of keeping it in repair was 
thrown upon the parish. 
The Abbey Church, with its adjacent Monastic buildings, were 
begun by Hugh de Lacy, the second Abbot—1097—on a new site 
and higher ground, and somewhat further from the river than the 
old Oratory. The period during which he was Abbot—1097 — II2 3 
—26 years—was one of great architectural activity, in which most 
of the great Benedictine Monasteries were founded and their buildings 
erected, so that Hugh de Lacy would not lack examples. Nothing 
of his Abbey but the Church now remains, and this fortunately 
nearly complete, as sufficient remains of the foundations of its 
original terminations have been found which show the form and 
extent of the whole Church as planned by him. 
A plan of the Abbey Church, Fig. 1., shows the semi-circular 
apsidal terminations of the Norman Choir. The Church was 
originally cruciform, having Nave, North and South Transepts, 
Choir and side Chapels. Two western towers were originally 
intended, but only carried up to the roof level, and part of the 
