Waverley Abbey
Encyclopedia
Abbey
An abbey is a Catholic monastery or convent, under the authority of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serves as the spiritual father or mother of the community.The term can also refer to an establishment which has long ceased to function as an abbey,...
in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, founded in 1128 by William Giffard
William Giffard
William Giffard was the Lord Chancellor of England of William II and Henry I, from 1093 to 1101.Giffard was the brother of Walter Giffard earl of Buckingham. He also held the office of Dean of Rouen prior to his election as bishop. On 3 August 1100 he became bishop of Winchester by nomination of...
, Bishop of Winchester
Bishop of Winchester
The Bishop of Winchester is the head of the Church of England diocese of Winchester, with his cathedra at Winchester Cathedral in Hampshire.The bishop is one of five Church of England bishops to be among the Lords Spiritual regardless of their length of service. His diocese is one of the oldest and...
. It is situated about one mile south of Farnham
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, in a bend of the River Wey
River Wey
The River Wey in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex is a tributary of the River Thames with two separate branches which join at Tilford. The source of the north branch is at Alton, Hampshire and of the south branch at both Blackdown south of Haslemere, and also close to Gibbet Hill, near Hindhead...
.
History
During the first century of its existence, it founded six monasteries, and despite the members thus sent away, it had 70 monks and 120 lay brothers in 1187. It kept about thirty ploughs.The site was subject to regular flooding, however, and in 1203 the foundations for a new church and monastery were laid on higher ground. The new church was dedicated in 1231.
King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
visited Waverley in 1209, and Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
in 1225. The abbey also produced the famous annals of Waverley, an important source for the period.
By the end of the thirteenth century the abbey was becoming less important. By the time it was suppressed by Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
in 1536 as part of the dissolution of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
there were only thirteen monks in the community and the abbey had an annual net income of £174.
Stones from the abbey when it lay in ruins were taken to build nearby houses, including the house at Loseley Park
Loseley Park
Loseley Park is a historic manor house situated outside Guildford in Surrey, England near Compton. The estate was acquired by the direct ancestors of the current owners, the More-Molyneux, at the beginning of the 16th century....
.
The ruins of Waverley Abbey are managed today by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
. The sign at the entrance to the ruins states that it was the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott's novel Waverley
Waverley (novel)
Waverley is an 1814 historical novel by Sir Walter Scott. Initially published anonymously in 1814 as Scott's first venture into prose fiction, Waverley is often regarded as the first historical novel. It became so popular that Scott's later novels were advertised as being "by the author of...
. However, this is probably not the case. Sir Walter Scott chose to adopt the name for his fictional hero Edward Waverley, the heir to an estate in southern England who travels north and becomes embroiled in the Jacobite uprising of 1745. Waverley Abbey was, however, featured in Arthur Conan Doyle
Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
's classical romance, Sir Nigel
Sir Nigel
Sir Nigel is a historical novel set during the Hundred Years' War, by the British author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Written in 1906, it is a fore-runner to Doyle's earlier novel The White Company, and describes the early life of that book's hero Sir Nigel Loring in the service of King Edward III at...
. It was the scene of his winning of his war horse, Pommers, and his youthful embarrassment of the avaricious abbey authorities.
The ruins
Refectory
A refectory is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries...
. A section of 13th century vaulting still exists, supported by slender columns with circular capitals. The south gabled end stands almost to full height, displaying two pairs of lancet windows at the lowest level, with a single traceried window above each pair, and a central round window between those. The walls are faced in rough flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
work.
19th century
Waverley was purchased by Florence NightingaleFlorence Nightingale
Florence Nightingale OM, RRC was a celebrated English nurse, writer and statistician. She came to prominence for her pioneering work in nursing during the Crimean War, where she tended to wounded soldiers. She was dubbed "The Lady with the Lamp" after her habit of making rounds at night...
's family, and she visited the mansion frequently. It became a Red Cross hospital during the First World War, and after World War II it was converted into apartments for retired people.
World War II
At least two BBC TV programmes have claimed that the site of Waverley Abbey formed part of the defences of London set up in World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The defence was called the "GHQ Line
GHQ Line
The GHQ Line was a defence line built in the United Kingdom during World War II to contain an expected German invasion.The British Army had abandoned most of its equipment in France after the Dunkirk evacuation...
". These claims are at least partly supported by the brick gun emplacement forming one side of the car park, and the multitude of tank traps along the bank of the River Wey
River Wey
The River Wey in Surrey, Hampshire and West Sussex is a tributary of the River Thames with two separate branches which join at Tilford. The source of the north branch is at Alton, Hampshire and of the south branch at both Blackdown south of Haslemere, and also close to Gibbet Hill, near Hindhead...
at the back of the abbey. It was said that the large open space, formed by the curve of the river on one side and the lake on the other, was intended to be a "tank killing ground" for any German army intending to outflank London's defences.
Filming
The abbey ruins have been used as a location in the filming of a number of films and television dramas, most notably as the setting for an idyllic interlude in Danny BoyleDanny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
's 2002 film 28 Days Later
28 Days Later
28 Days Later is an acclaimed 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston...
.
The following productions include scenes filmed in Waverley Abbey:
- Invasion (2001, miniseries)
- 28 Days Later28 Days Later28 Days Later is an acclaimed 2002 British horror film directed by Danny Boyle. The screenplay was written by Alex Garland, and the film stars Cillian Murphy, Naomie Harris, Brendan Gleeson, Megan Burns, and Christopher Eccleston...
(2002) - Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007, film about Elizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I of EnglandElizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
) - Animal Soup (2009, video)
- CreationCreation (2009 film)Creation is a 2009 British biographical drama film. Produced by Jeremy Thomas, the film was directed by Jon Amiel, and stars Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly as Charles and Emma Darwin...
(2009, film about Charles DarwinCharles DarwinCharles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
)
Abbots of Waverley
The following is a list of the abbots of Waverley Abbey.- John, died 1128
- Gilbert, 1128-9
- Henry, died 1182
- Henry of Chichester, 1182, resigned 1187
- Christopher (abbot of Bruerne, Oxfordshire), 1187, removed from office 1196
- John II. (hospitaller), 1196, died 1201
- John III. (cellarer), 1201, died 1216
- Adam (sub-prior), 1216, resigned 1219
- Adam II. (abbot of Garendon, Leicestershire), 1219, resigned 1236
- Walter Giffard (abbot of Bittlesden, Bucks), 1236, died 1252
- Ralph (abbot of Dunkewell, Devon), 1252, resigned 1266
- William de London, 1266
- William de Hungerford, resigned 1276
- Hugh de Leukenor, 1276, died 1285
- Philip de Bedwinde, 1285
- William, occurs 1316
- Robert, occurs 1335
- John III., 1344
- John IV., 1349, died 1361
- John de Enford, occurs 1385-6
- William Hakeleston, 1386, died 1399
- John Brid, 1399–1400
- Henry, occurs 1433
- William, occurs 1452
- William Martyn, 1456
- Thomas, occurs 1478 and 1500
- William, occurs 1509
- John, occurs 1529
- William Alyng, occurs 1535