On Saturday afternoon we visited Buildwas Abbey which turned out be more brief than we had intended. Parts are inaccessible at the moment due to renovations and barriers closing off areas due to Covid-19. Just after we arrived a photographer turned up and whilst taking our own photographs we were careful to try and keep out of the shots that he was framing.

After our visit we drove to Much Wenlock with intention of visiting Wenlock Priory if it was open. It was but the car park look busier than we were comfortable with so we continued on our journey passing through Broseley and ending up at Maws Craft Centre. Only a few of the outlets were open so I suggested we explore a pathway that I had noticed as we arrived. Mr C chose a different path that went in the direction of the river and I kept on walking a little bit further. Up and over the Jackfield and Coalport memorial bridge and along the canal past Coalport China Works.

As we walked along the canal we spotted a photographer with his camera on tripod lining up a shot. It was the same man we had seen at Buildwas Abbey. As we approached  he did a double take and I quipped, ‘we are not following you’ before engaging in a brief conversation.

My next plan is to persuade Mr C to walk the T50 50 Mile trail with me (in stages). He hasn’t said no…

Shortly after lunchtime the sun made a brief appearance so I grabbed my my camera and headed off to Buildwas Abbey. It is a perfect tranquil place to enjoy the sunshine.

As I a sat on a bench I was reminded of a previous visit when I was treated to the sounds of a Benedictine chant from the chapter house. Today, however it was not the sounds of chanting I could hear it was the sounds of tweeting from the parlour. A family of swallows were nesting in there. The two parents kept flying out through the doorway and low past my legs whilst searching for a tasty snack for the youngsters. I sat in the sun watching them for a while before retreating to a different bench for a different view of the Abbey before making my way home.

I decided to drive back via the scenic route and along the way I was surprised when a peacock stepped out into the road. Luckily it changed its mind rather quickly and strutted back off in the direction it came from.

Ja’far Al-Sadiq (702 – 765)

Pluck not the wayside flower,
It is the traveller’s dower;
A thousand passers-by
Its beauties may espy,
May win a touch of blessing
From Nature’s mild caressing.
The sad of heart perceives
A violet under leaves
Like sonic fresh-budding hope;
The primrose on the slope
A spot of sunshine dwells,
And cheerful message tells
Of kind renewing power;
The nodding bluebell’s dye
Is drawn from happy sky.
Then spare the wayside flower!
It is the traveller’s dower.

Aldous Huxley

In the customary Cistersian layout, we might expect there to have been a partition separating the two bays. If this was the case, the west bay served as the book room, or armarium, where some at least of the abbey’s fine collection of volumes could be stored for use in the cloister. The bay to the rear, entered via a short flight of steps down from the north transept, must have been the sacristy, or vestry (vestiarium), the place where the vestments, altar cloths and liturgical vessels used in Masses and other services were kept for safety.

It is here where the monks would assemble every morning with the abbot presiding over the meeting:

This began with the reading of a lesson and a chapter from the Rule of St Benedict, after which saints and benefactors were commemorated and on certain feast days the abbot delivered a sermon.  Matters of the abbey business and estate administration might then be discussed by the community.  The chapter meeting was also the occasion when faults were confessed, accusations made and penances assigned.  Monks who had transgressed the Rule might be expected to fast on bread and water;  flogging was reserved for more serious breaches of discipline.*

The tiles in the bottom photograph are situated in the centre of the chapter house.  This wasn’t there original location, but all the tiles are from Buildwas.

*Information from English Heritage guide book.

Marcus Aurelius

The second photograph shows one of the four transept chapels.  Each of the chapels was covered with a rib vault, with an altar beneath the east window.

A view looking out from the chapel can be seen here.

The guidebook gives a brief summary of it’s origins:

In the summer of 1135, Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Chester, brought a small colony of monks to England from the Norman abbey of Savigny. He settled the brothers at Buildwas on the banks of the River Severn in Shropshire. Just 12 years later, Buildwas Abbey was to find itself part of the largest, most powerful and most widespread of all the monastic families in medieval Europe – the Cistercians.

Under the gifted Abbot Ranulf  (1155-87), monastic life at Buildwas began to flourish. the abbey steadily improved its economic viability, builiding up a sizeable landed estate. Meanwhile, work had begun on the construction of a characteristic twelfth-century Cistercian abbey church, and on three principle ranges of monastic buildings grouped around a northern cloister.

The abbey met it’s demise during the first round of the suppression of the monasteries in 1536. At that time the abbey and most of it’s properties were were granted to Sir Edward Grey, Lord Powis and parts of the monastery were converted for use as a Tudor mansion.