The lavabo was an octagonal building with open arcades which supported a roof.  The central structure was of three storeys.  Water was fed into a circular cisterna and flowed through the mouths of sixteen carved heads into a shallow trough, where sixteen monks could wash simultaneously.  The trough had plugholes for drainage, and was supported by a circular base around which were several elaborately carved panels, two of which survive.

The stone used in the lavabo is silurian Wenlock limestone, known as ‘Wenlock Marble’ because it can be highly polished.

Free-standing lavabos are rare in this country, though common on the Continent.  The survival of this form of laver at Wenlock is due to it being a French-influenced, Cluniac priory.*

The two stone panels depict Christ and the apostles and are replicas of the originals which have been removed to prevent frost damage.  The panel in the top picture shows John with his hand on his chin with another unknown apostle.

The panel in the lower picture shows Christ calling Peter and Andrew on the Sea of Galilee with James and John in another boat.

*Information taken from the English Heritage guidebook first published in 1999.

In the nineteenth century a garden was created to enhance the ruins.  Part of the garden can still be seen in the cloister.

A religious house was first founded on this site in around AD 680, When the Saxon king, Merewalh, of Mercia, built a monastery for men and women.  Merewalh’s daughter, Milburge, was its second abbess, and soon became famous for the miracles she was said to have performed.  After her death she was recognised as a saint.

The monastery was replaced, shortly before 1040, with a college of priests, built by Earl Leofric of Mercia and his wife, Godgifu.  This survived until the Norman Conquest, when monks were sent to Wenlock from the abbey of Cluny in France, at the request of Roger of Montgomery whose lands included the abbey site.  This meant that Wenlock was now a priory – a house of monks subject to a founding abbey.

Soon after 1100 it was alleged that St Milburge’s bones had been found at Wenlock, which brought the priory some fame and made it a place of pilgrimage.  Wenlock’s first English Prior was appointed in 1376, and in 1395 a charter was obtained declaring the priory English.

Wenlock met the same fate as the other abbey’s during Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries.  In 1540 the valuables were stripped and the building sold.  The infirmary and prior’s lodge were converted into a private residence and are still used as such today.

I really wanted to post a photograph of the sun but I seem to have shared them all with you already. Candles do however fit the theme as well and I know I haven’t posted this photo before.

For more of this weeks PhotoHunt pictures check out tnchick.

He was a compulsive collector of sculptures and during his visits to Italy he met some of the best artists of the time and befriended the famous sculptor Antonio Canova. These two lions are copies of sculptures that Canova had made for the tomb of Pope Clement XIII at St peter’s in Rome. Unusually Canova carved his own sculptures rather than employing teams of other carvers to work on the stone. *

*Information taken from Chatsworth guidebook 2010

But today family and friends  celebrated with a birthday tea (absent friends were fondly missed) (no alcohol honest )

The future?  Big D got the right grades to get into the University of his choice, so he will be embarking on a great journey of discovery…