Stained Glass from Notley Abbeyl

Stained Glass from Notley Abbeyl By ST. J. o. GAMLEN N the summer of 1937 the Oxford University Archaeological Society carried I out excavations on the site of Notley Abbey on the borders of Buckingham shire and Oxfordshire two or three miles NW. of Thame, in the parish of Long Crendon, Bucks. The main objective of the Society was to ascertain the plan ofthe abbey church. The abbot's house and part ofthe claustral buildings were the only structures above ground. The plan of the cloister itself and the entrance from it into the church were known. In 1932-3 the site of the chapter-house and slype had been excavated by Mr. C. Hohler. There was ' no further information on the site and practically no documentary evidence apart from the foundation charter. The work was restricted by shortage of time and workers. There was, however, a still greater handicap in the fact that about fifty years before, the farmer who then owned the site dug up nearly all the ashlar on the site to make foundations for a new road which he wished to construct. Instead, therefore, of a complete uncovering of the whole area, it was only possible to dig trenches at likely points at right angles to the expected line of wall or arcade in order to cut across the trenches which had been made to grub up the foundations for the road and then been filled in with material sufficiently different from the adjoining soil for the robber trench to be detected. In spite of these difficulties, the plan of the church was ascertained and the chief aim of the work achieved. It was still most tantalizing to leave large areas of the site undug, particularly since fragments of stained glass were found in nearly every trench and the area must still retain more buried in it. Similar fragments of mediaeval window-glass are frequently found on the sites of monastic churches, e.g. Melrose, Glastonbury and Binham, to take a few widely dispersed instances. Though the glass from Notley does not appt'Oach in extent the recent finds at Binham, there may well have been as much on the site before the foundations were robbed. Much glass also must have been lost from time to time owing to the use of the land as a garden or drive (in the case of the nave and west end) or for agricultural purposes (in the case of that part of the church east of the west arch of the central crossing). Both the farmer who now farms the eastern portion and the gardener who used to work on the remaining portion have stated that they and their men have 1 These notes should be read as a supplement to the main account of the excavations by Mr. W. A. Pantin, in Oxmzienria, VI, 22 ff. 112 STAINED GLASS FROM NOTLEY ABBEY often come across fragments of glass which they have turned over and thought nothing about; such fragments were doubtless reduced to splinters and powder. Most of the fragments of glass turned up by the excavations were quite small, the largest single piece measuring only 3 inches by 2 inches. I t has, however, been possible to put a number of small fragments together. The largest of these glass jig-saws measures about 4 inches by 4l inches, while those of 2 inches by 2 inches on an average comprise 20 fragments each. In spite of this, sufficient glass has been found to present an interesting addition to mediaeval glass in England. As most of the glass has probably been in the ground ever since a few years after the Dissolution, its condition is very poor, very little of it being transparent or even translucent. The greatest care had to be used in extracting the fragments. Experiments were tried by a well known glass-manufacturing firm to clean the glass but it was too friable to yield to cleaning properly. Some interesting micro-photographs taken by this firm show that even the soundest looking fragment is pitted with tiny cracks. The bulk of the glass is white or ' grey' with black or purplish-black enamel, but there are some good pieces of ruby and some blue and green, mostly with diapered background. Some pieces bore silver-stain, though mostly, where the design or feel suggests its use, the glass is too opaque to prove this conclusively. Being more frequently placed in the centre of a window, the chief subject is the most vulnerable to destruction or removal. This is especially true in the late 13th century and succeeding period when there was a tendency to con centrate the main subject or theme in a panel of colour under a series of 'canopies stretching across the main light of a window. At Notley there is also a tradition that certain stained glass, particularly heraldic subjects, at one time in the windows of the buildings adjoining the site of the church, was removed thence to Chicksands Priory in the county of Bedford. It is, therefore, not surprising that nearly all the glass that has been discovered represents borders some of which must clearly have come from upper lights, or consists of grisaille on white glass, and that no recognizable part of a head, hands or feet has come to light, though three small bits of purplish-brown may represent flesh tint. There is a little glass which evidently comes either from the larger upper lights or the main part of the windows. Such are two portions of inscriptions, one the letters 'E R' in Lombardic and another the letters , AND R E " presumably Andrew or its Latin equivalent, in Gothic, as well as one or two isolated letters. This Lombardic lettering alone is of interest as providing evidence of glass before 1340 and helping to date other fragments found with it and of the same thickness and feel of material. There are folds ___ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ ____ _ J ST. J. O. GAMLEN of drapery, portions of pinnacles and canopies, wall or pedestal; some good, , , coloured, diapered background especially the thistle motif; some good . , oak-leaf and ivy grisaille (alas! all too fragmentary) and a number of later , ' quarries with designs confined to one leaded compartment; finally in this brief resume must be mentioned a fragment of green glass which suggests : i the headless torso ofa 15th century figure (FIG. 45,j; seep. 123). Perhaps the most interesting feature of all is the way in which neighbouring village churches contain fragments in many cases actually identical in pattern. Of these, Monks Risborough church in Bucks. (FIG. 45, a--e) contains the most noticeably similar glass, especially a double fleur-de-Iys which is shaped to fit round corners, a curiously rough-hatched border, and others, but the presence .. ;: : i I of silver-stain and the method of treatment would suggest a somewhat later I date than that at Notley. From its wealth of glass it is not surprising to find ! other parallels at Dorchester, but in Oxfordshire it is the chancel windows at Chinnor that have most resemblance in their details. APPENDIX n gives a list of the local churches where such resemblances have been noticed. Probably the earliest fragment is that belonging to Mr. Reynolds, the present farmer of part of the land occupying the site of the church. It was found some years before the recent excavations and is likely to have come from the crossing or east of it, though its exact find-spot has been forgotten. It is a graceful tri-Iobed leaf grisaille with a hatched background of the 13th century -: < I,: and compares with glass at Stanton St. John and Stanton Harcourt (cp. Winston, pI. VI; Nelson, p1. xn; Day, pI. CXL (Sens Cathedral); also Aston Sandford church). From the similarity of the lettering '. OBUS' on the scroll at Stanton Harcourt with the Lombardic ' E R ' inscription from the east end of the north choir aisle (FIG. 40, d), it is possible that the origin of this fragment of early grisaille is also the east end of the north choir aisle, and that some of the fragments of border from the same trench are of the same date. It may be noted that there is also a small Lombardic letter from an adjoining trench and possibly a second from the same trench, ' E V'. The first group to be carefully examined was that from the chapter-house, slype and south transept which was dug up by Mr. C. Hohler in 1932 and 1933 (Records of Buckinghamshire, xu, 58 and 421). Some of this glass bore the oak leaf and acorn design in grisaille (FIG. 36), which is a very popular theme amongst the artists of mediaeval stained glass (cp. Winston, pI. VI; Merton College chapel, Aston Rowant, Ellesborough, Dorchester, Ludgershall, Horsepath, Warborough). The actual treatment, including the broad strap or band to be observed in one particular instance at Notley, is so akin to the glass in Merton College chapel that it appears possible to date this as almost contemporary, that is to say belonging to the very end of the 13th century. 114 l'---------~·· . ~ . ,I ...•) , . i i FIG. 36 !' FRAGMENTS OF LATE 13TH CENTURY GLASS FROM THE SITE OF THE CHAPTER-HOUSE, SLYPE AND SOUTH TRANSEPT, . NOTLEY ~. (p. 114)· Sc. t. ST. J. O. GAMLEN Similar treatment of this oak-leaf design is especially to be noted at War borough in the easternmost window on the north side of the chancel and in a similar position at Lewknor, both these instances being black enamel on white glass without silver-stain, as well as in the eastern windows at Dorchester.

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