EVESHAM

EVESHAM

WRITTEN AND
ILLUSTRATED BY

EDMUND H. NEW

LONDON: J.M. DENT & CO.
29 BEDFORD STREET
NEW YORK: E.P. DUTTON CO.
MDCCCCIV

DEDICATED
TO THE MEMORY OF
H.N.
1820-1893
D.N.
1834-1901

NOTE

For the historical matter contained in the following pages the writer is indebted mainly to George May's admirable history of the town issued in 1845, a book which, since its publication, has been the acknowledged authority on local history.

To Mr. Oswald Knapp his thanks are especially due not only for permission to make use of the series of articles, founded on the monastic chronicles, which appeared some years ago in the Evesham Journal, most of them under the title of "Evesham Episodes," but also for much generous help and criticism.

CONTENTS

I.    INTRODUCTION
II.   EVESHAM AND THE VALE
III.  THE ABBEY
     1. THE FOUNDING OF THE ABBEY
     2. THE ABBEY AFTER THE CONQUEST.
     3. THE DISSOLUTION.
IV.   THE REMAINS OF THE ABBEY
V.    THE PARISH CHURCHES
VI.   THE TOWN—INCLUDING BENGEWORTH AND GREEN HILL
VII.  THE BATTLE OF EVESHAM
VIII. CAVALIERS AND ROUNDHEADS
IX.   THE RIVER
X.    THE NEIGHBOURHOOD

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Bridge Street
Evesham and Bredon Hill, from the Parks
The Bell Tower
The Gatehouse and Almonry
Abbot Reginald's Gateway
In the Market Place
High Street
The Bell Tower, from Bengeworth
St. Egwin's, Honeybourne

Evesham

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

—LOCKSLEY HALL, SIXTY YEARS AFTER

Those who love with a deep reverence the work of their forefathers, whether because of the character and beauty of their handiwork, or from the historical associations which are indissolubly connected with it, cannot but regard with pain and abhorrence any cause which tends towards the demolition or destruction of the monuments of the past. To these it is a significant and distressing fact that hardly any modern English buildings or streets possess the qualities which give the value and charm to the old cities, towns, and villages of which we are the grateful inheritors. If any reader is inclined to doubt the truth of this statement, or to consider the sentiment expressed extravagant or groundless, let him consider the difference between the old towns and the new.

Evesham provides a typical and sufficiently striking instance of the contrasted methods and results. Here there is hardly an old house which has not a local and individual character. Many of them may be plain, severely plain, some possibly ugly; but in each can be read by all who will, a distinct and separate thought, or series of thoughts, connecting the dwelling with its builders and owners, and with the soil out of which it has sprung.

As the varying undulations of the face of the country tell a plain tale to the geologist, so the shape and materials of human habitations tell their story to the student of architecture and the history of man.

The poet Wordsworth pointed out that one of the great charms of the Lake country lay in the way in which the dwellings sprang out of the hill side, as if a natural growth born of the requirements of the peasant or farmer and the materials provided by nature. Throughout England this was once the case; no two houses were precisely alike because no two people had precisely the same ideas, wishes and requirements; and the material was dictated by the stone or timber