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The Priory Through 900 Years
Saxon
and Norman: 7th Century AD to 12th Century
The
Anglo-Saxon Chronicles record that in 634AD Birinus,
a missionary priest sent by Pope Honorius landed in
Britain and in 635 baptised King Cynegils of Wessex.
It was thought that he might have founded a Saxon Priory
at Thuinam as a base for his work in this area, as part
of the Pope's general plan to re-introduce christianity
to Britain.
(Thuinam
near a fine harbour and at the confluence of the Rivers
Avon and Stour would, in those times, have provided
sea communications as well as access to an extensive
hinterland by the two rivers, which in the case of the
Avon was navigable as far inland as Salisbury).
There
is no specific evidence for this, however, but it is
reasonably certain that there would have been a church
here in the 9th century when Thuinam was sufficiently
important to be included in King Alfred's list of fortified
boroughs. The Domesday Survey of 1086 records that there
was a Priory of 24 secular canons here in the reign
of King Edward the Confessor (1042-1066).
In
1094 Ranulf Flambard, a
chief minister of King William II (Rufus) began the
building of a Norman church on the site of the old Saxon
Priory. A paragraph in the Christchurch Cartulary (1312-1372)
states: 'Flambard (the Norman founder of the present
church) destroyed the primitive church of that place
and nine others that had been standing below the cemetery.
The nine others probably referred to nine individual
monastic cells grouped around the main building.
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In
1099 Flambard was appointed Bishop of Durham, but work
continued under his successors in the office of Dean
of Thuinam Priory, and by about 1150 it would have comprised
a basic Norman cruciform church namely a nave (up to
Triforium level) with its north and south aisles; probably
a central tower; and an apsidal-ended quire extending
eastwards from the crossing at the nave to about as
far as the sanctuary steps in the present quire.
During
this period of the 12th century it is probable that
the legend of the Miraculous Beam
originated, a legend which changed the name of the town
from the Saxon Thuinam to the present day Christchurch.
EARLY
ENGLISH AND DECORATED GOTHIC
12th
Century to 14th Century
By
now the Priory possessed extensive lands, manors and
halls in Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and Dorset, but
it was often ill served by its secular canons, who were
often drunken and dissolute.
In
1150 Baldwin de Redvers, Lord of the Manor and Earl
of Devon, in conjunction with his son and heir Richard
de Redvers and influenced by Henri de Blois, Bishop
of Winchester and brother of King Stephen dissolved
the secular Priory and reconstituted it as a Priory
of Canons Regular (i.e. ordained) of the Order of St
Augustine of Hippo (North Africa) and by charter (a
facsimile ofwhich is on display in the Nave) granted
it the freehold of the land on which it was built. Reginald
was elected the first Prior.
Christchurch and the Priory were most fortunate in their
landlords and patrons. The de Redvers, Earls of Devon,
in particular followed an enlightened policy as regards
feudal dues and customs for nearly 200 years. The last
of their line, lsabella de Fortibus, Countess of Devon,
owned extensive estates in the south of England. It
is said that she was persuaded on her deathbed in 1293
to sell her eastern estates in the Isle of Wight, Hampshire
and Dorset to King Edward I for 6000 silver marks (£4000).
Christchurch thus became a Royal Manor and in 1303 had
to provide and man a ship to aid the King's campaign
against Scotland.
In
1330 King Edward III granted the manor to Baron de Montacute
who became the 1st Earl of Salisbury (Second Creation).
It
is a coincidence that this Salisbury line also ended
after some 200 years with a woman, Margaret, Countess
of Salisbury.
Building
work continued and in the 13th century the nave aisles
were vaulted and the clerestory built in the Early English
style. The North Porch,
notable for its unusually large size was commenced and
the Montacute Chapels in Early English style replaced
the Norman apse on the east side of the North
Transept.
By
1350 the Nave roof had been lifted to its present height
over the clerestory. A spire may have been built on
the central Norman tower at this time or a little later.
The South Nave Aisle windows
are in the Decorated Gothic style as is the quire screen,
although it is probable that this screen was brought
in from elsewhere at a later date.
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