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| Torre Abbey The King's Drive Torquay TQ2 5JE | |
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31 October 2006 - A visit by the Devon Archaeological Society
I am delighted to welcome thirteen members of the Devon Archaeological Society for a special guided tour. I have been a member of the Society since moving to Devon in 1992. The Society does important work in publishing the results of archaeological fieldwork in Devon and is active in organising lectures and outings. Now it’s my opportunity to give back something in return.
All site visitors have to wear full protective gear, and the Devon Archaeological Society is no exception. As the Society regularly helps with archaeological fieldwork, I reckon our visitors will be used to this sort of thing, and indeed they are.
We begin by climbing the scaffolding, where carpenters (from Darcy Carpentry) are busy repairing the roofs of the south-west wing. The roofs here were built between 1803 and 1810 (we know this from old prints and drawings). About 60% of the rafters need replacement, and most of the frames have rotted away where they came into contact with the walls. Fortunately, the frame ends can be saved by bolting on thick steel plates.
Our next stop is in the medieval undercrofts, where we find plasterers hard at work. In the northern undercroft (under the chapel), the fine medieval surface plaster is being undermined by a sooty black layer. No one knows what it is, so samples have been sent away for analysis. Elsewhere, much of the old loose plaster has been cut away, and the plasterers are “deep packing” the stonework with fresh haired lime plaster.
In the former laybrothers’ refectory two new discoveries have been made. The headstones of a medieval doorway have been found in the north-east corner. This doorway once gave access to a small spiral stair (now blocked). A large quatrefoil has been found scratched into the surface of the medieval plaster above one of the two columns that supports the vaulting. It probably enclosed a small medieval painting - a Madonna and child perhaps. It would have been the first thing to catch your eye when entering the room in medieval times.
It proves very hard to keep a party of visitors together when there is so much to see and so many obstacles to hinder progress. We are tired by the end of the tour, but at least my visitors seem pleased.
21 November 2006 - A date with tree-rings
This morning I visited the Abbey to meet my former colleague Ian Tyers (we once worked together at the Museum of London). Ian is a dendrochronologist - which means that he dates old buildings by studying tree rings found in structural oak beams.
Our party consists of four archaeologists: myself, Ian Tyers, Chris Thomas from the Museum of London Archaeology Service (who are responsible for archaeological recording during the works), and Hal Bishop, from Torbay Council’s Conservation Planning Section. Our task is to make a careful tour of the roofs to identify suitable timbers for sampling. A good sample will include at least 50 rings, including some sapwood, and preferably some bark.
We eventually find around 15 promising timbers, and Ian uses his auger to cut out some bores. He labels them carefully and places them in what looks something like a box of cigars. Back in Sheffield, Ian will measure the width of the rings, and use a computer program to compare them to a master curve. If he can get a statistically good match, Ian will be able to date the timbers.
We are especially interested in the roof over a staircase at the back of the Abbey. The staircase dates from about 1680. But the roof timbers are much earlier. They seem to have been taken from a medieval roof that was demolished when the staircase was constructed. If we can date this earlier roof, we may be able to work out which part of medieval Torre Abbey it came from.
21 December 2006 - Ready for the Holiday
The builders are preparing the site for the Christmas holiday. It will be my last visit of 2006.
I begin by visiting two parts of the building that are giving cause for concern. The black sooty substance in the northern undercroft has been identified as species of mould. This is bad news, as the affected plaster will now need to be removed before making good.
Worse, the north-east staircase leading down to the Mayor’s Parlour is close to collapse. Strenuous efforts have been made to save it. A buttress that weighed down one corner has been removed and the walls (which were built on garden soil) have been underpinned. New lintols have been installed. But beneath the internal plaster, huge cracks have been found shaking up throughout the upper walls.
Clearly these walls were thrown up in a terrible hurry and consist of nothing more than rubble held together with splatters of weak lime cement. The building is braced by temporary scaffolding. But all work has stopped, and the architects are seeking advice from English Heritage and their structural engineer. The staircase contains the two finest Georgian windows in the whole of the Abbey. I do hope it can be saved.
On a much more positive note, the work is nearly half way through. It is also still on budget and almost to schedule!
The roof carpentry is mostly finished, and the new roof felt has been fixed in place. It will help protect the Abbey from the coming winter storms. Pipes and conduits for new heating, electrical and telephone systems are now being installed. Some temporary boilers have been fired up and parts of the building have background heating.
Work on applying the external lime renders is well advanced. The materials may be traditional, but the methods used to mix and apply them are not. The renders are mixed in a standard cement mixer, and where appropriate, are applied using a powerful mechanical spray gun. Using the gun looks like fun, but I reckon the fun would quickly evaporate after a few hours’ out in the damp and cold!
Inside the Abbey, newly delivered doors, windows and floor boards have been stacked to condition them to their new environment. After Christmas, the focus of the work will change from the outside to the inside. The stripping out phase is largely complete; the work of reinstatement and renovation is about to begin.
Wednesday 4 October - A bat and a ghost
One of the architects phones to say that a suspected bat has been seen at the Abbey. I find this hard to believe, having worked in the Abbey for 14 years and never once seen a bat.
I live in a cottage that shelters three bat roosts, and so I know what to look for.
A hunting party is formed, comprising myself, site manager Keith James, and an electrician who made the first sighting. Armed with torch, camera and keys, we make our way to the southern undercrofts. I spy some tell-tale droppings, and second later we are buzzed by a large, fluttering bat. From its size it has to be a horseshoe.
Bats are highly protected and even before this sighting, everyone on site had been warned not to disturb them. We immediately call our bat warden, but by the time she arrives, the bat has disappeared. Fortunately, no works are planned in the southern undercrofts during this phase of the restoration. Hopefully the bat has already found a quiet corner, where it can hibernate until next spring in something approaching peace and quiet.
Site manager Basil Paske tells me that something more sinister than a bat may also be floating round the abbey during the hours of darkness.
Basil’s last task of the day is to lock the doors and set the burglar alarms. The alarms cannot be set if the doors are not first locked. A few days ago, an alarm went off in the dead of night. Upon investigation, Basil found that the alarm between the chapel and the sacristy had been triggered, and the door he had locked a few hours before was now thrown wide open. And no one had either entered or left the building.
A couple of nights later, Basil’s sleep was disturbed by yet another alarm. This time a movement alarm, but again within the chapel.
As an historian who tries to be objective, I remain sceptical about all such stories. Basil also used to be sceptical; now he’s not quite so sure!
26 September - the Monthly Project Meeting
Each month a Project Meeting is held in the contractors’ site hut - to monitor progress and to keep the project on track.
Everyone responsible for delivering the project is present or represented. Site managers Basil Paske and Keith James are there. So too is Simon Parsons, the project manager for Kier Western, the principal contractor. Torbay Council is represented by project manager Steve Parrock, and myself, and by Hal Bishop from the Conservation Planning section. Paul Richold and Sarah Moore represent Architecton, the conservation architects, and they are joined by Craig Dashfield, who is responsible for services (electricity, gas, heating, communications, etc), and Clive Dawson, the structural engineer. Chris Thomas represents the Museum of London, which is taking care of the archaeology.
Although the formal business does not start until 10.30, most of us arrive on site long before, to view the works and catch up with progress. And when it has ended, follow-up discussions last all afternoon, with people forming and reforming in different groups to visit different parts of the building and to discuss various aspects of the project.
Like the project itself, the meeting proceeds at a terrific pace. Identifying and solving problems is the name of the game, and everyone is playing to win.
Simon Parsons reports that almost all of the external render has been removed. The repair of the roof timbers is already well advanced, and steel supports for the floor beams are due to be delivered.
The focus of the project is changing. With the external render off, the builders are raking loose material from between the stonework and “deep pack pointing” the joints with lime mortar. Sample mixes of external renders have been applied as patches, to help us choose which colours and textures may be appropriate for different parts of the building.
Special safety measures are in force around the north-east stair extension, which is still at risk of collapse! Not only was it built on loose soil and entirely without foundations, but the stonework above consists of rubble loosely held with splatters of weak lime mortar. No wonder the walls are leaning so precariously! Without our project, we could have lost this entire corner - and the best Gothick windows in the whole of Torre Abbey!
Progress has been so rapid that the contractors are hungry for further instructions. Everyone leaves the meeting with a long list of investigations to carry out, and questions to answer.
Wednesday 6 September
The Strahov monastery is fortunate in having some splendid portraits of the Abbots who were once in charge of the community. Torre Abbey by contrast has nothing of the kind. We nevertheless do know the names of around 135 people who lived in and around the Abbey in medieval times. There is not much time for research while the Abbey project is underway, but today I managed to complete a list of the Abbey’s medieval inhabitants.
In most cases all we have is a name and a snip of information. We know for example that Henry of Babidon, a Canon of Torre, was deprived of his privileges “through his own demerits”, but that these were restored in 1478 by request of the Abbot. We also know that Agnes Hardy was a bond servant at Torre Abbey until around 1399, when Abbot William Norton made her free “as a reward for good service”.
We know almost nothing about what these people looked like. The only evidence comes from a handful of carvings, some of which are so characterful that they may have been modelled on real people who lived at the Abbey. A few days after completing my list another finely carved head is recovered from the rubble of a later wall. I wonder if it could be modelled on Agnes Hardy? I suppose it’s unlikely, and we shall never ever know.
Torre Abbey project is about far more than just an historic building. Its fundamentally about people. The people who lived here, and what they believed, and what they experienced. And the people of tomorrow, who will visit the Abbey, to enjoy its ambience and to hear the fascinating story of Torbay’s most important building, that has been lost and forgotten for far, far too long.
Tuesday 5 September - Windows on the Past
The architects have asked my opinion on a wooden window frame that has just been found behind some later woodwork in a first floor window opening. I climb the scaffold and find the greater part of yet another window dating from around 1680.
The frame is made of solid pieces of squared softwood, held at the corners with two large wooden pegs. There is a rebate (step) around the front of the frame which held the edges of a panel of leaded lights. The leadwork was wired to some horizontal metal bars (now missing), the two ends of which were held by a series of notches down either side of the frame.
Because so much survives, it will be possible to repair the frame and to restore the window to its original appearance. This is excellent news. Had the woodwork been totally rotten, then according to the principles of restoration, we would instead have to install a contemporary style window, so as to avoid creating a reproduction. The intention must be to enable knowledgeable visitors to read the building like a book. So where a window is entirely new, we must make it look modern, and not trick the viewer into thinking it is antique.
The new window brings to seven the number of complete or nearly complete windows of this style and date. Installed by the Cary family in around 1680, they are helping to show us how the Abbey was first converted from a monastic building to a grand country mansion. The windows on a staircase extension suggest the position of the original landings, which were then arranged quite differently. The outer doorframe of the main terrace entrance is made in a similar manner, suggesting that the Carys also created the Abbey’s familiar front entrance.
I reflect that after the alterations, the front door will no longer be used by visitors - for the first time in 350 years. In future, everyone will enter by a medieval doorway under the Abbot’s tower. This will be a more exciting way to enter the Abbey, but it will also change how the building has to be managed. More than once I have lain awake at night thinking through the changes that are needed to make it all work.
Week beginning 28 August
My holiday takes me to Prague, capital of the Czech Republic - one of the newest members of the European Union.
Prague is the only European capital not to have been devastated by war. Even so, it has seen some turbulent times. When I was last here in 1968, I witnessed the Russian-led invasion and saw the brave Czech people arguing with young Russian soldiers, who had been spun a yarn that they were invading to prevent a civil war. I am curious to see how life has changed.
I find that Prague today is vibrant, confident and moving forward fast. It is basking in its newly found freedoms, and the highlights of my trip are visits to two museums that are have reopened to the public after years of suppression under former Communist regimes. I can recommend both to anyone visiting Prague.
The Jewish Museum in Prague manages a cluster of sites in the former Jewish ghetto. It includes former synagogues, the Jewish cemetery and ceremonial hall, and several exhibitions. One of the synagogues is now a holocaust memorial; the inside is covered with tens of thousands of names of those who perished. An adjacent room exhibits some drawings made by Jewish children when they were first confined to the ghetto, then sent to the camps. The guards, the trains and the camps are all vividly depicted. Many visitors cannot restrain their tears.
The aim of the museum is to help pass down aspects of Jewish culture and to elicit sympathy and understanding from non-Jews. As Torre Abbey was shaped by 800 years of Roman catholocism, I wonder what I can learn here that may be relevant to Torre Abbey. Before entering the museum, I am asked to wear a skull cap as a mark of respect. It makes me think hard about what it might be like to be Jewish and in daily fear of discrimination and persecution. It’s a good technique and its one we have used at Torre Abbey to help children to think about what it meant to enter a monastery.
Another visit took me to the Strahov Monastery - a large complex of white Baroque buildings on a hill behind Prague Castle. As well as housing a museum, the Strahov Monastery is the largest European monastery of the Premonstratensian Order of Canons. They founded the Strahov monastery in 1143, exactly 53 years before they founded Torre Abbey, in 1196.
Today, almost no-one in Devon has heard of them. Yet in medieval times, the premonstratensian canons of Torre shaped the lives of everyone who lived in Torbay and much of the surrounding area. One of the tasks for the new Torre Abbey will be to remind people of their influence over this area.
In the long intervening years, the canons too have been systematically persecuted - almost to the point of extinction. Most of their monasteries were forcibly closed - either during the Reformation, or the French revolution, or the era of Communism. But at Strahov, the canons somehow kept their community alive, until their monastery was returned to them in 1989.
Today about 100 canons live here. They run a school and seminary, maintain a major art gallery and library, and also care for the physical remains of their founder Saint Norbert. The gallery contains wonderful monastic treasures from all over central Europe. The collection was confiscated and dispersed to other museums during the communist era, but the major part has now been returned. The library dates from the foundation of the Abbey and acquired its present form by the end of the 18th century. It contains 260,000 works, the majority on theology. I have never before seen so many vellum bound volumes in one place.
I am thrilled to see such wonderful treasures, and by what they represent in terms of the enduring faith of the canons, through so many dark years of repression and persecution.
For half of its history, Torre Abbey was inhabited by people who knew what it was to live in fear on account of their religious allegiance. I wonder how we can convey this in the context of the new displays we are now starting to think about.
Thursday 24 August
Before taking my summer break, I pay a last visit to Torre Abbey to see the latest progress. Behind the tarpaulin, the sub-contractors (St. Blaise) are still chiselling off the thick layers of external render. New discoveries are being made everywhere and I get busy taking pictures.
I have a lot of respect for the craftsmen doing the work. It is physically demanding and requires great care and concentration. The workers are all hand-picked. Most are highly experienced, but there are also a lot of young fellows working along side them - still learning their trades and studying for NVQs. It’s great to see traditional skills being passed down to a new generation.
As I clamber around the scaffold, I am greeted by Mark Styles. Mark is foreman for the subcontractors and he actually changed companies so he could work on the Torre Abbey Project. His enthusiasm is infectious. “Mike, there’s something unusual turning up on the outside of the chapel. I’d like your opinion.”
Given an invitation like this, I am quick to shin up the relevant ladder, and soon find myself gazing at yet another important discovery. Two stonemasons are chipping away at the outside of the chapel, formerly the great hall of the monastery. It’s made of red sandstone rubble, but between the courses of rubble a line of bright yellow stonework is starting to appear. I know what this is as we found something similar on the Abbot’s tower back in 1996.
It’s a decorative string course - a band of raised stonework in a contrasting colour. It dates from the earliest phase of the Abbey in the early 13th century and by clambering about the scaffolding I soon trace fragments of it in several other places. It clearly formed part of a decorative scheme that once covered the whole outer side of the Abbey’s west range. Unfortunately the raised profile of the string course has mostly been hacked off some time in the past so that it could be rendered over. But it can be repaired so visitors can gain an impression of how the Abbey once appeared.
I can hardly wait to see the full scheme revealed when I return from holiday.
Monday 31 July
It was a pleasure to welcome to Torre Abbey a group of 17 visiting students from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The tour leader, Professor SIU, is a long-standing friend and colleague, and when I heard she was bringing some students to the UK, I naturally suggested including Torre Abbey. The architect Paul Richold and I gave talks about the project. We then took the group on a tour of the building. As might be expected, there were lots of questions, for example why we were not using bamboo scaffolding? We lunched in the Riviera Centre, took photos, and then the group presented me with a plaque engraved with my name. It will take pride of place on my office desk in the new Torre Abbey!
Friday 28 July
Today I fixed the last panels for a new FREE exhibition about the Torre Abbey project. The exhibition is in the Spanish Barn, which is within the Abbey site, but outside the builder’s boundary. The exhibition will be open every weekday from 10.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. until the end of September 2006.
It has been fun working with the designers to create the huge exhibition panels. I took the photographs and I am concerned how they will look as it’s the first time I’ve seen images from a digital SLR blown up so large. But the printers have done an excellent job. While I hang the panels, visitors slip in almost un-noticed. The barn holds an almost magnetic influence over passers-by. If the front door is ajar, people cannot resist peeking inside.
Before leaving the Abbey site, I myself succumb to the magnetism of the Torre Abbey scaffolding. I find the builders well advanced in stripping the external render off the west side of the south range. This is amazing! Elegant carved stonework is coming to light. It’s a major discovery! The builders have uncovered the tracery of part of a huge medieval window. This once lit the refectory, high above the heads of the silent religious, eating their meals on long refectory tables far down below. But the gaps between the tracery that once were filled with stained glass, are now blocked with rubble. I wonder if English Heritage will allow us to uncover and to reveal the design - assuming enough of it has survived.
Wed 26 July
Today the scaffolding was complete enough to allow me to climb it for the very first time. I took the stairs to the main roof, and gingerly walked towards the front (scary) side of the sloping leadwork. I then stepped boldly onto the front parapet of the Abbey at an absolutely giddy height above the terrace below, then off the parapet and onto the scaffolding.
I now find myself above the roofs of the south west range, looking down ten feet onto the tops of the roofs, then up two stories to the roof of the new scaffolding. For a moment I feel like Superman (yes, one of my kids dragged me to see the movie!). Its an incredible experience to see a building you know so well from an angle normally only seen by pigeons, and then to be able to look through the building (with those Superman x-ray eyes) to see the lofts and rooms below. This is now possible because the workmen have made rapid progress with stripping off the slates. By the time the project is over, I expect doing this will be second nature. But for the moment, it’s a breath-taking experience and one I will not forget.
With the slates off, there is sufficient light to see some of the old roof timbers properly for the very first time. Although you could crawl through the lofts, they were so dirty and dusty that the timbers were almost impossible to study with the aid of a dim torchlight. Now, however, the tool marks, the joints, and the carpenters marks can be seen and studied in detail. Several medieval timbers and a possible 17th-century doorway can be seen in the loft over the south end of the west range. I wonder what the archaeological team will make of it all.
Friday 07 July
During the past week, I visited Torre Abbey several times to discuss aspects of the project with the project manager, the designers, architects, crafts specialists and others. Everyone is very impressed at the dramatic changes that are taking place. Many familiar features have disappeared - not because they have been destroyed, but because they have been completely boxed in for protection. Several rooms, a roof and a staircase have been stripped out and the archaeologists are busy assessing their finds.
In one room, a pair of 17th-century shoes has been found; in another, the top of a spiral staircase, and a fireplace that must date from the 15th or 16th centuries. The fireplace was hidden behind the plasterwork, which in turn was covered over with stripy hand-painted wallpaper. Underneath the wallpaper was a rough pencil inscription that reads: “Paper by S. England March 14 1907”. Who was S. England? One of Colonel Cary’s servants, perhaps? I look up the 1901 census records, but he is not listed. Will we ever know?
Tuesday 18 April
Today the few remaining museum staff (including me) moved out of Torre Abbey to make way for the builders. Despite a twinge of nostalgia, we all felt excited that the hard preparatory work for the project was at last coming to fruition. After all, some of us have been working on the project since 1994!
I spent my last days in the Abbey making a comprehensive photographic survey of the rooms to be affected by the repairs and alterations. The last time anyone did this was in 1920, when the last members of the Cary family to live in Torre Abbey took around 150 black and white photographs before moving away.
Like the Carys, I took my pictures using available light and long exposures. But instead of an old folding film camera, I have the benefit of a modern digital SLR. The Cary pictures have been invaluable for helping us to understand the building and to work out how best to restore it. I wonder if my photos will one day be equally useful.
Sunday 09 April
This was another milestone, as Torbay Council signed the building contract with Kier Western. Mayor Nick Bye and some leading councillors came down and shook hands with the directors of Kier Western on the terrace of Torre Abbey. We took photographs, then Mayor Nick gave an interview for BBC TV.
Then it was my turn to give interviews. I tell myself it’s part of the job, do exactly what the photographer asks, and brace myself for whatever ghastly picture may appear in the local paper!
Monday 13 February
Today Torre Abbey received a generous and delightful gift from a lady (who wishes to remain anonymous) who introduced herself to me at yesterday's open day. I was eager to hear her story and asked her to return when it was quieter so we could have a chat.
The lady's aunt had worked as the cook at Torre Abbey from around 1910 to 1916, when the Abbey was still owned by Colonel Cary. She wanted to give us some photographs of her aunt, whose name was Susan Mitchell, and an album of autographs that Susan had collected, including autographs by other servants at Torre Abbey.
Because the census records for this period will not be released to the public until 2011, we previously did not know the names of Colonel Cary's servants. Now in addition to Susan Mitchell, we have E. Boon, J. Cobley, Gladys Hatherley, A.W. Kitt, L. Matthews, Laura Prince and R. Morris. No doubt the census records will eventually tell us what roles they fulfilled within the household. We also have samples of their handwriting, and some popular poems they found amusing. Here are two examples - both about the battle of the sexes:
Mr. Boon wrote: Man wants but little here below, | Gladys Hatherley wrote: Marriage is a lottery, |
Sunday 12 February
Today the staff at Torre Abbey held a very successful open day. Over 2,000 visitors came along to see the latest discoveries. Being the only archaeologist available, I posted myself outside and talked about the recent cloister excavations to anyone who was prepared to listen. Whenever I paused for breath, I was immediately peppered with questions: What are those holes for? Why was that doorway blocked? How many canons lived at Torre Abbey? What has happened to the grave slab we heard about in the news?
Questions like these cannot always be answered with any degree of certainty. But at least I knew the answer to the last, which is that the grave slab has been taken off site to be cleaned and conserved.
On Wednesday last week, Helena Jaeschke, from Exeter Museum, came down to Torquay to examine the slab. Helena provides a conservation advice service for the smaller Devon museums, and we wanted her advice on how to clean the slab and how to prepare it for display.
We gave the job of cleaning the slab to Helen Bottomley, and Helena showed her how to do it she said it was like conducting an excavation in miniature. When the slab is cleaned and dried out, we will have to pay a conservator to stick back the loose flakes of stone. We then hope to make a cast of the slab in hard cement and to install this in the cloister above the grave, so that we can display the original slab somewhere in Torre Abbey.