I don’t particularly like to venture out from late July through August, when the schools are on holiday. However, the places that are guaranteed to be free of tourists are parish churches. This August (2024) I ventured out with a friend to visit two Dorset churches under the care of The Churches Conservation Trust. They are somewhat off the beaten track but have that uncanny ability to transport one back in time.
Church of St Mary, Tarrant Crawford, Dorset
The first of these churches is the Church of St Mary at Tarrant Crawford. It nestles in the green of the Tarrant valley, off the beaten track and tucked out of view from anywhere. What appears a small unassuming church has a unique significance. Firstly, it is worth considering (a) the location on the River Tarrant, (b) that it is right next to what was a Cistercian nunnery, and (c) the interior and stunning sequence of 14th C wall paintings along the nave.
The church is amongst a group, now known as the Two Rivers Benefice: Spetisbury, Charlton Marshall, Blandford St Mary, Langton Long, Tarrant Rushton with Tarrant Rawston, and Tarrant Keyneston with Tarrant Crawford.
The walls are flint and rubble local stone with dark brown Heath Stone and Green Sandstone.[i] There is some ashlar and banded stone, and it is part lime rendered. The roof is tiled with a few courses of stone tiles.
THE RIVERS
The River Stour
The River Stour is the most known of the rivers Dorset. Its source are springs at Stourhead in Wiltshire, and its 97 km (60 miles) course flows down through Dorset, including the towns of Gillingham, Sturminster Newton and Blandford. At Wimborne it joins the River Allen and at Christchurch it joins the River Avon where it then flows into Channel.[ii]
The River Tarrant
The River Tarrant rises near Tarrant Gunville (its spring is in the grounds of what was Gunville House). It flows southwards through Tarrant Gunville, Tarrant Hinton, Tarrant Launceston, Tarrant Monkton, Tarrant Rawston, Tarrant Rushton, Tarrant Keyneston, and Tarrant Crawford. At Tarrant Crawford the Tarrant flows off into the Stour. It is about 12 km (7.5 miles) long.[iii]
Curiously the riverbed at Tarrant Crawford is dried out this year. We were told by a local lady that every other year the river is diverted elsewhere. So maybe in 2025 it will be back flowing again.
River Tarrant dried out bed at Tarrant Crawford August 2024
CISTERCIAN NUNNERY
It is difficult to see evidence that in this remote place there once stood one of the richest medieval nunneries of England. John Leland in his itinerary of the 1540s wrote: ‘Tarent nunnery, of late days, stoode about Crayford bridge, over Stoure river, lower than Blandford.’[iv]
The Cistercians were founded by St Bernard of Clairvaux in France in the 12th C. The first Cistercian abbey in England was Waverley Abbey, Surrey, founded by William Gifford, Bishop of Winchester in 1128.[v]
The small monastery is believed to have been founded by Ralph de Kahaines in the 12th C. Ralph was lord of the manor of Tarrant Keyneston, Around the year 1228 the monastery was re-endowed as a Cistercian nunnery by Bishop Richard Poore (d. 1237).[vi]
Richard Poore had an extraordinary clerical career. His brother Herbert (d. 1217) became Bishop of Salisbury in 1194. Richard was around this time appointed archdeacon of Dorset, and in 1197 dean of Salisbury. Matthew Paris (Benedictine monk, chronicler, manuscript artist, cartographer & polymath – c.1200-1259)[vii] described Richard as a man of both unparalleled piety and profound learning. His rise wasn’t without challenge and appointments were initially blocked.[viii]
However, in 1215 he was elected Bishop of Chichester. Two years later in 1217 he was elected as Bishop of Salisbury. At Salisbury he concentrated efforts on the rebuilding of the cathedral. Old Sarum Cathedral was in a problematic location and in 1217 he managed to obtain permission to move in two miles south.[ix] In 1220 the foundation stones were laid by Bishop Richard Poore. One for the Pope, one for Archbishop Stephen Langton, and one for himself. William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury and Countess Ella of Salisbury laid 2 more. The cathedral’s consecration was in 1258. It would take until around 1330 for the tower and spire to be added.[x]
In 1228 Bishop Poore was elected Bishop of Durham. In his career he gained a reputation of possessing and arbitrating sound judgement.[xi]
Water and rivers are important and perhaps Richard Poore understood that more than most if he was born and brought up around Tarrant Keyneston. A problem with Old Sarum’s location was getting water up to the castle and cathedral. Two miles away, down on the water meadows by the Rivers Avon, a water supply was no longer a problem.
Richard was in the possession of the manor of Tarrant Keyneston, which is where he died in 1237. Both Durham and Salisbury later made claims over his tomb. However, it is possible he was buried at Tarrant Keyneston church, as was his wish.[xii] There is no evidence, but I wonder as he had re-endowed Tarrant Abbey whether he would have taken pride of place in the nave of the abbey church?
The 18th-C antiquarian John Hutchins wrote of Tarrant Crawford Abbey: ‘The heart of Richard, Bishop of Durham, was interred here,…’.[xiii] John Leland wrote in the 1540s that ‘He established a monastery at Tarrant in the county of Dorset, where he was born and given the name of Richard Poore. His heart is buried there, but his body is interred at Durham. He died 15th April in the year of Our Lord 1237, the 21st year of Henry III’s reign’.[xiv] (Note: John Chandler’s edition of Leland’s Itinerary turned the text to modern English).
Tarrant Abbey also had a royal burial to help further endow the Abbey. Joan of England and Queen of Scots (as consort of Alexander II) was the third child and eldest daughter of King John and his 2nd wife, Isabella of Angoulême. Joan was born in 1210 and married at the age of ten to Alexander. She became in a difficult position when tensions flared between Alexander and her brother Henry III, and it appears she returned to England. On a pilgrimage to Canterbury, she died at Havering in Essex on 4 March 1238 in the arms of Henry III and her younger brother Richard of Cornwell. She was buried, according to her wishes at Tarrant Abbey. The Abbey benefited from the almsgiving of Henry III for the soul of his what appears to have been a beloved sister.[xv]
Henry III assigned to the abbess and convent, land to the value of £20 a year according to a bequest made to them by Joan. In 1246 a grant was made that the sheriff of Dorset would henceforth be charged with the provision of two wax lights to burn day and night in the abbey. One before the host and the other before the tomb of Queen Joan.[xvi]
£20 would be around £26,000 in August 2024.[xvii]
It raises the question as to Joan’s connection to the abbey. Did she know Richard Poore, or had she visited it at some point? The royal castle of Corfe is some 26.5 km (16.5 miles) south of Tarrant Crawford. King John, Joan’s father, built his gloriette there and Henry III visited his royal castle. William Marshall served as protector for the 9-year-old Henry III after King John died in 1216. Sturminster Marshall was one of Marshall’s manors, some 6.5 km (4 miles) from Tarrant Abbey.
The abbey was dissolved in 1539. Margaret Russell was abbess along with nineteen nuns.[xviii] Hutchins wrote ‘Margaret Russel, the last abbess. She willed her body to be buried in Bere Regis church.’[xix]
Chancel with 2 stone coffin slabs either side of the altar
The two coffin slabs (13th C or 14th C) are said to have been found in 1857 in a ruinous building, supposedly on the site of the abbey church. However, these do not relate to the burials of Bishop Poore or Queen Joan. They are likely to have been for abbesses or nuns from the abbey. The medieval tiles at the front of the chancel have been reset. One is the arms of the Clare family, Earls of Gloucester.[xx]
Medieval tiles set in the chancel floor
There are some stone remains in the riverbed. Of the abbey Hutchins writes ‘… seem to have been demolished immediately on the Dissolution …. The present parish church being but small, and not appearing to have been larger, could hardly have been the conventual church. There was lately a large old barn here, which by its style of building was supposed to have been the abbey church.’[xxi]
Stones visible in the riverbed
Stones in the riverbed – but may be related to the kind of ‘river scaping’ that went on in the 18th & 19th centuries?
The abbey church was either built or rebuilt in 1240-1246, but nothing remains, and its site is uncertain. Nearby Tarrant Abbey Farm with a barn and another farm building of medieval origin give clues to the abbey complex.[xxii] The farm and local buildings may have quickly absorbed stone following the Dissolution.
THE CHUCH INTERIOR & WALL PAINTINGS
The church is of 12th C-origin. The chancel is mainly 12th C, with the nave and re-fenestration being 13th C. The porch and further re-fenestration were added in the 15th C. The tower and nave roof are early 16th C.[xxiii]
The wagon roof is 16th C. Rafters spanning the nave are part of the former lath-and-plaster ceiling that was removed in 1911.[xxiv] I found myself looking for a light switch which would illuminate the lamps in the nave. However, they are oil lamps with no bulbs, i.e., there is no electricity in the church.
The woodwork is oak. The open pews & chancel panelling are made up of 17th and 18th C wood from the former box pews. The pulpit and priest’s stall are of early 17th C origin. The communion rails belong to later in the 17th C.[xxv] There is wall painting evidence that can be seen on the north nave wall.
Early-17th C Priest’s Stall
Early-17th C Pulpit
Early-17th C Pulpit
To the right of the porch door is a curious carved stone. It is suggested that this is the head of a Saxon window, which may infer an older, pre-Norman church at Tarrant Crawford.[xxvi]
The north door is 1911. Although the hinges and lockbox were transferred from the previous door.[xxvii]
The main wall painting sequence of the nave is on the south wall. There are 2 tiers of wall paintings. The upper tier is the life of St Margaret of Antioch and dates from the first half of the 14th C. The lower tier also dates first half of the 14th C.[xxviii]
First five scenes from the life of St Margaret of Antioch.[xxix]
Tarrant Antioch may have been an earlier name for Tarrant Rawston.[xxx] Perhaps St Margaret was a patron saint of the abbey or an abbess? St Margaret was a popular medieval saint. She was swallowed by a dragon (representing the Devil) and made the sign of the cross, whereupon the dragon burst open, and she emerged unharmed.
Part of the lower tier painting scheme depicts the story of The Three Living and The Three Dead. The tale’s origins are lost in the mists of time but there are versions dating back to the 13th C, with manuscript evidence from England and France. The story is that the three young noble men, out hunting, come across three corpses. Here we see in the painting crowns on the young men’s heads, perhaps denoting princes. One of the princes has a hawk. The young men are shocked at the animated corpses who tell them to consider their lives and change their ways as they too will be one day be dead.[xxxi] It is a kind of memento mori, a reminder of the inevitability of death.
The Annunciation – 14th C.[xxxii] This painting is nearest to the chancel, a reminder the church’s dedication to St Mary.
The Crucifixion – late 14th C. It may have over painted a former image of The Visitation.[xxxiii]
The door in the south wall by the chancel. A way into the church from other buildings?
The earliest painting scheme. Simple masonry pattern with five-petaled roses. Dates from the late 13th C.[xxxiv]
RESTORATION
Plaque describing the restoration of the Church of St Mary, Tarrant Crawford.
SUMMARY
Eight hundred years ago, nestling by the River Tarrant was once a rich and thriving Cistercian nunnery. This was not quite what the Cistercians set out to do with secluded austerity, prayer and manual labour. But it attracted royal patronage and a bishop’s heart, if not his body. Bishop Richard Poore may well have understood the value of rivers when he relocated the cathedral from Old Sarum to the water meadows of Salisbury. Tarrant Abbey disappeared in the main following the Dissolution and its influence long forgotten. But echoes of its former status have not been forgotten.
The church of St Mary at Tarrant Crawford is well worth a visit to sense echoes of the medieval world. What is left is a church with its intriguing wall paintings, depicting what was important seven hundred years ago.
NOTES
[i] Christopher Dalton, Church of St Mary Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, (London: The Churches Conservation Trust, 2007), p. 3.
[ii] ‘River Stour’, Wikishire, < https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/River_Stour,_Dorset > [accessed 27 August 2024].
[iii] ‘River Tarrant’, Wikishire, <https://wikishire.co.uk/wiki/River_Tarrant> [accessed 27 August 2024].
[iv] John Hutchins, The History And Antiquities of the County of Dorset, 3rd edn, 4 vols (London: John Bowyer Nichols, 1870), III, p. 122.
[v] ‘History of Waverley Abbey’, English Heritage, < https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/waverley-abbey/history/ > [accessed 27 August 2024].
[vi] Dalton, p. 2.
[vii] Simon Lloyd and Rebecca Reader, ‘Paris, Matthew (c. 1200-1259)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, 27 May 2010, < https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/21268> [accessed 26 August 2024].
[viii] Phillipa Hoskin, ‘Poor [Poore], Richard (d. 1237)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, 08 Oct 2009, <https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/22525> [accessed 26 August 2024].
[ix] Hoskin, ‘Poor [Poore], Richard (d. 1237)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
[x] Pevsner, Nikolaus, The Buildings of England: Wiltshire, 2nd edn, rev. by Bridget Cherry (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), pp. 390-1.
[xi] Hoskin, ‘Poor [Poore], Richard (d. 1237)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
[xii] Hoskin, ‘Poor [Poore], Richard (d. 1237)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.
[xiii] Hutchins, p. 122.
[xiv] John Chandler, John Leland’s Itinerary Travels in Tudor England, (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1993), p. 496.
[xv] Keith Stringer, ‘Joan (1210-1238)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, 23 Sep 2004, < https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/14820> [accessed 26 August 2024].
[xvi] ‘House of Cistercian nuns: The abbey of Tarrant Kaines’, in A History of the County of Dorset: Volume 2, ed. William Page (London, 1908), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/dorset/vol2/pp87-90 [accessed 23 August 2024].
[xvii] ‘Inflation calculator’, Bank of England, https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetary-policy/inflation/inflation-calculator[accessed 23 August 2024].
[xviii] Dalton, p. 2.
[xix] Hutchins, p. 121.
[xx] Dalton, p. 7.
[xxi] Hutchins, p. 122.
[xxii] Dalton, p. 2.
[xxiii] ‘Church of St Mary’, Historic England List Entry 1110840, (1953), <https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1110840?section=official-list-entry> [accessed 27 August 2024].
[xxiv] Dalton, p. 6.
[xxv] Dalton, p. 6.
[xxvi] Dalton, p. 7.
[xxvii] Dalton, p. 6.
[xxviii] Dalton, pp. 8-10.
[xxix] Dalton, p. 8.
[xxx] ‘River Tarrant’, Wikishire.
[xxxi] Sarah J. Biggs, ‘The Three Living and the Three Dead’, British Library: Medieval manuscripts blog, 2014, < https://blogs.bl.uk/digitisedmanuscripts/2014/01/the-three-living-and-the-three-dead.html> [accessed 27 August 2024].
[xxxii] Dalton, p. 8.
[xxxiii] Dalton, p. 10.
[xxxiv] Dalton, p. 8.