FIRE OF SHERBORNE ABBEY
The story told to tourists is based on the writings of the antiquarian, Leland, who visited Sherborne a hundred years after the event. In modernised English, his account reads somewhat as follows:
The monks and the townsmen fell at variance over the use of a baptismal font in the chapel of All Hallows. Whereupon, Walter Gallor, a big butcher dwelling in Sherborne, smashed the font. This infuriated the townsmen who were joined by men of the Earl of Huntingdon. In the ensuing riot a priest of All Hallows shot a flaming arrow into a part of the abbey roof that happened to be thatched at that time. The resulting fire led to the near destruction of the building. Even the bells in the tower melted.
By good chance, far more is known about the riot than Leland reports. A mass of archival material has survived from the crucial eighteen months leading up to the incident. It is so detailed that we even have a street directory giving the names and addresses of Sherborne residents.
Two groups can be discerned:?
The goodies: worthy citizens striving to build an almshouse for the town with the support of the bishop.
The baddies: the abbot and the dissidents who oppose him.
Following a public inquiry, the bishop named the dissidents and threatened to excommunicate them and the abbot if they did not take specific steps to settle their differences.
The dispute was almost comical at times. The dissidents used the baptismal procession at Easter and Pentecost to insult and intimidate the monks. The abbot relocated the font and narrowed the door through which the procession passed. The dissidents rang bells to annoy the monks. Smelly fires annoyed the parishioners. The dissidents acquired an illegal font in defiance of the bishop … and so on.
I’ve joined tourists visiting the abbey. The fire intrigues them. They are amazed that a priest would shoot an arrow and set the building ablaze. They are shown the firemarks on the stonework and the door the abbot failed to return to its former size, despite the threat of excommunication. They ask questions and a lot go unanswered.
However did a priest come to shoot a fire arrow?
I used to be puzzled too. Then my curiosity got the better of me. I delved into the historical and archaeological records and was surprised by how much had survived. In the end, I was no longer puzzled. The riot was a disaster waiting to happen.
England was in turmoil. The country was enmeshed in a vicious war with France. The feudal system was in a state of collapse. The middle classes were on the rise. Artisans were flexing their muscles. Radical views on religion were entangled with politics. Law and order was hard to find and spectacular punch-ups were commonplace.
CHRONOLOGY
A) Events with recorded dates
Easter & Pentecost 1436. Unruly behaviour by parishioners at Baptismal Service causes offence to monks. (Robert Neville)
August 1436. Abbot John Brunyng dies. (Fowler 263-4)
2 September 1436. Abbot William Bradford elected. (Fowler 263-4)
12 November 1436. Bishop Neville’s inquiry. (Fowler 263-4)
8 January 1437. Bishop Neville issues a decree. (Fowler 263-4)
11 July 1437. Henry VI issues a royal charter for the incorporation of the Almshouse. (Fowler p.238)
11 October. Old Michaelmas Day. Pact Monday Fair was held on the Monday following Michaelmas. (Fowler 169-70)
28 October 1437. Abbey fire. (Sherborne Annals as reported by Gibb p.7)
B) Events with no recorded dates
i) Tolling of All Hallows bells causes annoyance to monks.
ii) Smouldering fires cause annoyance to parishioners.
iii) Processional door narrowed by monks.
iv) Unauthorised font installed by parishioners in All Hallows.
The above four events are recorded in Bishop Neville’s ordinance and must therefore have occurred before his November 1436 inquiry.
v) The monks erect a screen at the east end of the abbey church nave, as directed by bishop.
vi) All Hallows font was not removed by parishioners as directed by bishop.
vii) Connecting door was not widened by monks as directed by bishop.
viii) Abbey font was not returned to original position by monks as directed by bishop.
ix) Walter Gallor destroys All Hallows font. (Leland as reported by Gibb p.5)
The above five events/non-events occurred/failed-to-occur between the bishop’s ordinance of January 1437 and the fire of October 1437.
C) Events of 1451
i) Uprising following English defeat in France. Government loses control of West of England for three months.
ii) Bishop of Salisbury murdered by insurgents.
iii) Parishioners install another illegal font in All Hallows and, this time, it stays.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary
Bishop Neville’s (1436) inquiry into dispute between parish and abbot: translation from church Latin of Bishop’s findings: Petit, J.L., Proc. Arch. Inst., Bristol 1851.
Fowler’s detailed study of Sherborne archives: Fowler, Joseph: Mediaeval Sherborne: Longmans 1951.
Archaeological studies: Gibb, J.H.P.: The Fire of 1437 and the Rebuilding of Sherborne Abbey: Journal of the B.A.A., vol. 138, pp 101-124, 1985.
Secondary
Many excellent sources. I found the following particularly helpful:
French war: Barker, Juliet: The English Kingdom of France: Little, Brown Book Group, 2009.
Social: Bennett, H.S.: The Pastons and Their England: Cambridge, 1995.
General: Wier, Alison: Lancaster and York: Jonathan Cape, 1995.
Wolf Wood
My research into the Fire of Sherborne Abbey provided the inspiration for my novel Woolf Wood. This is a work of fiction. Events follow the recorded chronology. Some characters are historical in the sense that they have been given the names of real people. Others are purely imaginary.
Mike Dixon (16/07/11)
