1148 Merevale Abbey & Church

Robert, Earl Ferrers, founded Merevale Abbey in 1148; he gave to it ‘all my forest of Arden’. Because of the remoteness of their sites, the Cistercian rule specifically required the provision of a Chapel outside the Gate of their Abbeys for visitors, servants etc. The ruins of the Abbey are situated in the grounds of Abbey Farm, which is strictly private property. Permission to view the ruins must be previously obtained from the farm tenants. Of the great abbey church, the nave of which was as long as Tintern Abbey, very little exists. However, the remains of the Refectory (about 96ft. by 32ft.) stand in the garden of Abbey Farm. A Service of Holy Communion is held there annually on the Sunday following the Feast of the Blessed Virgin on September 8th.The Church of our Lady Merevale
The architecture of the parish church of Our Lady, built in 1240, has always been a puzzle. The nave, which once had aisles, is of two bays, and the chancel, which now has side aisles, is of four bays. As Pevsner says ‘It results in something quite lopsided’. The proportions of the building are not unlike those of the Gate Chapel of Tilty Abbey, in Essex. At Merevale, one reason for the unusually large chancel was in order to accommodate the great number of Pilgrims who came to see the statue of the Virgin Mary, especially at the time of the Black Death.

The glory of the church is the medieval stained glass, which is amongst the most important Cistercian glass in the country. This includes the famous Jesse Window of 1330-1340, which was probably originally in the Abbey Church. There are ten panels of Kings and Prophets, all linked by the branches of the vine tree, ‘wonderfully lively and as good as any surviving from the earlier Middle Ages’ as Simon Jenkins writes in his ‘England’s Thousand Best Churches.’ There is other interesting 14th, 15th, and 16th century donor glass and five good 19th century windows, including two in memory of members of the Dugdale family. The church also contains the wooden medieval Rood Screen and three Ferrers monuments from the Abbey Church, a Johannes Snetzler chamber organ of 1777, and possibly the earliest Cistercian wall painting in the country, which is urgently awaiting restoration. The church is a Grade I Listed Building.

This article uses material from Merevale History, A North Warwickshire Local History Site which includes Atherstone, Merevale and the surrounding villages.
Written and compiled by John D. Austin

Incidently, the webmaster of this website was christened in what is now know as Merevale Church.