We stopped in Tintern briefly to allow me to take some pictures of this magnificent ancient building. Sadly the weather was very overcast. We revisited the following day, walking from Penterry, when a took a few more pictures when the weather was no better.
The Cistercian abbey of Tintern is one of the greatest monastic ruins of Wales. It was only the second Cistercian foundation in Britain, and the first in Wales, and was founded on 9 May 1131 by Walter de Clare, lord of Chepstow. It soon prospered, thanks to endowments of land in Gwent and Gloucestershire, and buildings were added and updated in every century until its dissolution in 1536. However, it was never very large and important, and its history was relatively uneventful. Its position well away from the Welsh heartland meant that, unlike Margam, Neath and Llanthony, it suffered little in the periodic Welsh uprisings of the medieval period.
Here is the west window.
The second view of the west end was taken on the 27th September.
Tintern was always closely associated with the lords of Chepstow, who were often generous benefactors. The most generous was Roger Bigod III, grandson of Marshal's daughter Maud; his monumental undertaking was the rebuilding of the church in the late 13th century. In gratitude the abbey put his coat of arms in the glass of its east window. It is the ruins of Roger's church which dominate the site today.
The abbey buildings were arranged in a standard Cistercian plan, except that the cloisters and all its ancillary buildings were to the north of the church rather than to the south, which was more usual. The present-day remains are an amalgam of several phases of building spanning 400 years, but throughout the basic arrangement remained the same.
Here is a view looking from the south through the transepts.
Of the first buildings, which date from the 12th century, very little remains above ground. A few sections of walling are incorporated into later buildings, and the two recessed cupboards for books on the east of the cloisters are of this period. The church was smaller than the 13th century one, and lay slightly to the north. Its cruciform plan is laid out in gravel paths and stone edgings within the later church. In the late 12th century the first-floor monk's dormitory, which ran northwards from the north transept of the church, was extended; its northern end and the latrines over the drain to its east are of this phase.
The second view of the south side was taken on the 27th September.
During the 13th century the abbey was more or less completely rebuilt, starting in about 1220 with the cloisters and domestic ranges around them, and finishing with the great church. The entrance to the precinct was on the west side of the cloisters, through the unassuming late 13th-century porch and outer parlour. (The modern entrance to the abbey is well to the north.) Above was a small lodging, possibly for the cellarer. To the north was a cellar and the lay brothers' range of refectory and dormitory, which was extended in the late 13th century.
Tintern's crowning glory, its great church, was built between 1269 and 1301. It stands today much as it did then, apart from it's lack of a roof, window glass and internal divisions. Although not nearly as long as the great Cistercian abbey churches at Fountains and Rievaulx, its completeness makes it impressive. It has a simple cruciform plan, with an aisled nave, transepts each with two chapels, and a square-ended aisled chancel. Cistercian rule and liturgy dictated the internal divisions, which have disappeared; the aisles were all walled off, and three cross-walls divided the body of the church into two main sections - the nave, reserved for the lay brothers, and the choir and presbytery at the east end for the choir monks. Stubs of the aisle walls can be seen against the piers. Aesthetically today's simplicity may appear more pleasing then the original arrangement; this was certainly the motive for the Victorian removal of the main cross-wall or pulpitum. The internal wall surfaces are articulated into bays divided by clustered columns, above which are triple vaulting shafts which rise up to the springing of the rib vaulting, none of which remains.
The final view was taken from the graveyard of the now ruined St Mary Church on Chapel Hill on the 27th September.
Digital photographs
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