Medieval chains

The handsome book at reference 1 was one of my Christmas presents. More or less the ideal present in the sense that it was something that I had noticed and liked, in the book shop attached to Buckfast Abbey, but which was a bit too dear for a casual purchase. Despite the fact that we visit the abbey several times a year, with a sample of those visits being noticed at reference 3. So BH sneaked around the back when I wasn't looking and bought one against the Christmas following.

A handsome book, from Merrell, who appear to specialise in the better class of picture books and who are to be found at reference 2. A book which, curiously, does not seem to include the usual page of publication details, Library of Congress catalogue numbers and all that sort of thing - and I had to go to Amazon to get the publication date. Printed in China. While the snap above is the start of what looks like a glowing review in the Antiquaries Journal.

A book arranged as a series of learned chapters about this or that aspect of the abbey. Mainly printed in two column format and lavishly illustrated throughout. My only quibble would be that it is a large book and that when reading by table lamp at night, not always easy to get the whole of the page evenly illuminated.

Last night, I happened to be reading about the goings on in and around the twelfth century. Item one, was a row involving lawyers between the Abbot and the Bishop of Exeter about fish rights at Staverton. With an old bridge (over the River Dart) at Staverton being noticed at reference 4.

Item two, the Norman foundation - on a Saxon foundation - derived from Savigny Abbey in the Manche, in Normandy. A place which spawned a couple of dozen or more daughter houses, maybe half of them in England and one of them as far north as Calder in Cumbria, for which see reference 5. But although the brand did quite well, the Cistercians did much better and it got to the point that in 1147 there was an agreed takeover by the Cistercians. No doubt the leaders of the Savigniacs were properly looked after by their new owners. Just like small but successful brands, or chains, of eating houses are gobbled up by bigger brands, bigger companies now.

Item three and leaping forward a few centuries, the abbot at the time of the dissolution in 1539, one Gabriel Dunne, was properly looked after. He returned to preferment in London, where he appeared to have lived in some comfort until he died in 1559, to be buried in a place of honour behind the altar of St. Paul's and leaving lots of money (by the ecclesiastical standards of the day).

No doubt more nuggets will surface in due course.

References

Reference 1: Buckfast Abbey: History, art and architecture - Peter Beacham (editor) - 2017.

Reference 2: http://www.merrellpublishers.com/. Sufficiently small and cuddly that if you want to talk to them about publishing something, you get to talk to Mr. Merrell. Not to be confuse with the well known brand of trainers now swallowed up by the Wolverine Work World corporation.

Reference 3: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=buckfast+abbey.

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2020/10/critical-national-infrastructure.html.

Reference 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calder_Abbey.