Westminster Abbey

Located in the City of Westminster and one of the most notable religious buildings in Britain, Westminster Abbey is mainly a Gothic style Abbey.  Sulcard, a Benedictine monk reported in 1080 that the church was founded at the site in the seventh century.  The site was then known as Thorn Ey or Thorn Island and it was built in the time of Mellitus, the first Bishop of London, in the Saxon period.  A tradition claimed that a young fisherman named Aldrich, had a vision of St Peter near the site, a vision that has resulted in the tradition of salmon being offered to the church by the Thames Fisherman. This tradition is continued today and observed annually by the Fishmonger Company, an incorporated company of fish and seafood sellers in London.  

Records exist that cite the origins of the Abbey as being in the 960s or early 970s when Saint Dunstan, an important minister of state to several English Kings and King Edgar the Peaceable, installed a community of Benedictine monks on the site.  Somewhere between the years of 1042 and 1052, one of the last of the Saxon Kings, Edward the Confessor, rebuilt the Abbey to provide himself with a church and a place for Royal burial.  Built in the medieval European style of Romanesque the church was completed in 1060 and consecrated in 1066.  A week after the consecration of the church, Edward the Confessor died and was buried in the church.  His wife Edith was also buried in the church following her death nine years later.  King Edward was succeeded by Harold II, who was probably coronated in the church, however the first documented coronation in the Abbey was William the Conquerer later that same year.  The only depiction that remains of this original church is in the famed Bayeaux Tapestry, an embroidered cloth that depicts the events leading up to and of the Norman Conquest of England, particularly the Battle of Hastings.   

In 1245 under the edict of Henry III, the current Westminster Abbey began construction.  Henry III, a devotee of Edward the Confessor, built the new Abbey in Anglo-French Gothic style.  Henry III also planned for the Abbey to be a place for his burial following his death.  Work on the Abbey continued between 1245 and 1517.  The architect Henry Yevele, a master mason, was mainly responsible for the construction of the Abbey.  A unique Cosmati Pavement was commissioned for in front of the high altar.  The Cosmati's were a Roman family of sculptors and architects that specialised in geometric mosaics.  They used a technique called opus sectile or cut work which involved inlays of elaborate triangles and rectangles made of coloured glass and stones.  

The location of Westminster Abbey, being in close proximity to Westminster Palace, the seat of Parliament, meant that the monks and the abbot became a powerful force following the Norman Conquest.  The Abbot of Westminster Abbey was often called to perform royal service and was given a seat in the House of Lords, the Upper House of the British Parliament.  No longer obliged to perform spiritual leadership, a task that had been given to the reformed Cluniac movement after the mid tenth century, the Benedictines achieved a high degree of identification with the secular life of their times, in particular the upper class life.  The Abbot was known as the Lord of the Manor, a lordship coming from the feudal system of manorialism, as a town of two thousand to three thousand people grew around the Abbey.  The monastery became employers and consumers, building dwellings and stores.  

In 1503 Henry VII added a chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The construction was created in the Perpendicual Style of architecture, characterised by an emphasis on straight lines.  Stone for the construction was imported from Caen in France, Portland Stone from the Isle of Portland and Tuffeau Limestone from the Loire Valley.  By 1536 the income of the Abbey was only second to Glastonbury Abbey, with an annual income of  between £2400 and £2800.  

In 1539, Henry VIII assumed royal control of Westminster Abbey.  By 1540 the Abbey was given the status of a cathedral by charter and the archdiocese of Westminster was established.  By granting the Abbey cathedral status through the issuing of letters, a legal instrument that was a published order from the monarchy, it was guarded against being destroyed during this time when Henry VIII was ordering such actions towards other abbeys.  In 1550 the Diocese was formally dissolved but in 1552 the Abbey was recognised as a second Cathedral for the Diocese of London.  Queen Mary I restored the Benedictine monks to the Abbey during her reign but they were evicted again by Queen Elizabeth I.  In 1560 Elizabeth I reestablished the Abbey as a Royal Perculiar and made it the Collegiate College of St Peter.  In this form it was a non cathedral church, headed by a dean and attended by canons.  

The Puritanical Iconoclastics, a group of English Reformation Protestants, damaged the church in the 1640s.  Their aim was to purge the church of any Catholic practices.  English architect Nicholas Hawksmoor was commissioned to design the two western towers of the Abbey.  They were constructed in Portland Stone between 1722 and 1745.  The walls and floors were adorned with Purbuck Marble.  In the nineteenth century Sir George Gilbert Scot, famed for his Gothic Revival Architecture, completed further restoration and rebuilding of the Abbey.  

Up until the nineteenth century Westminster Abbey was the third most famed seat of learning after Oxford and Cambridge. During the Blitz the Abbey received minor damage.  In the 1990s famed Russian painter Sergei Fyodovo created two icons for the Abbey.  

Long a place of coronation and burial for Royalty, in the Middle Ages Westminster Abbey also became a burial place for aristocrats.  Monks and clergy were buried in the cloisters.  Such people as Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Chaucer are buried in the Abbey.  The funeral of Princess Diana was held at the Abbey on the 6th September 1997.

Just inside the great West door of Westminster Abbey is the grave of the Unknown Warrior.  The warrior  is an unidentified British soldier killed in the European battlefields during WWI.  The Abbey has an organ built by the organ company Harrison & Harrison which was first used during the coronation of  King George VI.  Overhauled in 1977, there are ten bells that make up the ring of Westminster Abbey.  There are also two service bells cast in 1585 and 1598 by Robert Mot, a Sanctus bell cast in 1738 by Richard Phelps and two unused bells cast in 1320 and 1742.  Pope Benedict XVI became the first Catholic Pope to set foot in the Abbey.

There are two different entities that are said to haunt Westminster Abbey.  The first is a monk called Father Benedictus.  He is said to be a full bodied spirit seen by many people and has actually chatted to some visitors to the Abbey.  He floats because the floor was supposedly realigned. He is most often seen between 5 and 6pm.  The other ghost sometimes sited is believed to be the Unknown Warrior.  He has been seen walking near his grave , his head down, before vanishing into thin air.  

This building is so iconic and what always amazes me is the age of the building and that fact the site was used for the same purposes for even longer still.  This beautiful place is well worth an explore.