Dorchester Abbey, Oxfordshire: The Archaeology and Architecture of a Cathedral, Monastery and Parish Church by Rodwell Warwick

Author:Rodwell, Warwick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Medieval
ISBN: 9781782973799
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Published: 2009-11-18T05:00:00+00:00

35

Doggett, 2005, fig. 35.

36

Britton, 1835, 5, pl. 63.

37

Skelton, 1823, pl. 5.

38

Addington, 1845, 12 (his italics).

CHAPTER 9

Dorchester Abbey Restored, 1844–2007

VICTORIAN RESTORATION, 1844–1883

Four architects successively made their mark on Dorchester Abbey during the forty-year restoration (see also Chapter 5). Following a survey in 1844, work began on site in 1845 under James Cranston, a little-known architect.1 He was superseded in 1847 by William Butterfield, one of the most prominent architects of the mid-Victorian era, who was elected an honorary member of the Oxford Architectural Society in 1848. His involvement at Dorchester seems to have petered out in 1853–54,2 followed by a hiatus until 1858, when (Sir) George Gilbert Scott was appointed, and he continued in office until the restoration reached semi-completion in 1874.3 There was then another period of inactivity (during which Scott died), before James Maltby Bignell supervised some relatively minor works in the early 1880s.

Cranston restored the north and south windows of the chancel, but within two years he was dismissed because his proposals were too costly to be fully enacted.4 His builder was John Castle of Oxford. In 1846, the Society asked another of its members, James Park Harrison, to prepare designs for the restoration of the east window.5 The tracery in the central light and apex had been mutilated, first by the erection of the medieval medial buttress, and secondly by the lowering of the roof sometime between the 16th and early 18th centuries. Harrison investigated the largely destroyed circle at the apex and discovered evidence for the form of the tracery that had filled it. He was about to restore it when an extraordinary dispute arose over payment, and Harrison resigned before anything was done: he wished to give his architectural services gratis, but the offer was declined by the restoration committee of the OAS.6

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