Glastonbury Abbey, South West, England

Legends surround Glastonbury Abbey, it has been said that it dates from 63AD when Joseph of Arimathea visited with the Holy Grail.  While it may not be this old, it is still a very old monastery.

It appears there were already monks in the area when the King of Wessex gave money for a church to be built at Glastonbury in 712.  The foundations of this are now part of the nave. 

The Danes attacked the abbey in the 9th century, but by the 10th century the Abbey church was being enlarged by St. Dunstan who was abbot at the time and later became archbishop of Canterbury.

Glastonbury Abbey is the burial place for Edmund I (d. 946), Edgar I (d. 975), and Edmund II Ironside (d. 1016)

At the time of the Doomsday book Glastonbury Abbey was the wealthiest monastery in England.

In the early 12th century William of Malmesbury was commissioned to write down its history.

In 1184 there was a great fire at the abbey and then in 1191 Glastonbury Abbey declared that they had discovered the tombs of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. The inscription with the graves read 'Hic jacet sepultus inclitus rex Arthurus in insula Avalonia', which means ‘Here lies interred the famous king Arthur on the Isle of Avalon’ These two events may or may not be related but if funds were needed pilgrims brought money with them, if there was a reason to visit and relics cost money. My scepticism aside, It was certainly believed at the time because even King Edward I and Queen Eleanor attended the service for the re-burial of their remains, which were reinterred at the foot of the high alter.

It is not normally the kitchen we think of first when we think of monasteries but the 14th century Abbot’s Kitchen at Glastonbury may be the finest example of a medieval kitchen of this time. It is certainly one of the best-preserved in Europe.

The medieval kitchen is an octagonal building and dates from the 14th century.  It is one of only a very surviving medieval buildings in the country as by the 15th century kitchen began to be incorporated into the main buildings, where previously they had been separate due to the risk of fire.

The exterior of the kitchen is square, however the interior is octagonal. The building has four large fireplaces in each corner, and each exterior corner would once have had a chimneystack.  The building would also have a central chimney stack to help take any remaining smoke away.

In 1539 Glastonbury was the last Abbey in Somerset.  Abbot Whiting signed the Act of Supremacy making Henry VIII head of the church and so bought himself some time but once the order to surrender the abbey to the King arrived the Abbot refused.  Cromwell placed him in the tower, interrogated him and found him guilty of treason, sentencing him to death. Legend would tell us that the Abbots had been keepers of the Holy Grail and that this is what Cromwell really wanted. We will never know, because the next day the Abbot was dragged through Glastonbury with two of his monks and hung from the top of Glastonbury Tor.