Identifier: transactionsofbr24bris (find matches)
Title: Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society
Year: 1901 (1900s)
Authors: Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society. cn
Subjects: Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society
Publisher: Bristol, Eng. : The Society
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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King Edgar it is said that more than forty monasteries were founded on
the model of the one at Westbury. In 974 the brethren seem to have been
removed to Ramsey, and nothing more is heard of the church for more
than a century. It had been utterly laid waste, and had fallen into the
hands of the King, but was restored by the Conqueror to St. Wulfstan,
Bishop of Worcester. This good prelate restored (studui reparare)
St. Oswald's Minster ; it is not probable that any part of that older church
now exists above ground, but the round pillars of the nave, resembling as
they do those at Gloucester and Tewkesbury, built about the same time,
are, no doubt, St. Wulfstan's work. His charter of endowment is dated
September 8, 1093. Bishop Sampson, who succeeded, made Westbury


WESTBURY-ON-TRYM. 25

Church independent of the cathedral, and placed canons there, but Bishop
Simon brought back the monks and subjected it to the cathedral again. At
last, in 1288, Bishop Godfrey Giffard made the church finally independent,
Text Appearing After Image:

SOUTH AISLE, WESTBURY.
H. Ormerod, Photo.

placing there a College of Canons, supported, however, by a very scanty
endowment. It was as a canon on Bishop Giffard's foundation that John
Wycliffe was connected with the Church of Westbury. He was appointed
to the prebend of Aust on November 6. 1375, but there is no evidence that

26 TRANSACTIONS FOR THE YEAR 1901.

he was ever admitted to the prebend which a fortnight later was given to
another person. It is probable that the arches above the Norman pillars
in the nave, together with the sedilia and the doorway in the south aisle
and the windows in the west end of it, date from Bishop Giffard's time.
On March 22, 1444, John Carpenter was consecrated to the See of
Worcester. He was a native of Westbury, and he made the church what
it is. In 1447 he pulled down the collegiate buildings, and rebuilt them
on a much larger scale, surrounding them with an embattled wall The
portions of the church which date from his time are the tower, the side
windows of the aisles, and the chancel, which is planned on a scale

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