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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 720311

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/720311

(Centred: NT 7290 3381) Abbey (NR) 12th Cent. (Site of).

Church (NR).

OS 25"map, Roxburghshire, (1921).

NT73SW 18.01 NT 728 338 Lead Pipe

NT73SW 18.02 NT 7293 3384, NT 7303 3377 and NT 7300 3374 Excavations

NT73SW 18.03 NT 72862 33802 Roxburghe Cloister

(Monument to the Dukes of Roxburghe)

NT73SW 18.04 NT 7287 3372 Watching Brief (2004)

Kelso Abbey:

In 1128 a convent of reformed Benedictines abandoned their earlier home at Selkirk, to which they had come in 1113 from their mother-house of Tiron in France, and migrated, under the leadership of Herbert, the third abbot (A C Lawrie 1905), to a new abbey at Kelso, founded and endowed by David I. The earlier site, which David had also provided, had proved unsuitable. This new abbey, dedicated both to the Blessed Virgin and to St John, rose on level haugh-land on the left bank of Tweed, facing the burgh of Roxburgh (RCAHMS 1956, No.521) and the royal castle that was known as Marchmount (RCAHMS 1956, No.905). It was destined to become one of the largest and the second wealthiest of the religious houses in Scotland. But its situation, so close to the troubled Border, laid it open to attack throughout almost its whole existence (Papal Letters AD 1444). For a time after the Wars of Independence it had even to be abandoned (Liber de Calchou 1846), while in the period preceding the Reformation it was continuously harried by the English. Destroyed by Dacre in 1522 and by the Duke of Norfolk twenty years later, it was finally stormed and captured in 1545 by Hertford, who resolved "to rase and deface this house of Kelso so as the enemye shal have lytell commoditie of the same" (State Papers, Henry VIII 1830-52). What survived was given to the flames two years later. Thereafter, the Commendator, James Stewart, effected some repairs; (Hist Mss Commission, Milne Home, Wedderburn Castle, 250), but it was reported in 1587 that "the haill monkis of the monasterie of the abbey of Kelso ar deciessit" (Acts Parl Scot, W Thomas and C Innes eds.) and in 1594 the temporality of the abbey was inalienably annexed to the Crown. (Acts Parl Scot).

The Buildings: Little more is left of the abbey buildings than the W end of the great church, which was founded on 3 May 1128, (A O and M O Anderson 1936), and dedicated by David de Bernham, bishop of St Andrews on 27 March 1243. When on the point of death in 1253 this bishop chose to be buried here and not in his own cathedral. In view of the condition of the fabric, it is particularly fortunate that a description of the Abbey as it stood in 1517, before the major destructions had taken place, is preserved in the Vatican archives. This is contained in a Latin document published as early as 1864 (A Theiner 1864), which, however, escaped notice until about thirty years ago because it was omitted from the index of the work in which it appeared. The document in question is a deposition made before a papal notary by a certain John Duncan, a cleric of Glasgow diocese, and contains the following passages a translation of which deserves to be quoted in full.

"The church or monastery of Calco took its name from the small town of that name by which it stands. "The monastery itself is double, for not only is it conventual, having a convent of monks, but it is also a ministry; for it possesses a wide parish with the accompanying cure of souls which the Abbot is accustomed to exercise through a secular presbyter-vicar, removable at his pleasure. The Abbot exercises episcopal jurisdiction over his parishioners himself.

"The church, in size and shape, resembles that of St Augustine de Urbe, except that at each end it has two high chapels on each side, like wings, which give the church the likeness of a double cross. Its fabric is of squared grey stone, and it is very old indeed (vetusta admodum et annosa). It has three doorways, one towards the west, in the fore-part (in anteriore parte), and the other two at the sides. It is divided into three naves by a double row of columns. The entire roof of the church is wooden, and its outer covering is of leaden sheets. The ground within is partly paved with stone and partly floored with bare earth. It has two towers, one at the first entrance to the church, the other in the inner part at the choir; both are square in plan and are crowned by pyramidal roofs like the tower of the Basilica of St Peter. The first contains many sweet-sounding bells, the other, at the choir, is empty on account of decay and age. The church is divided by a transverse wall into two parts; the outer part is open to all, especially parishioners both women and men, who there hear masses and receive all sacraments from their parochial vicar. The other part, the back of the church, takes only monks who chant and clebrate the Divine Office. Laymen do not go in except at the time of Divine Service, and then only men; but on some of the more solemn festivals of the year women are also admitted. In this furthest-back part, at the head of the church, there is an old wooden choir.

"The high altar is at the head of the choir, facing east, and on this several choral masses are celebrated daily, one for the founder and the other according to the current feast or holiday. There are besides, in the whole church, twelve or thirteen altars on which several masses are said daily, both by monks and by secular chaplains. In the middle of the church, on that wall which divides the monks from the parishioners, there is a platform of wood; here stands the altar of the Holy Rood, on which the Body of Christ is reserved and assiduously worshipped, and there is the great worship and devotion of the parishioners. On the same platform there is also an organ of tin. The sacristy is on the right-hand side of the choir; in it are kept a silver cross, many chalices and vessels of silver, and other sufficiently precious ornaments belonging to the altar and the priests, as well as the mitre and pastoral staff.

"The cemetery is on the north, large and square, and enclosed with a low wall to keep out beasts. It is joined to the church. The cloister, or home of the monks, is on the south and is also joined to the church; it is spacious and square in shape, and is partly covered with lead and partly unroofed through the fury and impiety of enemies. In the cloister there is, on the one side, the chapter-house and the dormitory and on the other two refectories, a greater and lesser. The cloister has a wide court round which are many houses and lodgings ; there is also a guest-quarters common to both English and Scots. There are granaries and other places where merchants and the neighbours store their corn, wares and goods and keep them safe from enemies. There is also an orchard and a beautiful garden.

By the late 17th century, to judge from the illustrations in Slezer's Theatrum Scotiae, little more was left of the church than at present. Within the parts then surviving a parish church was instituted in 1649, its E wall being built in alignment with the E piers of the W crossing while the vestry extended E into what had been the nave. Traces of this intrusion remained until the middle of the last century, but had been swept away before HM Office of Works became custodian of the fabric in 1919.

The abbey church, as well as the cloister on its S side, must have been set out on the first entry of the convent to the site; this inference is corroborated by Fordum, who relates that Earl Henry (died 1152) "in monasterio de Kalco secus Roxburgum sepultus est, quod pater ejus a fundamentis construendo ... ditaverat", (Scotichronicon, Fordoun, Goodall ed. 1759) and some sixty years later, when the W end of the church came to be built, no material departure was made from the original Norman design although the architectural details were fashioned in the Transitional style then current.

The abbey buildings (RCAHMS 1956, fig. 297) are of sandstone, probably from Sprouston Quarry (RCAHMS 1956, No.975), situated on the opposite bank of the Tweed and 2 1/2 miles ENE of Kelso. The stone, pale grey to buff or yellow in colour when freshly broken, is rich in disseminated flakes of mica and consequently the carved details are considerably decayed.

Claustral Buildings: The only surviving part of the conventual buildings is the outer parlour, which adjoins the gable of the S transept. This is an oblong barrel-vaulted cell entered from the W by a much restored round-arched doorway. It formerly communicated with the cloister through an angular passage passing beneath the SE angle of the transept. Its walls bear the remains of an elaborate arcade (RCAHMS 1956, fig. 463) rising from a wall-bench. Most of the arcading has been removed from the E wall, and that of the S wall has been mutilated where a later door, window, and aumbry have been inserted, while none of its monolithic shafts has survived.

This parlour was latterly used as a stable, for which purpose its floor has been cobbled. A fragment of the abbey mill is described under RCAHMS 1956, No.508. On the S of the abbey buildings an arcade has recently been erected in memory of the eighth Duke of Roxburgh. In this arcade has been inserted a 13th-century doorway with a foiled head, which formerly stood SW of the parlour but probably came originally from the chapter-house....

RCAHMS 1956.

Various carved stones, including tomb-stones are to be found around the remains of the abbey. Some are undated while others vary from 14th to 17th century in date. Some have been brought to the abbey from other sites. (See RCAHMS 1956 for full details). (See Roxburgh. 10 NW 15 for Abbey Mill).

Information from OS recorder (DT) 27 february 1957.

NT 7285 3382. As described and illustrated by RCAHMS 1956.

Visited by OS(RDL) 28 November 1963.

A plaque at the entrance to the Abbey reads: 'The noble fragment which survives dates from the last quarter of the 12th Cent.....'

(Undated) information from OS recorder (EGC).

1988 excavations by Lowe and McCormick

Area 1 NT 7293 3384 85m NE of W transept

Area 2 NT 7303 3377 50m SE of area of 1975-6 excavation

Area 3 NT 7300 3374 75m SE of area of 1975-6 excavation

C E Lowe 1988.

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References