Arrival of abbey relics was important day for museum

THE Vale of Evesham Historical Society will mark the 50th anniversary of the opening of Almonry Museum later this month. Gerry Barnett has been trawling the archives and found a big day from 50 years ago.

It came in the form of the announcement in March, 1957, that the great chair of Evesham Abbey, described as the most important relic of old Evesham and a priceless exhibit in the history of English furniture, would be on show at the Almonry museum from April onwards.

Mr B G Cox, honorary secretary of the Vale of Evesham Historical Society, the honorary curator of the museum, said that the Rudge Estate had consented to the society having custody of the chair for exhibition.

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With the chair would come the Quarter Boys, the carved oak figures of medieval soldiers that were at one time erected high on the eastern face of the bell tower, and various other important, but smaller, abbey relics.

The chair and the other articles have for many years been preserved by the Rudge family at Abbey Manor, where visitors have been allowed to see them, and on two occasions they have been loaned for short exhibitions in Evesham organised by the historical society under the auspices of the town council.

But the latest decision of Mr J E Rudge represents an important development in their story. Mr Cox, who had heard of it from the town clerk, Mr N F Davies, said: "This news will be received with much pleasure, as it has long been felt by many in Evesham that these important relics should be available for the enjoyment of the public in the town's museum.

"I think it would be wrong to say that it should have happened years ago, because there has not been any suitable repository for such things until now.

"In my opinion, the public should be grateful to the Rudge family for having looked after and maintained these priceless relics of the former abbey for so many years and now to have made it possible for all to see them."

The chair is about 650 years old and is one of the few survivors of an age when chairs of any kind were extremely rare - the symbol and seat of authority. There is believed to be only one other chair in England of comparable historical significance and that is at York Minster. But in its style and fine state of preservation, the Evesham chair is probably unique. It is certainly priceless.

George May (History of Evesham, 1845, p65) describes it as "a chair of state, of dimensions suited to contain the lordly abbot in the plentitude of his array". After the dissolution in 1539, the chair became a fixture in the Almonry, and in 1664 passed with the abbey site into the hands of Edward Rudge, esquire, citizen and alderman of London.

Until about 1860, the Quarter Boys stood over the eastern clock face of the bell tower, on a ledge under a canopy. They were then taken down, cleaned and transferred to Abbey Manor. Originally, they struck the quarters on two small bells placed between them and were worked by a mechanical contrivance from inside the bell chamber.

E A B Barnard (The Tower and Bell of Evesham, 1910, p16) says: "How many years they were in position it is impossible to say, but it is quite likely that they were placed there when the Tower was first built (c.1520). The armour they wear is of the period of Edward IV (1442-1483). The figures are of oak - for many years obscured by successive coats of whitewash - and each is about 3ft 6in in height."

(Evesham Journal - 8 March 2007)