pre 15th Century – Abingdon on Thames Town Council

Checker, Abingdon Abbey, Checker Walk

The Checker dates from the 1260s and is one of the oldest of the surviving buildings of the great medieval abbey of Abingdon. When built it consisted of one large room at first floor level, heated by a large fireplace, and a vaulted undercroft below. It seems that these did not interconnect. The upper room may have been the office of an important official, the lower, a store-room or wine cellar.

The upper room was divided into two in the early fourteenth century when the tall north-facing windows of this period were inserted. A piece of masonry like a battlement may be a surviving crenellation of the same period, suggesting that the reconstruction was a response to the riots of 1327 and that the two room ‘exchequer’ was a replacement for a building that had been destroyed by the mob. The ‘exchequer’ was probably the Abbey’s counting house or administrative office, and the division into two rooms was possibly to allow receipts and expenditure to be handled separately.

After the Dissolution, it served as a storage area for William Blacknall’s milling business, and later for the brewery that operated in the neighbouring Long Gallery. This use continued until the end of the nineteenth century when it was repaired and opened to the public. In the 1940s it was acquired by the Friends of Abingdon.

It is open to the public during the summer months.

See Glossary for explanations of technical terms.

© AAAHS and contributors 2013

Conduit House, Park Crescent

At the south-east corner of Albert Park, where Park Road and Park Crescent meet, there stands a small, hexagonal stone building. This is the Conduit House.

This unusual building supplied the needs of the citizens of Ock Street at a time when water from other sources was not safe to drink. It stands in an area of plentiful natural springs which fed a cistern in the building, and the water was led thence downhill via stone channels. Its destination was a fountain in Ock Street.

It is not known when the Conduit House was built. It belonged to Abingdon Abbey at the time of the Abbey’s dissolution in 1538, and then it passed to the Crown. In 1553 it, and the surrounding land, passed to the local charity, Christ’s Hospital. It is mentioned in the Amyce survey of Abingdon of 1554.

In the eighteenth century, this system for supplying relatively clean water to Ock Street was refurbished and provided with a new fountain through the initiative of leading Abingdon townsmen. It was in use until 1875, when a mains water supply was installed for the whole town. The fountain was moved from Ock Street to Conduit Road in the 1940s and it can still be seen in the wall of Tomkins’ Almshouses.

The Conduit House itself is no longer in use.

It is not open to the public.

See Glossary for explanations of technical terms.

© AAAHS and contributors 2013

30 East St Helen Street, St Ethelwold’s

Behind the elegant Georgian façade of No.30 there is a long sequence of building and adaptation to new requirements. Archaeologists have found evidence for Roman metalworking on the site. Some features in the cellar are possibly thirteenth-century, and its ceiling beams are early sixteenth-century. The long timber-framed range to the rear, however, dates from 1453-4, and has a fine window of this date.

By the sixteenth century, it was probably commercial premises, and a brewery was established here by Thomas Hulcotts in the late seventeenth. The front house was probably built around 1707 for the marriage of Thomas’s daughter, Hannah, to William Hawkins, a rich widower. In the mid-nineteenth century it was Pemberton’s coalyard. Since then the house has been used as an antique shop and a kindergarten. It now belongs to a trust which runs it as seminar space and accommodation for those seeking peace and contemplation.

St Ethelwold’s is regularly open to the public for events such as art exhibitions.

See Glossary for explanations of technical terms.

© AAAHS and contributors 2013

St Nicolas’ Church, Market Place

This church, which stands near the Market Place, is one of the few remaining buildings from the great Benedictine Abbey of St Mary. It was built towards the end of the twelfth century; there is documentary evidence of its existence in 1177. The church provided a place for the Abbey servants and tenants to worship. A notable worshipper was St Edmund of Abingdon while a child. His mother was buried in the church.

In 1327 the south wall was damaged during riots, and during the fifteenth century there were additions, including the bell tower, and changes to the chancel and windows. There was a major restoration by local architect Edwin Dolby in 1880, and the east end was remodelled in 1953 following a fire which damaged the chancel.

In 1372 the church was given its own parish, taking some land from that of St Helen. In 1989 the two parishes were merged into a new Parish of Abingdon with two parish churches, their civil functions having been united in 1894.

In a small chapel to the north of the nave, there is a fine monument to John and Jane Blacknall. A charity which John set up in 1625 still provides funds for the church and for the poor of the parish.

A relieving arch supports the north wall of the nave above a culvert which houses the River Stert running under the church. It discharges into the Thames nearby.

See Glossary for explanations of technical terms.

Unicorn Theatre, Abingdon Abbey, Checker Walk

The Unicorn Theatre is inside a multi-phase stone-built structure inserted lengthwise into a space between two earlier buildings, the Checker of about 1260 to the east and the abbey barn (later bakehouse) to the west. Sometimes known as the Checker Hall, its roof is butted against the two existing gable walls at either end. It was rebuilt with an impressive roof in the fifteenth century, probably for domestic use. It seems to have been used as a granary in the period before the Dissolution, but probably returned to domestic use thereafter and by the nineteenth century was three cottages.

In the 1940s it was acquired by the Friends of Abingdon. The theatre conversion dates from 1952-3, the stage and gallery conforming to Elizabethan designs interpreted by Christopher Ellis, a teacher at Radley College.

It is open to the public for theatre performances and generally during the summer months.

See Glossary for explanations of technical terms.

Archive for: pre 15th Century