Exactly 70 years ago today, a young woman called Elizabeth went up a tree a princess and came down a queen. And her life has not been her own ever since. It makes her the longest serving British monarch ever. I’m not a royalist, but I do think that’s an amazing achievement. And just think, her profile has graced stamps and coinage for longer than I’ve been alive.
But Lizzie II wasn’t the only brush with monarchy today.
A little bit longer than 70 years ago saw the construction of Titchfield Abbey, which Henry VIII dissolved in 1537. And a mere 483 years later we dropped in for a visit.
Of course, the abbey didn’t look anything like the ruin that’s there today. The abbey was converted by Thomas Wriothesely into Place House shortly after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Actually, the canons didn’t fare that badly and were given a pension.
Don’t get me wrong, I have little time for religion however, the whole dissolution thing seems very Tory to me. The King decides to close the church down and then gives out vast swathes of the country to his mates. Sound familiar?
Anyway, the abbey was first established in 1222 by the Order of Canons Regular of Prémontré. Or, as we say here, Premonstratensians, which is a lot harder to say than Cistercians, which the first canons of Prémontré, largely copied.
These canons wore white and were pretty austere. I can only assume that they denied themselves everything in the earthly realm in order to achieve some sort of reward in Narnia. Pity that Narnia was, and remains, fictional. Stupid canons.
Effectively, the canons would go out and preach, so the abbey was really just a great big youth hostel for the brethren. Then along came Henry and, bish, bash, bosh, Tommy W takes over and adds a bit of castellation, a few fireplaces, a jacuzzi, the usual stuff.
What is left is an extraordinary mish-mash of style and form. We could have done with Bev and Jon to give some serious opinions.
Possibly the best thing about Titchfield Abbey was the weather.
We left the glorious Sunday sunshine behind in Farnham and, as we followed the A3 down to the M27, the rain started. It was looking like being a bit of a wash out until we parked Max.
We walked towards the abbey and, suddenly, the sun burst out, lighting everything beautifully. We remained dry for our entire tour of the building. And Emma even found a tennis ball to annoy us with. It was a splendid day out.
Thank you, English Heritage.
