The three abbeys that we will visit on this field trip have all suffered badly from the Dissolution, but in each case the remains are of great interest and significance.

The Cistercian abbey at Hailes was founded by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, brother of Henry III, who vowed to found an abbey if he survived when in danger at sea in 1242. Work on the abbey was started in 1246 when 20 monks and 10 lay brothers arrived from Beaulieu Abbey, and the church was consecrated in 1251. Hailes Abbey gained fame as a place of pilgrimage because of its relic of the Holy Blood which had been brought from the Count of Flanders in 1267. The abbey was dissolved in 1539 and is now a ruin.

Pershore Abbey was founded c. 689 by King Oswald and re-founded by King Edgar in 972 as a Benedictine abbey. Excavations in 1996 revealed part of the Anglo-Saxon church under the surviving building. In c. 1090 the Anglo-Saxon church was replaced by a new Norman building and traces remain in the south transept. As a result of a fire in 1223, much of the presbytery was rebuilt in Early English style and it is this style that predominates in the church, with the exception of the impressive lierne vault of c. 1330. At the time of the Dissolution, the parish bought the choir and crossing of the abbey church for £400 and the nave and domestic structures were all demolished.

Evesham Abbey was founded in 714 by Bishop Egwin of Worcester. The original church collapsed in 960 and was subsequently rebuilt. After the Norman Conquest, the abbey was again rebuilt under Abbots Walter of Cerisy (1077-1104) and Reginald of Gloucester (1122 – 1149). Today very little of the abbey church remains – just part of the north transept. The entrance to the late 13th century chapter house, the early 16th century bell tower built by Abbot Lichfield and two gatehouses are all that remain of the other monastic structures.

Unusually, there are two parish churches within the abbey precinct. Both of them lay with Abbot Reginald’s precinct wall: one was the parish church; the other was the church of the parochial cemetery. Both churches are of architectural interest.