Waltham
Abbey, or Waltham Holy Cross, was a small market town in Essex
thirteen miles from late eighteenth-century London. The country
about Waltham Abbey was in Georgian times famed for its sweet
grasses, believed to be particularly beneficial for cattle.
The town also boasted many powder
mills nearby.
The
Abbey itself dates from Saxon times, and it is
believed King Harold and his two brothers, slain
in the Battle of Hastings, are buried in the east
end of the ancient church (some forty yards from
the present structure). In the sixteenth century
a gardener came upon what was then believed to
have been Harold's bones - they mouldered to dust
when the coffin was opened (the coffin having
on it a plaque reading "Harold Infelix").
Like
so many other religious foundations, the Abbey
community was dissolved in 1539 and the Abbey
buildings passed into private hands. In 1770 James
Barwick, Esq., purchased the Abbey buildings and
then proceeded to demolish almost everything save
the abbey church itself. He let the grounds to
a gardener. By the early nineteenth century all
that remained of the once magnificent Abbey were
a gate into the abbey yard, a bridge which led
to it, some ruinous walls, and an arched vault
as well as the church.
The
pictures on this page show the Abbey as it was
in 1809. For a view of the town see this
page.
