Abingdon Abbey - Exploring What Was Once There

I am furthering my exploration of Abingdon-on-Thames and today I am joined by American curator, Tim Miller, to look at the rise and fall of the once magnificent abbey that stood in Abingdon.
The Saxons were responsible for their being a religious house here in the first place, but when the Danes came they burnt the building down. The English rebuilt the Abbey, making it better than before. And then in 1538, by the stroke of a pen, Henry VIII decided the fate of the wonderful building and the people that lived and worked there.
Find out more about the abbey and the extant buildings here: friendsofabing...
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[@MrNas42]

Every ruined abbey needs a Tim! An excellent host and so informative.

[@RichardVobes]

Tim is a great guy and so generous with his time.

[@timothymification]

Thank you Nigel. I am happy to help.

[@thaddeusjad6323]

Instablaster

[@andrewnorris1]

Stunning location at the end of this video, the mill, the stream. Tim was a real asset and what a warm accent. Nice work, gentlemen.

[@acerone10]

I'm from NE Ohio USA and I wondered why he didn't have an accent.

[@timothymification]

@@acerone10 That's funny! :)

[@annosborne7365]

Thank you Richard and Tim for a great video. Tim telling us about the history was so interesting, he has a lovely voice and a great personality. Loved seeing the trees and the boats as well. Will look forward to the next one.

[@timothymification]

One more to go!

[@TheRamblingsofBry]

Excellent. That is the park I used to play in as a child, it also has a cannonball embedded in boulders...many happy times spent amongst the ruins.

[@RichardVobes]

What's the story of the cannon ball? From the English Civil War?

[@TheRamblingsofBry]

@@RichardVobes There are two versions, one from the civil war, the other it was put there, and concreted in in the 1920 build of the 'ruins'....

[@timothymification]

Unfortunately we didn't have time for the cannonball and so many other things.

[@timothymification]

One correction: Trendell's Folly was built in the late 19th century and slightly earlier than I indicated in the video. I had the 1920s archaeological project in mind as I was speaking. It's still a folly, however, and is not original abbey ruins as was the point.

[@RichardVobes]

Thanks for the correction Tim.

[@sarahsu4863]

Hi thankyou for this great information, i live here , very near the Abbey. ps Tim, i love your American accent are you from the South? 😊

[@cogidubnus1953]

Liked Tim immensely...with the cloth cap clearly a man after my own heart!

[@RichardVobes]

So pleased you enjoyed it.

[@ramibu239]

Very interesting history! Loved it!!!! Also loved that stone building next to the mill stream, as well that black & red narrow boat!😍

[@ramibu239]

Btw...oh those Danes, Saxsons & Normans!!! My ancestory really is more so ensconced in England than I ever could have imagined!!!😁 (& I know you just gave me a 🙄)

[@RichardVobes]

It is very pretty all round there.

[@timothymification]

@@ramibu239 I think those Danes left some DNA as they were scorching the countryside.

[@davemacdonald3889]

Looking forward to the next one Richard 🇬🇧🇺🇸

[@RichardVobes]

Great stuff.

[@haroldofcardboard]

oh wow. was just there in october with my daughter and my uncle. lovely area. i appreciate learning more about it. thank you tim and richard.

[@RichardVobes]

It's a lovely place.

[@MrGreatplum]

It’s always good to trace out the ruins of a once mighty abbey - it fires the imagination! My medieval history teacher was from South Carolina so maybe there are more American historians in the uk than we think!

[@cogidubnus1953]

And of course we have our friend the Yank in Sussex...

[@timothymification]

Oxford is full of us!

[@RichardVobes]

The Americans love our history! :)

[@RichardVobes]

Yes indeed!

[@andyfrearson2299]

Another excellent video. I shall certainly visit there the next time I’m in Abingdon. I look forward to part 2.

[@RichardVobes]

It is well worth a visit for sure.

[@timothymification]

Please come and find me. I'm happy to give you the tour.

[@andyfrearson2299]

Tim Miller thank you so much, i most certainly will.

[@lindakane7771]

Great video. Tim is a super guide. Was unaware of the history despite being a fairly regular visitor to the town back in the 80s. Will have to revisit with my newly enlightened viewpoint! Thanks

[@timothymification]

Come and find me when you come back and we'll give you the tour.

[@lindakane7771]

@@timothymification may take you up on that!!

[@georgetimperley8906]

That was a good watch, finding out about the abby history was very interesting, Tim is very knolagable. I did enjoy that Richard. i will be watching next video soon!

[@RichardVobes]

Thanks George.

[@Mattriver7]

Fascinating video, well done. Abingdon is a beautiful town, very English!

[@RichardVobes]

Oh yes, very English.

[@lewisholmar7580]

Where Richard Is Talking with the Curate Is not the Original Course of the Thames , If you go up to the Lock and Look across the River toward Culham The Thames Flowed Besides the Wooded Area From the Bridge Further along the Culham Road.,There was an Underground Water Source known as the Stert, Apparently used to good effect to bring soldiers to a defensive front line when Abingdon was under siege.

[@KevinsRambles]

Really lovely video thanks to you both Tim knows his stuff 👍

[@RichardVobes]

He certainly does!

[@shaunlaverick5793]

well as you know Richard im really into the history of Wessex and the saxon period in general...and as it happens an important resource was apparently written there...the Historia Ecclesie Abbendonensis also known as the Abingdon Chronicle which are B and C manuscripts apart of what is known as the ANGLO-SAXON CHRONICLES .and that's a .marvellous thing indeed lol Abingdon is an amazing place if you are into our Anglo - Saxon history..

[@RichardVobes]

You will have to take me on a series of walks through Saxon history sometime.

[@skipsdream386]

Ayyyy Tim you lit my world up if it wasn’t for you I would have nothing to do

[@debbiecarney1724]

Loved this video, interested how the lovely Tim got his job If I had something like Tim's job , I'd still be happily living in England :)

[@timothymification]

I'll be telling that story in episode three tomorrow!

[@RichardVobes]

Absolutely.

[@RichardVobes]

You sure did. Thanks again Tim

[@Red_____________]

Interesting history 👍🏻

[@RichardVobes]

Thanks Tom

[@kaysridgedell3404]

A lot of great history.

[@RichardVobes]

A lovely place.

[@Andyb2379]

What a shame the abbey didn’t survive the test of time. Certainly was a magnificent building. I can’t quite place which part of the states Tim is from? Cheers guys 😎

[@timothymification]

To be revealed in tomorrow's episode! :)

[@RichardVobes]

It sure seems to have been magnificent. They didn't do shabby in those days.

[@shaunlaverick5793]

there also is a connection with BATH Richard....the ABBEY there and the one at Abingdon and its King Edgar the peacemaker/peaceful....you see his coronation was at Bath in AD 973...and not only that his was the first to be described in detail in the annals of English history and on this ceremony all other future ones right up to this present date are based...its at Abingdon abbey Edgar was educated by saint Aethelwold as it was then his abbey...in AD 954 he was called upon by king Edred to rebuild the ruined old monastery at Abingdon so with his old chums from Glastonbury that's what he did lol.He sent Osgar to Fleury-sur-Loire to study the new Benedictine rule at first-hand and began to introduce its reforms at Abingdon. many other notables of the period was educated by him there...however there was those who also disliked him even tried to bump him off by poisoning ..yet he was strong old bugger and lived to a ripe old age of around 75..he eventually succumbed to illness when suffering from a bad stomach and legs...dying on 1st August AD 984.

[@RichardVobes]

It all went on at Abingdon then.

[@davidbooth3285]

What Tim said about deconstructing the buildings and then reusing the stones and what have you! That reminded me of the barn at Biddingdon that once was a cinema! What part of the USA does Tim come from?

[@timothymification]

Watch tomorrow and find out! :)

[@RichardVobes]

It happens a lot.

[@phillipjenkin4860]

Hi Richard very good vidoe would you ever do anything on arundel lake

[@RichardVobes]

I must go around Arundel Lake, yes, sometime. On a good day!

[@shaunlaverick5793]

Abingdon is said to be britains oldest town …settlement wise dates from late iron age and Abbey is believed to be the first built in Britain however Glastonbury might disagree with that both said founded by joseph of Arimathea...in AD63.....ummm….lol theres been other claims to its founding...one being that of st Abban...he was said to be the only survivor of the night of the long knives which took place at Stonehenge when the Saxons who meant to meet the Britons for peace negotiations was betrayed by them a massacred ..apparently abban built himself a hermitage on boars hill...after it was deserted it was refounded in AD 675....however it was to prove not a great place to build as a nearby stream interfered with the church's foundations so they was forced to move it into the valley below and the place they founded became known as Abing - don lol.and as for Anglo-Saxon..well that's some rather interesting indeed...as lying in an Abingdon anglo-saxon cemetery they found some remains of the earliest Germanic settlers to these shores.it was a group of males buried with Frankish swords and was 2 generations apart from the others buried there..much later a great disaster befell the abbey..them pesky Vikings from Reading came and burnt it down.....there was even a skirmish fought between them and the Saxons at Abingdon...and its possible its when taking part someone dropped his sword into the thames...as it dates from that period...see link .en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abingdon_Sword

[@RichardVobes]

That's a nice old sword. Thanks for all the extra information. The Saxon period takes a lot of study, if only to remember all those strange sounding names.

[@georginacox3909]

So was the next towns Abbey. King Henry. There for 900 years. Captain Cook got married there. The basic stones are there.

[@thinking-as-I-wander]

Me thinks Henry was hard on women and churches.....

[@timothymification]

Agreed. And he wrecked the lives of far more religious houses than wives.

[@RichardVobes]

I think he was a tough cookie.

[@michaelwhite8031]

Henry VIII really was a rotter

[@ianbrowne8871]

O dear, what a missed opportunity - a so much better story would have been told. The origins of the abbey are murky to say the least, why why miss out the most important period of the Saxon abbey refounded by Ethelwold after the Danes destroyed what ever was there. He introduced the Benedictine discipline and monks from Abingdon seeded reform at Winchester, and help refound other abbeys destroyed by the Danes. Descriptions of the decoration of the Saxon Church with its gilt and jewelled corona holding a crown of candles would have excited the viewer. The Norman rebuilding was on an epic scale and was undertaken by Norman abbots connected with the great abbey Jumierges - was the church like that? Imagine an 18 feet, 6 metre high gilt bronze seven branch candlabrum lighting the church. Extensive later remodelling provided two western towers and a central tower. The impression that it was similar to Wells Cathedral in scale would help viewers. Its talented masons and carpenters built surviving buildings in Oxford Colleges. When William of Worcester recorded the details of the church in the 1480s he gave us a glimpse of its grandeur. The 1922 excavation was poorly recorded and the more recent geophysical surveys should have been included. The two great abbeys of the Thames valley, Abingdon and Reading were lost and we are the poorer. The only comfort is that the site has never been built on and once through the gateway everyone notices the sense of calm that might have drawn the monks there in the first place.

[@RichardVobes]

Oh dear, what a miserable comment. If you want a history lesson, find another channel or read a book.

[@ianbrowne8871]

@@RichardVobes You may have caught me on a bad night, and I it was not so much you that disappointed me, your questions and prompts were fine - it was the vagueness of the replies which so disappointed me. One of the problems is that so little survives that is hard for anyone visiting to gain an impression. You did well on stationing the guy at one end - that worked, but it would have helped to show the photo mount of Wells set in the garden.