WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 26, 25 October 1938, Page 11

WESTMINSTER ABBEY

Building’ Work During Five Centuries FROM HENRY 111 TO THE GEORGES The building of Westminster Abbey was not accomplished in a day or a year, says the Rev. Dr. Jocelyn Perkins in the “Sunday Times.” The great church, which, is the pride of tile British Empire, and to which thousands wend their way at this time of the year from every part of the globe, looks to Henry 111 as its special founder, and” benefactor. Early in his reign he conceived the mighty idea of replacing' the Norman church built by Edward the Confessor.

In 1245 he started pulling down the heavy columns and round arches of the old Norman choir, the nave being left for some future time. At length there dawned an autumn day in 1269 when the old man, now on the verge of the grave, had the happiness of taking part in the official opening of the new church. a Long Task. The external appearance of Westminster Abbey when it left the hands of Henry 111 must have been almost bizarre. The choir with its graceful apse, the two transepts, and several bays of the nave had been built. Westward, however, there stretched the massive low-browed work of Edward the Confessor, utterly different from the graceful soaring work of the thirteenth century.

This state of things continued for many generations. Only by degrees was it found possible to replace the old nave 'by tire 'beautiful building we admire to-day. The Tudor dynasty had occupied the throne a number of years before the nave had been entireley roofed in and th'e great perpendicular west window set up.

But even now the Abbey was still sa'dly incomplete. The absence of towers sadly marred the general effect. Before the seventeenth century was very old a cry of alarm was being raised. * The face of the stone was crumbling away, and the mighty buttresses were showing signs of weakness.

Wren’s Restoration.

Matters reached a crisis about the year 1695. A gigantic work of restoration was set on foot under the auspices of Sir Christopher Wren, and the Abbey was gradually recased in a new stone shell. It took a long time, and the end was not reached until the year 1735, by which time Wren had been lying in his grave for some years. The successful conclusion of this vast enterprise has been recorded in the inscription over the west window.

A vigorous dean, Joseph Wilcocks, set his heart on completing the scheme of Henry 111 by erecting the two western towers, the lower portions of which had been standing since the sixteenth ■century. It is possible that the design was Wren’s, but the work was carried out by his friend and pupil, Nicholas Hawksmoor. The latter, in his turn, passed away leaving his work unfinished, and the final stages of the southwest tower were due to John James of Greenwich, who also built the church of fit. George, Hanover Square.