Our Lady of Guisborough

A CATHOLIC HISTORY OF GUISBOROUGH

 Taken from the original by Alf Toland - June 1958

The Catholic history of Guisborough really commences in the reign of Henry I. In 1106 Henry had trouble with his Barons resulting in a battle between the King and forces under the command of Robert Malet and William de Mortain. Malet was killed and Mortain was taken prisoner.

After the battle, the King generously rewarded his faithful followers and gave Malet’s lands in Skelton, Guisborough and Normanby to Robert de Brus. Other followers received lands in various parts of the County, but these do not concern this history. Robert de Brus endowed land and in 1119 Guisborough Priory was founded under the care of the Canons of St Augustine. In time it became the most important Priory in Yorkshire. It was dedicated to our Blessed Lady and in all probability the dedication took place on the feast of the Assumption.

The first church was Norman but of this, no trace remains. The second was built in the Early English style between the years 1230 and 1250 and this was burnt down on May 16^th, 1289. On that day a plumber with his two assistants had climbed to the roof to repair the leads with solder. The necessary fire was kindled in iron ladles which were placed on the dry wood of the roof. The plumber worked until after Mass, then left ordering his assistant to put out the fire but they left the coals smouldering. A strong wind scattered the coals over the roof which caught fire. The wooden crossbeams became ignited then ‘The fire waxed greatly and burned everything’. The building was destroyed along with sacred vestments, vessels, statues, and manuscripts.

A third church was commenced in about 1309. Archbishop Greenfield of York appealed for funds, likewise the Bishop of Durham, two years later. The ruins of the old church were utilised as far as possible as will be seen from the present ruins where some of the pillar bases are Early English and others ‘Decorated Style’.

Robert de Brus, a descendant of the first de Brus, gave the Priory generous grants of land, his gift included ‘All Guisborough with all things pertaining to it’; all Kirkleatham and Coatham; the churches of Marske, Skelton, Upleatham, Stainton and Levington. During his lifetime he gave the Priory at least two thousand acres of moor and common land and ten churches. His descendants added to these gifts and the possessions of the Priory increased by estates at Castle Eden, Hull and in Lincolnshire. At the dissolution of the Monasteries, very few monastic houses were richer than Guisborough.

In addition to the Priory, a Cistercian order of Nuns was founded by Ralph de Neville in the year 1162 at Hutton Low Cross. They afterwards moved to a village a few miles away called Thorpe. In honour of its new inhabitants, the village was renamed Nunthorpe.

For more than four hundred years the Augustinian Canons lived in the Priory and during that time it rose to great importance. There were about twenty-seven Priors during its long history. They are listed as follows - 1131 William de Brus, brother of the founder; 1147 Ranulph or Ralph; 1184 Cuthbert; 1196 Roal; 1211 Laurence; 1218 Michael; 1230 John; …..Simon; 1261 Ralph de Ireton; 1281 W…..; 1289 Adam de Newland; …..William de Middleburgh; 1320 Robert de Wilton; 1346 John de Darlington; 1391 John de Hurreworth; 1393 Walter de Thorpe; 1408 John de Hemmesley; 1436 Thomas Twenge; …..Richard de Ireton; 1455 Thomas Darlington; 1475 John Moreby; 1491 John Whitby; 1505 John Morley; 1511 (Sept) Benedict; 1511 (Dec) William Spires; 1519 James Cockerill. The last Prior was Robert Pursglove.

The Canons had the right of electing their own Prior but the election of William de Brus as first Prior shows that the founder exercised great influence in appointments. Normally patrons retained the right of confirming the appointment.

The Prior-elect went in-state to Castleton or Skelton to receive confirmation of his election from a de Brus or, at a later date, a Fauconberg. This confirmation was never refused as far as is known.

Guisborough Priory was the richest and most powerful of the Augustinian Houses, almost a principality. It is recorded that the Prior kept a most magnificent house. In addition to the seven or eight hundred members of the community, five hundred householders who had no land were also dependent on the Priory. Thirty parish churches in England and several in Scotland were also maintained. The Manor was in the hands of the Prior but at the dissolution, it was taken by the Crown and eventually given to the Chaloner family.

In 1263 the Prior was given the right to hold a free market on Mondays and yearly market on the Vigil of the feast of the Assumption of our Blessed Lady. In 1086 there was a mill in Guisborough as shown on a charter. In 1119 Robert de Brus gave two to the Priory together with ‘a Soke and Mieture of land’. No one was to build a new one without consent.

The monks and lay brothers were very industrious. Agriculture was the principal work but of course, education was very important, the youth of the neighbourhood were instructed in the Priory school. Arts and Crafts were practised and the sick and aged were tendered in the hospital. In addition to teaching the Canons employed their time in copying manuscripts. Sub-Prior Walter Hemingbrogh compiled a history of England from 1066 to 1346. The library was a most important part of monastic life. In fact, it was said that an Abbey without a library is like a castle without an armoury.

 

Other work provided by the Priory includes salmon fishing in the Tees. It is recorded that the Prior paid an annual rent to the de Brus family to operate a salt pan (for the extraction of salt from the sea) on Coatham Beach. Also, in 1223 Peter de Brus gave a forge to the Prior at Glaisdale to ‘seek and take iron ore without let or hindrance’. So, it appears the Canons of the Priory were the pioneers of the Cleveland iron trade.

In addition to the entertaining of travellers at all times there was a Royal visit to the Priory on January 31^st, 1216 when King John passed through Guisborough on the occasion of his advance against the Northern Barons after Magna Carta and on his return from Berwick to Scarborough Castle.

The Canons of the Priory, in addition to all their outside activities, led a very full spiritual life. This is how the day, excluding outside work, was spent: Night Office began about Midnight, followed by Laudes. Prime between 6am and 7am, early Masses followed. Chapter Mass followed by Chapter meeting. High Mass 10am, Vespers 5pm to 6pm, Compline 7pm to 8pm. These times varied according to the Season of the year.

Meals were generally taken following a service. The Mixtum of light breakfast consisting of a quarter pound of bread and a third of a pint of beer was taken after early Mass had been celebrated. Dinner after High Mass at about 11.30am. Supper after vespers and retire for the night after Compline. Of course, those of the Order working in the fields or away from the Priory were not always bound by these rules.

The dress of the Order must have been a familiar sight in those early days in Guisborough as they went to and from their work. A black cassock, rochet or linen reaching down below the knee, black cape with cowl and black biretta. Hence the name, Black Canons. On Sunday the cassock worn was white.

As mentioned previously, the Priory was a very large collection of buildings. The Priory itself was 380 feet long, 175 feet across the transept, and 75 feet high at the crown of the vault. The Monastic buildings covered several acres.

The church was a complete and consistent design, cruciform in shape with a central tower and two other towers at the West end. Built of rich warm coloured stone, hard and fine. As a writer says ‘Classical in its majesty and simplicity, a masterpiece of the highest type of Gothic design. There is no nobler example of pure and perfect proportions than this’.

 

The length of the church was 135 feet with raised Nave, Choir and Transepts. The North wall formed the Southern boundary of the parish churchyard. This now includes the site of the North Transept. The Choir, now represented by the East end, with the exception of the window tracery is practically intact. This is one of the finest specimens of the period in the County. This window had an internal width of 30 feet 6 inches and 15 feet 7 inches side aisles. The whole area being 70 feet 2 inches within the outer walls. On either side are fixed two shields bearing the arms of de Brus. The rest of the church was probably razed to the ground at the dissolution but a part of the West front, tower bases and bases of three Nave piers was uncovered by Admiral Chaloner in1867.

As mentioned at the commencement, the Priory was from its inception dedicated to Our Lady. Many records are in existence to prove the term ‘Our Lady of Guisborough’ was in use in those early days.

The common seal of the Priory was handsome and elaborate. It represented Our Lady and the Holy Child seated under a rich Gothic canopy having over their heads the words ‘AVE MARIA PLENA’. On each side a monk on his knees praying and the words ‘S….CAPITULI.…SEC….MARIAE GISBURNE’. An impression of the seal was obtained by the late Father Mercer which is at the church. There is further evidence. In the reign of King Henry VII 1485 – 1503, the Prior of Guisborough sent a petition;

‘To the King, our liege Lord. Please it your highness, of your habundante grace, to grant unto your humble and true oratous, the Prior and Convent of the Monastry of Our Lady of Gysburgh in Cleveland, your gracious letters patent to be made in due form, after the terms eneueth. Again, on September 11^th John, Prior of Gysburgh and his convent admit Edward Abbot of York and the Friars of his convent into his fraternity’.

The Prior used the seal bearing the inscription ‘SIG PRIORAT BEATE MARIAE de GYSBURNE’.

Although in the original foundation deeds the Priory is shown dedicated to Our Blessed Lady without the addition of Guisborough the latter appears to have been added as a title and not as indicating the location of the Priory.

Evidence of pilgrimages to the shrine and grants made ‘For candles to light Our Lady of Gysburge’ are far too numerous to mention in this short history. There is no doubt that devotion to Our Lady of Guisborough was prevalent in those early days. When Marian Year was promulgated by His Holiness the Pope in 1953 it was wonderful to see the modern pilgrims flocking to the new shrine (in the church) in motor cars, coaches, motorcycles and even walking. Over two thousand people came to pay their respects to one of the most ancient shrines in the country of Our Blessed Mother.

The first knowledge of the so-called Reformation came to the people of Guisborough in 1535. On the 11^th of July that year the parish priest was reading the articles of the King's Supremacy in church when John Atkinson came, to quote ‘VIOLENTLY TOOK THE BOOK FORTH’ out of the priest’s hands and pulled it to pieces and ‘privily conveyed himself forth’. A search was made for him, but he was not found.

That the people of Guisborough and elsewhere had no desire for change in their religion is evident from the few records available. When one remembers that very few could read or write, that there was no means of obtaining information except by word of mouth it is clear the majority did not want any alteration in their religion.

By order of King Henry VIII, the Priory was dissolved on 22^nd December 1540. It is of interest to note that at the dissolution and surrender of the Priory, the annual income was, according to Dugdales History of England, £628.3.4d a very large sum in those days. The Priors house and site of the Priory were leased to Thomas Leigh for twenty-one years at an annual rent of £224.12.0d.

Robert Pursglove was Prior at the time. As a boy, he was educated at St Paul's School London founded by Dean Colet. After nine years there and a short time in a nearby Priory of St Mary, he entered the newly founded college of Corpus Christi Oxford. In 1523 or 1533 he joined the Priory at Guisborough and rapidly rose to be Prior in 1534. In 1538 he became Bishop of Hull, still of course keeping his position as Prior of Guisborough. On December 22^nd, 1540, he surrendered the Priory to the crown, receiving a pension of £166.13.4d. This would be equal to the sum of about £4,000 in these days. On June 26^th, 1544, he was made Provost of Jesus College Rotherham and held office until the college was suppressed by King Edward VI.

On 29^th January he was installed Archdeacon of Nottingham in succession to Dr. Cuthbert Marshall. His tenure as Bishop of Hull continued under Archbishop Holgate and Archbishop Heath of York. Registers at York Minster contain entries of ordinations by him. Pursglove appears uncertain which side of religion to be on, or perhaps his love of pomp and grandeur was, to him, more important than the way of life in which he had been brought up since childhood. We cannot judge or even understand what utter chaos there must have been in those dark days.

However, we learn that in 1559 he was deprived of all his offices for refusing to take the Oath of Supremacy. Council Commissioners under Elizabeth represent him as ‘Stiff in Papistry and of much estimation in the country’.

 

In 15…? He obtained letters patent from Elizabeth to found a Grammar School at Tideswell and dedicate it, like his boyhood school, to ‘Child Jesus’. On 5^th June 1563, he again obtained permission to found a similar school of the same name at Guisborough. This is now the Guisborough Grammar School. He founded here also a hospital and almshouses. The date of foundation is given as 11^th August 1563.

The fact that he placed these foundations under the visitorial powers of the Archbishop of York proves he finally acquiesced to Elizabethan settlement.

Pursglove resided his last years at Tideswell and partly at Dunstan in Derbyshire both from which is dated a number of deeds of gift to his school and hospital in Guisborough. He died on 2^nd May 1579 and was buried at Tideswell where a fine ‘Brass’ marks his last resting place. To quote from Arthur Mees ‘Derbyshire, the Peak District’ ‘He (Pursglove) was a protestant Bishop under Edward VI, a strong Papist Bishop under Mary’.

It is remarkable to think Henry I was instrumental in Guisborough Priory being built, and Henry VIII destroying it.