Looe
Island and Glastonbury
Niall
C.E.J. O’Brien
In 2008 the Time Team archaeology television
programme went to Looe Island and Lammana on the south Cornish coast to
investigate the fabric and history of two chapels built there by Glastonbury
abbey.
The property was the only possession of Glastonbury in Cornwall.
Lammana
and Looe Island
Lammana lies on the south coast of Cornwall in the
parish of Talland. It occupies a natural amphitheatre facing the sea and Looe
Island.
The hamlet of Lemain retains the place-name to this day.
Looe Island is about a half mile off the coast and measures about fourteen
acres.
Glastonbury
acquires Lammana and Looe Island
Before 1144 Glastonbury had acquired Looe Island
which it made into a cell of St. Michael de
Lammana for two monks.
This was in the time of Abbot Henry de Blois (1126-1171) who did much to
restore the fortunes of Glastonbury abbey. In
1144 Pope Lucius II confirmed Glastonbury’s possession of the Island.
Glastonbury received Lammana and Looe Island from
the ancestor of Hastulf de Soleigny with the tithes of Portloe. In about 1200 Hastulf
de Soleigny, son of John de Solenneio, confirmed the gift. John de Solenneio
was a person of consequences in Cornwall in the time of King Richard 1.
Unfortunately the confirmation document didn’t mention exactly when Glastonbury
got Lammana or the name of the ancestor who made the gift.
Helias, prior of Lammana, and his fellow monk, John,
witnessed the reconfirmation of the foundation charter of Glastonbury’s religious
site at Lammana. In the Time Team television programme the impression is given that Helias and John were the first Glastonbury monks at Lammana but they were there at least 60 or 70 years after the first monks arrived.
Glastonbury
Early
Glastonbury records of Lammana
On 19th April 1168 Pope Alexander III
wrote to Henry de Blois, Bishop of Winchester and administrator of Glastonbury.
The letter confirmed all the monastic properties and vills formerly held by
Glastonbury including Lammana with Looe Island and the adjoining mainland. The
letter also confirmed the free election by the monks of a future abbot on the
death of Henry or any nominated abbot.
Early in 1203 three papal judges made a judgement on
the division of property following the union of Glastonbury abbey with the
bishopric of Bath. In 1200 Bishop Savaric had untied Glastonbury with the see
of Bath. Before 1203 Glastonbury had three priories under it in Ireland,
Bassaleg in Monmouthshire and Lammana in Cornwall. The Bishop was to get the
Irish property while Glastonbury retained Bassaleg and Lammana.
The
cult of St. Michael
Having this property on the south coast of Cornwall was one thing, making money from the place was another thing. Glastonbury came up with developing a cult of St. Michael at Looe Island. In the time of Anglo-Saxon England there was great
devotion to St. Michael and the feast day was observed with unusual solemnity.
The most famous centre of devotion to St. Michael in Cornwall is St. Michael’s
Mount towards the western edge of the south Cornish coast. In 1033-1048 King
Edward the Confessor gave St. Michael’s Mount to the monastery of Mont Saint
Michel in Normandy.
In 1087 Robert, Count of Mortain, made a new grant of St. Michael’s Mount to
Mont Saint Michel.
Although St. Michael’s Mount attracted a lot of
pilgrims on the 29th September feast of St. Michael and again on 16th
October for the feast of ‘St. Michael in the Cornish Mount’ much of the money
went overseas to Mont Saint Michel.
Glastonbury saw what monks of St. Michael’s Mount were doing and the crowds
they were attracting.
To promote Lammana and Looe Island as a place of
pilgrimage Glastonbury told the story that Joseph of Arimathea brought the
young Jesus Christ to Looe Island where he played about while Joseph went off
to get some tin from some Cornish merchants.
But all their storytelling didn't seem to work. In 1262 a certain woman called Christina from the
neighbourhood of Glastonbury abbey went on pilgrimage to St. Michael’s Mount
and had her sight restored after she was blind for six years. Clearly
Glastonbury was not even attracting its own people to Looe Island.
The normal pilgrim route for those coming from
Ireland or Wales and going to St. James at Compostela was to cross Cornwall by
way of Padstow and Fowey and visit St. Michael’s Mount before taking ship for
France and onto Spain. Again
Looe Island appears to have been bypassed by the pilgrims. By the end of the
thirteen century Glastonbury gave up the struggle to make money at Lammana and
Looe Island and sold the property. But while Glastonbury had the property it
developed two chapels to accommodate the expected pilgrims.
Looe
Island and Lammana chapels
The island chapel and the mainland chapel are both
located at the same elevation to within a meter of each other. The chapel of
St. Michael on Looe Island appears to have been in existence before Glastonbury
acquired the site. Time Team found that the chapel was in one part of a large
ring ditch which contained some Roman coins.
The excavation concluded that the chapel was built in a single phase with a
nave and chancel area.
Looe Island chapel site
It was said that before Glastonbury acquired Lammana
there was an existing chapel on the site and that this chapel was later
enlarged by Glastonbury abbey. The investigations by C.K. Croft Andrew and the
Time Team unit revealed a chapel with a nave and chancel separated by a chancel
arch with a southern porch and a second northern entrance. It appeared that the
nave and chancel were built at the same time with the southern porch added
later. The archaeological investigation concluded that Lammana chapel was built
later than the chapel on Looe Island.
The
mainland chapel was deliberately sited to face the island chapel and at the
same elevation. The ground had to be extensively changed to make this happen
and this would support the idea of the Lammana chapel as a later construction
than Looe Island.
The Lammana chapel was possibly built to provide a religious building for
worship when, due to rough seas, pilgrims could not get out to Looe Island.
Although evidence of an earlier church was not
conclusively found during the archaeological investigation the name Lammana
means ‘the early Christian enclosure or monastery of the monk’ and so an
earlier building than the 12th century cannot be ruled out in the
general area.
In the papal taxation of Pope Nicholas IV, taken in
1291, the chapel at Lammana, opposite Looe Island, was worth 30s.
In about 1727 the foundations of the little chapel
at Lammana was still visible. The structure was measured at about 43 feet in
length, 16 feet in breath with a porch 11 feet by 9½ feet. The chapel faced the
sea and was exposed to storms from all sides but especially from the sea. By
that time the old parish of Lamana was joined to that of Talland.
In 1815 the remains of a house and chapel at Lammana
were still visible.
In the 1930s Croft Andrew excavated these structures and in 2008 the Time Team
archaeology programme excavated both this chapel at Lammana and the other
chapel on Looe Island.
Lammana chapel site
Lammana
in the thirteen century
Reports suggest that Glastonbury disposed of Lammana
in 1239 but abbey records still imply ownership for another fifty years at
least. The
idea may have originated in 1239 because of the dispute between Glastonbury
abbey and Launceston priory concerning tithe income around Looe. This
was because Glastonbury held Lammana which was within the parish of Talland and
that parish was held by Launceston priory. It was the vicar appointed by
Launceston who had cure of souls for the inhabitants of Lammana. It was decided
that Launceston would pay Glastonbury 5s per year via the prior of Lammana or
to a messenger of the Glastonbury abbot if he came to Lammana. This
settled their differences for awhile but further disputes over money would
surface time and again.
In about 1245 Robert de Colerne acknowledged that he
was bound to provide one horse to take monks from Glastonbury into Cornwall and
to go as far as the priory of Lammana. This obligation was in return for Robert
to have property called Somerset in Sticklinch. Robert was also bound to pay
Glastonbury 30s per year in rent and perform all the services due from a
tenant. By about 1265 Juliana, widow of Robert of Colerne, held Somerset in
Sticklinch but only for life and she couldn’t pass the land onto her heirs.
At some unknown time Roger Fitzwilliam released his
interest in property at Lammana to Glastonbury abbey which he held of them
except the house occupied by his sister, Mabel.
In about 1245 Michael of Amesbury, Abbot of
Glastonbury, declared in a document that Glastonbury was bound to pay a yearly
fee of 10s to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, at Launceston castle at Michaelmas.
This amount was in compensation to the Earl for payments which Glastonbury owed
the Earl for the Lammana area (Looe Island and the adjoining mainland). If
Glastonbury fell into arrears the Earl could enter and distain to recover the
amounts owed. A scribe in the fourteenth century said the yearly fee was no
longer due as the property was by then alienated.
In 1277 the abbot of Glastonbury sued a number of
people who had broken into the priory of Lammana and had assaulted the monk
there, William de Bolevill.
Further
disputes between Glastonbury and Launceston
For ten years, in the reign of King Edward, Launceston
priory was in dispute with Glastonbury abbey about the advowson of Lammana and
the tithes of same. The abbot of Glastonbury, John by name, was also chaplain
of the chapel at Lammana until June 1289 when he resigned and Walter de
Treverbyn acquired the right of presentation.
This had happened because sometime before 1289
Glastonbury abbey had sold of all its property and income rights at Lammana and
on Looe Island to Ralph Bloyhou for the use of Walter de Treverbyn, lord of
Portloe manor. This included the advowson of Lammana and Walter appointed
Andrew as chaplain. Launceston priory objected to this appointment and Walter
de Treverbyn took Launceston to court to recover damages of £40. Walter showed
that Launceston had previously acknowledged the rights of Glastonbury and won
the court case.
For some years in the late thirteenth century the
income rights of Glastonbury from sheep and sea salt in the area around Lammana
was challenged by Launceston priory. In 1321 a ship called la neof Seynt Johan of Looe transported 250 quarters of salt to
Exeter along with 16 tuns of wine.
In 1279 Glastonbury and Launceston settled their dispute by dividing the area
in two parts. In the area assigned to Launceston priory the monks of
Glastonbury retained an ancient pension of 5s and an increment of 20d payable
at Christmas and the Nativity of St. John the Baptist at Lammana. It was
further agreed that if the sheepfold of the lord of Portloe was south of the
highway then Glastonbury would receive the sheep tithes and if the sheepfold
was north of the road then Launceston would get the money.
In 1289 it was said in a court case that Glastonbury
held a messuage and a carucate of land at Lammana along with Looe Island with
its chapel of St. Michael. Glastonbury also had the greater tithes relating to
Lammana and Portloe south of the King’s Highway.
Glastonbury
leaves Lammana
The continuing disputes with Launceston priory and the failure to develop a cult of St. Michael to rival that at St. Michael's Mount was just too much even for a great abbey like Glastonbury. In the late thirteenth century Glastonbury gave up
ownership of Lammana and Looe Island. But
even by 1257 Glastonbury was thinking of giving up Lammana. In that year
Glastonbury was allowed to farm out or dispose of their priory at Lammana by
Richard, Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans. It
seems that Glastonbury did sell Lammana in the early years of the fourteenth
century yet in 1337, according to the caption of seisin of the Duchy of
Cornwall, Glastonbury abbey was still expected to pay the 10s per year for Lammana
by ancient custom.
After Glastonbury left Lammana and Looe Island, the
patronage for a time passed to the Hospital of St. John at Bridgwater. They
kept a chantry chapel there in the fourteenth century.
The impact of Glastonbury on the local people was
mixed. In later centuries people recalled rumours of a Benedictine cell at Lammana
called the chapel of Lammana or the Blessed Michael of Lammana. Yet people
thought this was a reference to the later chantry chapel of the Dawney family
of the fourteenth century.
Lammana
in the fourteenth century
Lammana was situated in the manor of Portloe. This
manor was at first owned by the Treverbyns family and later passed to the
Dawney family.
The Dawney family were one of the chief families of fourteenth century Cornwall
with Nicholas Dawney of Sheviock serving in Parliament in the 1320s.
On 8th February 1329-30 Sir William de
Trewidel, priest, was instituted as chaplain of the chapel of St. Michael at Lammana.
At that time Sir John Dawney was patron of the chapel.
Elsewhere in Cornwall Sir John Dawney was patron of St. John in Cornwall and
Northill.
In 1336 Bishop Grandisson confirmed the endowment of a chapel of St. Nicholas
in West Looe for John Dawney. After the Reformation this chapel fell into ruins
but was restored in the nineteenth century as a parish church.
In January 1343 Adam Bryan, deacon, was instituted
to Lammana on the death of Sir William Wydd, alias Trewidel. Sir John de Alueto
(Dawney) was still the patron of the chantry chapel.
It is possible that this was the same Adam Bryan who, in 1345-6, was one of two
trustees for the property of John Dawney in various places across Cornwall.
On the death of Sir Adam Bryan in 1348, Sir John
Doygnel, priest, was appointed to the chapel of St. Michael at Lammana on 23rd
December 1348. The patron on this occasion was Sibilla, widow of Sir John de
Alneto (Dawney).
It is interesting that two inquisitions post mortem held following the death of
Sir John Dawney fail to mention his patronage of Lammana chapel.
On 26th September 1352 Sir Richard
Abeham, priest, was instituted to the chapel of St. Michael at Lammana. Dame
Sibilla Daune, widow of Sir John Daune (Dawney) was again the patron.
Richard Abeham was still the chapel in 1361 when he was consulted, with others,
about the vacant benefice of the rectory and vicarage of Dulo.
In the 1350s Richard Abeham was one of a number of
trustees assigned the lands of John Dabernoun at Trewinhelekmur,
Treynhelekbrighan and at Tregentulion. After John’s death the trustees were to
give the property to John de Tremaen and Isabella his wife.
Lammana
in the fifteenth century
By the fourteenth century the Dawney family had
disposed of Lammana to the Courtenay family. In August 1433 Sir Robert Symone,
chaplain, was instituted to Lammana chapel on the death of John Lyne. The
patron of the chapel was then Sir Thomas Courtenay, Earl of Devon. The
land of Talland and Lammana remained with the Courtenay family until 1540 when
it was seized by the crown and was made part of the Duchy of Cornwall. In
1426 Robert Symon, acolyte, was granted all sacred orders. Robert Symone was
still at Lammana in 1441.
When William of Worcester visited Cornwall in 1478
he found no dedication at Lammana to St. Michael but did find such dedications
elsewhere.
In the time of King Henry VIII it was said that the
Earl of Exeter had founded a chantry chapel on Looe Island and at Lammana.
These chapels were then worth £4 12s.
Looe
Island changing dedication
In Camden’s map of Cornwall in 1722 Looe Island was
described as dedicated to St. Michael and this was also the case in 1588.
Yet by 1602 the dedication of St. Michael for Looe Island had ceased. Instead
the place was dedicated to St. George and known as St. George’s Island.
The island was at other times dedicated to St. Nicholas as noted by John Leland
in 1536.
By the nineteenth the St. George dedication was in use again and the island
chapel was said to be dedicated to St. George.
By the sixteenth century Looe Island was well known
as a breeding place for sea birds and still is today. In former times the birds
built no nests as few predators were on the island.
This may not have been always the case as in the eighteenth century the island
was alive with rabbits and rats. It is said that the Finn family from near
Plymouth moved to the island and eat all the rats and rabbits. The island was
later owned by the May family and in the nineteenth century by the Trelawnys
family.
Bibliography
Atkinson, E.G. (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, volume IX (Liechtenstein,
1973)
Chynoweth, J., Orme, N., and Walsham, A. (eds.), The survey of Cornwall by Richard Carew
(Exeter, 2004)
Daniell, Rev. J.J., A compendium of the History and Geography of Cornwall (Truro, 1906)
Elliott-Binns, L.E., Medieval Cornwall (London, 1955)
Elton, C.J. (ed.), Rentalia et Custumaria Michaelis de Ambresbury, 1235-1252 et Rogeri de
Ford, 1252-1261 Abbatum Monasterii Beatae Mariae Glastoniae with an excursus on
manorial land tenures (Somerset Record Society, vol. 5, 1891)
Filbee, M., Celtic
Cornwall (London, 1996)
Fletcher, Canon J.R. (edited by Dom John Stephan), Short History of Saint Michael’s Mount (St.
Michael’s Mount, 1951)
Hingeston-Randolph, Rev. F.C. (ed.), The register of Edmund Lacy, Bishop of
Exeter (A.D. 1420-1455), part 1:- the register of institutions (London,
1909)
Hingeston-Randolph, Rev. F.C. (ed.), The register of John de Grandisson, Bishop
of Exeter (A.D. 1327-1369), part III, 1360-1369 with the register of
institutions (London, 1899)
Hingeston-Randolph, Rev. F.C. (ed.), The
registers of Walter Bronescombe (A.D. 1257-1280) and Peter Quibil (A.D.
1280-1291) Bishops of Exeter (London, 1889)
Hull, P.L. (ed.), The cartulary of Launceston priory (Exeter, 1987)
Hull, P.L. (ed.), The caption of seisin of the Duchy of Cornwall, 1337 (Torquay,
1971)
Kowaleski, M. (ed.), Local customs accounts of the Port of Exeter 1266-1321 (Exeter,
1993)
Kowaleski, M. (ed.), The havener’s accounts of the Earldom and Duchy of Cornwall, 1287-1356 (Exeter,
2001)
Polsue, J., A
complete Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, volume III (Truro,
1870)
Polsue, J., A
complete Parochial History of the County of Cornwall, volume IV (Truro,
1872)
Potts, R. (ed.), A
Calendar of Cornish Glebe Terriers 1673-1735 (Torquay, 1974)
Reichel, Rev. O. (ed.), The register of Edmund Lacy, Bishop of Exeter (A.D. 1420-1455), part
II:- the register commune (London, 1915)
Rowe, J.H. (ed.), Cornwall feet of fines, volume 1, Richard 1-Edward III, 1195-1377
(Devon and Cornwall Record Society, 1914)
Sharp, J.E.E.S. (ed.), Calendar of Inquisitions Post Mortem, volume VIII (Liechtenstein,
1973)
Watkin, Dom A. (ed.), The Great Chartulary of Glastonbury, Volume 1 (Somerset Record
Society, LIX, 1947)
Watkin, Dom A. (ed.), The Great Chartulary of Glastonbury, Volume II (Somerset Record
Society, LXIII, 1952)
Watkin, Dom A. (ed.), The Great Chartulary of Glastonbury, Volume III (Somerset Record
Society, LXIV, 1956)
Wessex Archaeology, Looe, Cornwall Archaeological Evaluation and Assessment of Results
(Salisbury, 2009)
=================
End of post
=================
