Local History Ordulph’s Sarcophagus By Roderick Martin
our first local hero about whom many stories are told. He is credited with the founding of Tavistock Abbey, and predictably there is a story about how he came to undertake this project.
THERE is a debate about where Ordulph's sarcophagus should be kept. So who was Ordulph..... what is a sarcophagus, and what makes this oddly-shaped granite trough so important to our town? Ordulph was a Saxon soldier, and
seems that he was told by an angel in a vision to build a holy chapel at a specific location beside the River Tavy but only did so after some persistence on the part of the angel. The site of this holy chapel was where the Pannier Market now stands. Tavistock Abbey was built later near the holy chapel, and it was beneath the chapter house of the abbey that both Ordulph, who died in about 1010 A.D., and his wife, Aelfwyun, were buried by the monks.
Tavistock Abbey and transferred the abbey premises and surrounding land to his supporter, John Russell, whose descendants became the Earls and later Dukes of Bedford. Over the next century Tavistock lost its fine abbey by a combination of deliberate destruction of the church, neglect and damage by the weather, and the townsfolk using the building stone for other purposes.
eighteenth century a large granite trough measuring approximately
30 When in the In 1539 King Henry VIII dissolved It
beautifully carved. By contrast this artefact is roughly hewed from granite moorstone. Also it seems unsuitable in shape and size for a coffin, and may have been made at an earlier time for an entirely different purpose. It is likely to have been used by the monks to contain the bones of Ordulph and his wife because it was already available, and conveniently to hand, when a suitable container was required. Its origins or purpose are really of little consequence because the historical value of this artefact surely lies in its popular association with Ordulph, and the founding of the abbey. In the early nineteenth century the sarcophagus was used as a water trough in the gardens of Abbey House (now the Bedford Hotel) and was the subject of a print by Samuel Prout. Two drain holes in the base may have dated from this time. In about 1820 the sarcophagus, together with other abbey artefacts, were collected together and placed under the archway in the ruined abbey gatehouse, known as Betsy Grimbal’s tower, in the Plymouth Road. This was blocked on the Bedford Hotel side, thus making the enclosed area under the arch accessible only via the vicarage grounds. It is very likely that this was the only convenient storage available.
1500mm (L) x 610-900 mm (W) x 600mm (H) was excavated, probably in the site of the abbey chapter house, it contained thigh bones which came from two persons, one believed to be a tall man. It is by no means certain that these were the bones of Ordulph and his wife, but they are obvious candidates, and it all makes for a good story.
But is this granite artefact really a sarcophagus? The opinion of the archaeologists who have inspected the artefact is that it is not. A true ‘sarcophagus’ is a funeral receptacle for a corpse, most commonly hewed out of porous stone. The word ‘sarcophagus’ has Greek origins meaning ‘flesh eating’, a particular property attributed to the limestone used for the earliest of these receptacles, many of which are
‘archway grotto’ was a popular tourist must-visit during the late Victorian and Edwardian period, and a number of early postcards show the artefacts within the tower. However times and tourist tastes change, and dark grottos containing stone artefacts have long since become unfashionable. For many decades the tower has been a scene of sad neglect with the sarcophagus being misused as a rubbish receptacle, and finally falling off its supporting pillars onto the floor. A close examination has shown that some surfaces of the artefact have partially decomposed due to green mould growth resulting from the conditions in the tower.
May 2010 - Sarcophagus lying on the floor of Betsy Grimbal’s Tower. In 1989, when Exeter Archaeology catalogued the abbey remains in the town, they expressed concerns about
A visit to this
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