In the footsteps of King Harold
Waltham Abbey
Essex
The town of Waltham Abbey is just north of London. To reach it, take the M25 motorway, get off at junction 26 and follow the A121. Map reference: TL 3800. The parish office of the church is at: 5a Greenyard, Waltham Abbey, Essex EN9 1RD, tel: 01992 767 897.
A settlement existed here in Saxon times, but the earliest recorded history of the town dates back to the reign of King Cnut (died 1035). However, there are quite a few versions of this history.
In Cnut's time, a member of the royal court, Tovi the Proud, who may have been the king's standard bearer, transferred from his estate in Somerset to Waltham a miraculous stone crucifix that may or may not have been encased in silver. (Or it could have been a fragment of the 'true cross'.) From this is derived the old name for the district: Waltham Holy Cross.
Harold was cured of paralysis by praying in Tovi's little church. Alternatively the cross cured the future king when he was a child. In any event, he showed his gratitude by refounding the church as a fine stone-built college of secular canons in 1060.
Six years later, after his death at the Battle of Hastings, it is said that Harold's body was taken to Waltham Abbey and buried. Today, two stones mark the spot, just to the east of the present building. The inscription on one reads: 'THIS STONE MARKS THE POSITION OF THE HIGH ALTAR BEHIND WHICH KING HAROLD IS SAID TO HAVE BEEN BURIED 1066.' The other says: 'HAROLD KING OF ENGLAND OBVT 1066.' However, recent research tends to support a burial for the king at his birthplace at Bosham.
William the Conqueror took away much of the endowment of land that Harold had given his church, but this was gradually restored and increased by later kings. In 1177, Henry II, as part of his penance for the murder of Thomas Becket, refounded the church as a priory of Augustinian canons, and seven years later, it was raised to the dignity of an abbey housing 24 canons, an abbot and a prior. The church was extended to three times its former length, and all the buildings necessary for a great abbey were erected.
The town prospered for years serving the needs of the many pilgrims to the 'holy cross', and as a resort near London for the king and his court, where they would pray in the great abbey and hunt in Epping Forest. Henry II was a frequent visitor, and the bodies of Edward I and his queen Eleanor rested in the abbey for several weeks while their respective funerals were being prepared at Westminster.
It was at Waltham Abbey that Henry VIII first met Thomas Cranmer and so began the process that led to the English Reformation. Part of that involved the dissolution of the monasteries – the abbey at Waltham was the last in the country to go, in March 1540. The abbot and canons were pensioned off, and the abbey site was leased to Sir Edward Denny, a local landowner whose family vault can still be found in the abbey church.
The nave from the 12th-century rebuilding of the abbey survived the dissolution and has continued as the parish nave to this day, part of Waltham Abbey Church. The tower at the west end of the church, which now dominates the town, was built in 1556 using materials from the demolished parts of the abbey. It was erected at the west instead of the east end, where the old tower had fallen down, because the church was leaning in that direction and needed propping up.
Waltham Abbey Church
www.walthamabbeychurch.co.uk
Very parochial website for the church.
The legend of Waltham Abbey
www.britannia.com/church/waltham.html
Short history of the church, concentrating on the myths that have sprung up about it.
