There is probably no greater thrill to a devotee of old buildings than that of finding a building that has long since ceased to carry out the ancient function for which it was originally built.
When Mr. J. T. Irvine in 1856 first realised that an adjoining school and chapel in Bradford-on-Avon was in fact the Late Saxon church of Saint Lawrence "hemmed in by houses and sheds", he must have felt as excited as a Kalgoorlie prospector finding the first nugget of Australian gold. That tiny church has drawn students of architecture and ritual in great numbers and from many continents ever since.
Such a thrill of discovery was experienced by the present writer. The actual moment of discovery was when leafing through the 1979 edition of Major-General Richard H. Luce's "History of the Abbey & Town of Malmesbury" [for which we are indebted to Mr. Richard Hatchwell and the Friends of Malmesbury Abbey]. Opposite to page 38 is a sketch made in 1801 by one J. Garter. The caption reads :-
"South-west view of a small religious building called the Hermitage (or the Mother Church), or more properly the original site - as the present erection is no older than Henry I or II reigns - without the western well of the town. Saint Paul's tower and spire in the distance."
On seeing this energetic and quick sketch I felt an immediate sense of recognition. I was instantly convinced that I had on several occasions been one of a number of happy guests of the hospitable and convivial Mr. and Mrs. Arnold Squires. Of course it has been much altered and improved over the near two centuries since J. Carter made his bold drawing; but it is, to my mind, when viewed from the tiny down-hill garden, unmistakably united in the same formation of gable-ended buildings; united in plan in the shape of an inverted capital L, and lying snugly in the fold opposite and beneath Saint Paul's `s tower and steeple.
The question arises as too why so diligent and perceptive a researcher as General Luce should have formed the opinion he expressed on p.38 :
"Below the wall on the west side, near the Postern Gate, was a small hermitage, of which the last remains disappeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century."
The answer may be found in the rather loosely drawn map of medieval Malmesbury which is also reproduced in the 1979 edition of the General's book.
This map appears to be the work of an historian living nearer our own time. The scale is small. Any error of position of the few buildings thought to comprise the town in the Middle Ages might seriously mislead later scholars. Such an error of a mere fifty feet or so has resulted in the Hermitage being shown as a part of Burnivale; approximately at the position of the existing vehicle turnabout near the entrance of the former Linolite site; i.e., at the foot of a ten metre escarpment instead of at the top, only fifty feet to the east. Furthermore, a moments reflection will reveal that there would have been insufficient space to the east of Burnivale for a cruciform hermitage, as the town wall probably ascended directly from the road in a series of stepped offsets terminating in an outer defensive castlellation below the Hermitage and a minor revetment supporting Gloucester Street above the Hermitage.
Fortunately there are other clues in the 1801 sketch, besides the corresponding position of Batstone's Antiquarian Bookshop and the adjacent cottages. in the fold below Gloucester Street, opposite the tower and spire of Saint Paul's church. The nineteenth century artist was thorough enough to sketch the plan of this complex on the same drawing. The bookshop and cottages conform with the north, east, and west wings of the 1801 plan, and with the compass orientation of steeple tower and opposite structures, and their relationship as to the levels are further exactly fitting pieces of the jigsaw. The roofs, seen from the garden, show signs of unrelated modifications which suggest many generations of divided ownership of what was once the integrated cruciform Hermitage.
At the same time, a glance at the existing western gable with its single windows on three floors provides yet further telling evidence; the second floor window is offset to the left, as In the corresponding window In the sketch of 1801.
Looking. again at the sketch of 1801. we see a substantial church window of two lancets in the north gable of what is now Mr. David Fletcher's cottage. The window has almost completely disappeared. Perhaps it was sacrificed at the time of the Window Tax. However, with close examination of the north gable wall, preferably from Gloucester Street, it is possible to discern a change of colour and of surface contour which may reasonably be claimed to follow the outline of a former window with a pointed arch, as shown in the 1801 sketch.
Yet another useful clue as to the elevation of the Hermitage in relation to Saint Paul's tower is the artist's notes. In his own hand. In two places he has Indicated walls, thus prompting the speculation above, of an outer defensive and castellated wall terminated about three metres below the level of Gloucester Street, the duplication being due to the slope of the escarpment. This would justify General Luce's impression that the Hermitage was situated "below the wall on the west side", but not that the hermitage was fifty feet further west and thirty feet lower down, in Burnivale.
Another interesting implication of the 1801 sketch is that the ground to the rear of Gloucester Street was considerably more "made-up" than it is today. A present day artist would have to stand on a step-ladder to draw from precisely the spot occupied by the artist J. Carter in 1801. It would seem that over the years retaining walls and the ground which they supported have gradually fallen away. The stones probably re-appeared in other parts of the town in new buildings as trade and population expanded - an example of "swords into ploughshares", as formidable fortifications were transformed into cottages and barns.
