St Mary's Priory Church, Abergavenny, Monmouthshire
![]() Above: View through nave towards east window. ![]() ![]() Above: Chancel and east window. ![]() Above: Recumbent figure of Jesse late-15th century (see note 2, below). Note 2: The figure of Jesse is the only surviving element of a huge composition, and is one of the finest pieces of late-medieval sculpture remaining in England or Wales. The initial dismantling of the Tree of Jesse took place in the 16th century. The great figure of Jesse lies recumbent, his head resting on a pillow supported by a singe angel. Jesse's missing right hand was a separate piece, dowelled on, but otherwise the whole figure is carved out of a single piece of what must have been a massive oak. The wooden Jesse was selected because of its particular quality and size. There would have been a whole tree sprouting from the middle of this figure with the entire genealogy, all of the various ancestors, of Christ displayed on its branches. Carved with a particularly strong and confident sensitivity to line and scale from a single enormous piece of oak, it sits on a mattress made from richly-grained Douglas fir. [Source: Information card displayed alongside the figure of Jesse] ![]() Above: Collection of monuments and effigies in the Herbert Chapel. ![]() Above: Dr David Lewis, died 1584, Judge of the High Court of Admiralty in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. Below: George de Canteloupe, 10th Lord of Abergavenny, died 1273, or John Hastings, 11th Lord of Abergavenny, died 1313 (see note 3 below).
Note 3: The wooden effigy, said by Mr Morgan (though with a query) to represent George de Cantelupe, the 10th Lord of Abergavenny, lies on a trestle in the centre of the Herbert Chapel. Symonds [p.233 et seq] describes its position when he saw it [in 1645] as under the north window, and says that the person it Commemorates was called the builder of the church, but it gives him no name. The present church was, however, built in the fourteenth century, and George de Cantelupe died in 1273. It is probable that this represents John de Hastings, the 11th Lord, who died in 1313.
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