COCKERSAND ABBEY
Extra-parochial
Kokersand, 1212; Cocressand, 1213.
The abbey demesne occupies
345½ acres, (fn. 1) and the population of the township in 1901
was 53. It is often regarded
as belonging to the township
of Thurnham. A small detached part of Pilling, in
Cockerham parish, was added
to it in 1887. (fn. 2)
The soil is various, overlying clay. The site of the
abbey was described by
Leland as 'standing very
bleakly and object to all winds.' (fn. 3) There are two
lighthouses to regulate the navigation of the Lune.
Abbey
The story of this house of canons
regular, founded 1180–90, has been related in a previous volume of the present
work. (fn. 4) The site was taken from Cockerham and
Thurnham, and several agreements were made with
the Abbot and canons of Leicester respecting its
boundaries, (fn. 5) as well as concerning the tithes of Forton.
Very little of the building remains.
The Chapter-house, Cockersand Abbey
Cockersand Abbey stood in a very exposed and
bleak situation close to the seashore (fn. 6) on a piece of
land that juts out between the estuaries of the Lane
and the Cocker, overlooking Cockerham Sands. All
that now remains is the chapter-house and portions
of the nave walls and eastern walls of the north and
south transepts, and various scattered fragments of
masonry, which give a general indication of the
extent of the conventual buildings. A careful and
complete excavation of the site has yet to be made,
and until this is done little can be said with any
degree of certainty about the plan of the original
buildings. They appear, however, to have been built
in the usual way round a cloister garth about 80 ft.
square, with the church on the north side and the
chapter-house on the east. The masonry that remains
above ground is all of local red sandstone, now very
much worn where exposed, and there are numerous
stones which formerly belonged to the building
scattered about the ground and others built into the
fence walls of a neighbouring farm-house. The
chapter-house is an excellent example of 13th-century
work, octagonal in plan, measuring internally 27 ft. 6 in.
in diameter, with a vaulted roof carried on a central
shafted pillar. Externally it has been a good deal
rebuilt, and has a modern embattled parapet on the
east side. On the west the building is rectangular
outside, and the wide round-headed doorway opening
is partly built up with modern filling. The roof was
slated about 1859, (fn. 7) having previously been covered
with lead, and is surmounted by a modern cross.
The walls are 2 ft. 10 in. thick, and externally are
13 ft. 6 in. high, with pointed windows on the three
sides facing east and buttresses of three stages at the
angles. The chapter-house was used about the middle
of the 18th century (fn. 8) as a place of burial by the
Dalton family and so continued till 1861, when Miss
Dalton was interred there; the walls and floors now
contain numerous inscribed stones to members of the
family. (fn. 9)
The detail of the interior, not having been exposed
to the weather, is still in a very good state of preservation, though in places filled up with cement and
dirt, and has been at some time whitewashed all over.
The vault springs at a height of 4 ft. 6 in. above the
present floor from the centre pier and from moulded
angle shafts, and is 13 ft. 6 in. high at its highest
point. The floor, however, appears to have been
raised, (fn. 10) no moulded base to the pier being visible.
The walls are arcaded all round; the openings in
the north and south, which were apparently originally
doorways, are now entirely built up, and the windows
facing east are built up to the height of the springing
of the arches. On the west side the walls appear to
have always been
solid, and the arcading to have been,
as now, merely an
ornamental feature
carrying on the
design round the
building. The
arches are pointed,
4 ft. 9 in. in width,
and of three
moulded orders
and hood mould,
springing from
angle shafts 4 ft.
3 in. high, with
moulded capitals
and bases. On the west side there is a trefoiled
inner arch. The hood moulds are stopped with
carved heads, but externally, where the arch is of a
single moulded order, they are merely returned. The
central pier has eight rounds and fillets deeply undercut, and the capital is carved with foliage, into which
two small heads are introduced. The vaulting ribs
have the roll and triple fillet and the bosses are
carved with foliage. The whole is a very good piece
of Gothic work, and the effect of the whitewash, now
old and flaking, is to give it the appearance of being
built of white or yellow stone.
Plan of Chapter-house, Cockersand Abbey
To the north of the chapter-house an external
wall, 3 ft. thick, with ashlar facing and two buttresses
of 9 in. projection, runs northward a distance of about
23 ft., beyond which it is continued with rubble
facing a total distance of 82 ft. The height of this
wall is now 4 ft. 6 in. for the greater part of its
length, but at the far end, where it turns for a short
distance at right angles to the west, it reaches a height
of 10 ft. Most of the other fragments of walling
scarcely show more than above the ground, but there is
an isolated fragment about 70 yds. to the south-west
of the chapter-house, standing close to the sea, which
is 11 ft. in height.
The site was in 1543 granted by the Crown to
John Kitchen. (fn. 11) It passed to the Daltons, (fn. 12) and has
ever since descended with Thurnham.