button to main menu  Gents Mag 1863 part 1 p.220

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Gentleman's Magazine 1863 part 1 p.220

  Hugh de Beaulieu
  Carlisle Cathedral

Hugh de Beaulieu, Carlisle Cathedral


THE ABBOTS OF BEAULIEU AND THE CHOIR OF CARLISLE.

MR. URBAN, - In your report of the meeting of the Christchurch Archaeological and Natural History Society, held on the 25th of September, 1862d, you state "the second abbot of Beaulieu was appointed third bishop of Carlisle, and built the choir of Carlisle." Although the name of this dignitary is not stated I presume Hugh de Bello Loco is meant. He was elected bishop in 1218, on the application of King Henry III. to the then reigning pontiff. He alienated several of the possessions of the see, and died miserably at the abbey of La Ferte, in Normandy, in 1223. I therefore conjecture (and, as Mr. Clayton very justly remarked at the last monthly meeting of our Society of Antiquaries, "it is the business of an antiquary to conjecture,") that De Bello Loco had no hand in the erection of the present choir, which was not commenced until the time of Silvester de Everdon, who became bishop in 1245. It was approaching completion when, in 1292, a disastrous fire occurring, rendered extensive reparation necessary. The arches which escaped destruction were propped up by what Mr. Parker calls a clever piece of engineering, until the piers were rebuilt. The choir was elongated one bay in the fourteenth century, and the beautiful east window erected. It may, perhaps, be objected that the abbot of Beaulieu might have designed a previous choir; this I would meet by inferring that the Norman choir, which was finished in 1101, remained intact until the time of De Everdon. - I am, &c.
EDWARD THOMPSON.
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Jan. 12, 1863.
d GENT. MAG., Jan. 1863, p.69.
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