Kirkstead

No individual entry found for Kirkstead in the Domesday survey. The entry for this Cistercian abbey in the Victoria County Histpory (Lincoln, vol. 2, 1906) notes: "The abbey of Kirkstead was founded in 1139 by Hugh Brito (otherwise Hugh son of Eudo), lord of Tattershall [...] This original site was not, however, found to be large enough, and proved unsuitable in other ways; therefore in 1187 Robert the son of Hugh granted leave to the monks to move a little distance off, still, however, remaining on his lands"; the last recorded abbot before Dissolution was in 1529, and he as well as three of the abbey monks were accused of implication in the Lincolnshire Rising of 1536 and executed by order of Henry VIII. Only a few ruins remain of the abbey buildings. The present chapel would not have been the abbatial church, as it was 'ante portas' [without] and it dates probably in the early-mid 13th century. Pevsner, Harris and Antram (1989) note, under the heading 'font': "The bowl is a re-used mortar, perhaps from the abbey kitchens". An irregular cylindrical mounted font in the chapel of St. Leonards Without [ante portas]. Peter Fairweather, of Lincoln, reports that "the bowl is said to be a re-used mortar, probably from the kitchens of Kirkstead Abbey" and that "the little church or chapel lies 'Without' the gates of the Abbey founded 1139 and moved here 1187. The chapel dates to 1230-1240". [e-mail of March 2002]. The object has a thick protruding upper rim and two large handle-like vertical protrusions on the sides; the cylindrical base is obviously made up; the basin is now covered with a wooden lid. [NB: this may well be one of those lay objects later mistaken and/or as fonts/stoups about which Bond (1908) wrote].