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Fountains Abbey: History
Fountains Abbey: Buildings
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Renovations (7/13)
Other changes within the church were less concerned with the structure than the décor. They affected the overall simplicity and starkness of the interior, making it less austere and bringing it up to date with current trends. Much of the renovation and repair work was concerned with the flooring, windows and furnishings. In c. 1236, a mosaic floor was laid in the east end, in the Chapel of the Nine Altars and the presbytery; this may represent the earliest use of such tiles in the North of England. Surviving fragments have been reset before the site of the High Altar. (18) In the fifteenth century the nave and transepts were tiled. A groat dating from Edward IV’s reign was found beneath the tiles in the south transept and suggests that this ‘major undertaking’ was effected after 1457.(19)
In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, abbots John Darnton [1479-1495] and Marmaduke Huby [1495-1526] undertook necessary repairs and modernisation within the church. Darnton re-roofed the church in lead and oversaw the insertion of new windows with pictorial glass, to replace geometric designs. He was also responsible for the magnificent east window of nine lights in the Chapel of Nine Altars. Whilst Darnton sought to carry out necessary repairs, he was also concerned to leave his personal stamp and sometimes branded his work. For example, a window-head that he patched in the south wall of the Chapel of the Nine Altars shows a carved figure of an angel holding a tun with ‘dern’ written across its breast, a pun on the abbot’s surname, ‘Darnton’; the eagle of St John is depicted above, an allusion to his Christian name. Darnton’s great window in the west wall of the nave that shows the Virgin with Christ child bears the inscription ‘1494’ and Darnton’s rebus - a carved eagle of St John bearing a crozier, perched on a tun. |
