In 1357, David II, Robert the Bruce's son, returned from long imprisonment in England and an uneasy peace returned to the Border country whilst the English monarchy was now more preoccupied with the situation in France.

In 1385, the 'auld alliance' between Scotland and France led to the Scots army invading England, an attempt to divert England's attention away from the Continent by rattling their back door.

The raid brought devastating results for Scotland in general and the Border in particular. Richard II's army invaded in strength and burned and pillaged its way through the eastern Border country.

They destroyed everything. The monks looked at their smoking ruin and decided there was nothing for it but to rebuild anew.

Over the course of the next 100 years and more, the masons set about creating what is still one of the marvels of medieval church architecture anywhere in the British Isles. The quality of their craftsmanship is quite superb.

The richness of the ornamentation were awe-inspiring and in stark contrast with the plain lines and unadorned surfaces of its burned-down predecessor.

The Cistercians had moved a long way from the simple aspirations of their founding fathers. The work began within a year or two of the burning, probably under the auspices of Richard II who seems to have regarded southern Scotland as having been conquered.

He certainly made financial provision for the work in 1389, and the architectural evidence supports the belief that part at least of the new work was carried out by English masons. The clue is in the windows of the new presbytery, where the tracery is mostly in the English 'perpendicular' style their nearest parallels are in eastern England.

That responsibility for the building work passed after a while to masons from another tradition is also evident in the fabric for there is a distinct change in style, most obviously in the south transept and the side chapels in the nave. Here the more flowing window tracery, has been inspired European buildings. And two inscriptions in the south transept record that this particular part of the work was supervised by a French-born master mason, John Morow.

The rebuilding work continued through the fifteenth and into the sixteenth century; James IV distributed drink-silver to the masons during his visits in 1502 and 1504. It is likely that the church was never actually completed, but even in its unfinished state it must have been magnificent to behold, both inside and out.

Today's visitor has only the splendour of the masonry to admire, with its exquisite, captivating and humorous carvings. The pretty rose?tinted sandstone was quarried from the neighbouring Eildon Hills. The glazed floor tiles, coloured yellow, green or brown and set in geometric patterns, can be seen on display in the Commendator's House.

Little is known of the day-to-day story of Melrose as the Middle Ages wore on, but what is clear is that it was not only the church architecture that was changing. The economy continued to revolve around the sale of high-quality wool, but was now produced on tenanted farms rather than on granges run by the lay brothers, who had probably disappeared by 1443 when their former choir in the nave was adapted for parish worship.

The latter years of Melrose Abbey...

 

 

 

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[text and some pictures courtesy and copyright of Historic Scotland]

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