Was it Ordgar or his son Ordulph who truly founded Tavistock Abbey?
Who was Ordulph?
How much of his plan was driven by religious zeal? How much by political expediency?
Some things are clear - Ordulph, was an Earl of Devon during the late 10th century.
As a prominent Anglo-Saxon noble, he would have had estates and manors in this region, with his primary residence probably located near Tavistock. Though there is little specific documentation about his exact residence, it is clear that his power base and influence were concentrated in Devon, and he would have resided in a fortified manor or estate typical of noblemen of his rank during the 10th century near what was to become the Abbey. It is possible that this was at an elevated position overlooking the Tavy valley at what is now Old Exeter Road.
Tavistock residents will be familiar with the name Ordulph. However, it is sometimes difficult to untangle legend from fact. This 1807 copper plate engraving claims to show the sarcophagus of Ordulph, and if you have been on a guided Discover Tavistock walk you may have seen a similarly shaped sarcophagus inside Betsy Grimbal's Tower.
Ordulph was the son of Ordgar, a West Saxon nobleman, and he himself was closely connected to the royal family.
His sister, Ælfthryth (or Elfrida), married King Edgar the Peaceable, which gave Ordulph substantial influence at court.
As we have seen from earlier blogs King Edgar had a reputation for piety, but this does not seem to have been matched by his romantic history.
He married Ælfthryth five years after his accession when he was about twenty-one. This marriage made Ordulph the maternal uncle of King Æthelred the Unready (more of whom in later blogs) and his elder brother Edmund. But, before this Edgar had been involved with other women, two of which had presented him with children.
One of these teenage liaisons was with Æthelflæd who, problematically, had given birth to a son, Edward
As we know kings with multiple wives and partners and a range of offspring is usually a recipe for trouble! We’re going to take a deeper dive into the ramifications of these relationships and their impact on the history of England and Tavistock in later articles.
In 974 Ordulph set to establishing a monastery or abbey in Tavistock. It is not clear yet whether his father Ordgar had started the project.
One goal of the Heritage Trust project is to finally establish when the Abbey’s foundations started. It is intended to carry out a full archaeological survey of the extant remains to determine the age of the various elements with professionally supported community volunteers.
A similarly supported volunteer dig is planned to determine the original floor level of the cloister.
It has been said that Ordulph received a sign from heaven in the skies above the Old Exeter Road that stirred him into action, or perhaps, more logically, his ecclesiastical vision was driven by his desire to support his brother-in-law, King Edgar, to stabilise and unify the kingdom by instituting Benedictine communities.
Ordulph’s life is relatively obscure compared to other historical figures of the time, but his influence can be traced through his family connections and his contributions to the development of the monastic community in Tavistock. He represents the regional nobility that played a key role in shaping the political and ecclesiastical landscape of Anglo-Saxon England in the years leading up to the Norman Conquest.
Abbeys on the scale of Tavistock became large regional land owners. Tavistock Abbey owned lands in Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Land and land owning on a large scale delivered both rights and responsibilities. The Research Group is conducting detailed analysis into the size and nature of this land owning and its significance in the fiscal, political and economic landscape of England.
As we move forward our aim is to get even wider community involvement in aspects of the project. If you would like to get involved as a Community Volunteer we will be posting details of those opportunities in the next few months.
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