WELLOW ABBEY LODGE NO:8819 HELP GRIMSBY HOSPICE

Wellow Abbey brethren recently presented a £500 cheque to Lynne Lemon, fundraising manager for St Andrews Hospice in Grimsby.

Left to right - W.Bro. Mike Webster, Lodge Charity Steward; Bro. Leigh Holton, Worshipful Master; W .Bro. Gil Clarke, Lodge Secretary, present the cheque to Lynne Lemon.

The cheque is part of the £60,000 received from the New Provincial Benevolent Fund for local non-Masonic charities, was very well received, and will be put to good use.

 

Click to Enter the Wellow Abbey Members' Area

The Original Wellow Abbey
The following is taken from the foreword of the programme printed for the Consecration of the Wellow Abbey Lodge, No. 8819, which took place at The Masonic Hall, Cambridge Road, Grimsby, on Friday, 31st. March, 1978 at 3:45 P.M. by the Provincial Grand Master for Lincolnshire, R.W. Bro. Roland E. Richardson, assisted by V.W. Bro. John E. Shepherd, P.G.Supt.Wks, and W. Bro. Peter Kitwood, P.G.D.

Although unfortunately no trace now remains of the Wellow Abbey buildings, it nevertheless played in important part in the history of Grimsby in the Middle Ages.

Built and endowed by Henry I about the year 1132, it occupied a site on lightly rising ground at the southern end of Wellowgate. The abbey was a house of the Black Canons Regular of the Order of Saint Augustine and was dedicated to St. Augustine and St. Olaf.

The Canons of Wellow built the parish church of St. James about the year 1200, not far from the old church of St. Mary, which was mentioned in the Domesday Book, and which is reputed to have been much finer architecturally than St. James, with a tower rivalling Boston Stump.

St. Olaf was born Olaf Haraldsson in the year 995 and spent many years of his early youth fighting Danes in England. He returned to Norway in 1015 at the age of 20 and, obtaining the support of the five petty kings of the Uplands, declared himself king. In 1016 he defeated Earl Sveyn, hitherto the virtual ruler of Norway, at the Battle of Nesje, and by crushing the power of the aristocracy, within a few years had won more power that had been enjoyed by any of his predecessors. He annihilated the petty kings of the South, enforced the acceptance of Christianity throughout the Kingdom and asserted rule over the Orkney Islands. He also humbled the King of Sweden and married his daughter and conducted a successful raid on Denmark. In 1029 the Norwegian nobles, seething with discontent, supported the invading Knut the Great and Olaf fled to Russia. Returning a year later, he fell at the Battle of Stikelstad.
After his death, the cunning and cruelties which had marred his reign were forgotten and his services to his church and country remembered. Miracles were worked at his tomb and he was canonized and declared the patron saint of Norway. His fame spread throughout Scandinavia and to England, where the Wellow Abbey was one of the many churches and religious houses dedicated to him.

The seal of Wellow Abbey, which has been adopted as the basis of the design for the banner of Wellow Abbey Lodge, No. 8819, is a 13th. Century seal. The heraldic description of the seal is:

A pointed oval seal shows in a double niche, with carved canopies, crocheted and pinnacled, on the left, St. Augustine full length, with mitre, lifting up the right hand in benediction, in the left hand a crozier; on the right, St. Olaf, with crown, lifting up the right hand with first finger extended, in the left hand a battle-axe. On the tabernacle work at the sides, two shields of arms, on the left quarterly, 1 and 4 England, 2 and 3 France (ancient), on the right England. In the base between two trees, a shield of arms; on a chevron between a royal crown and a lion of England in chief, and in base a pastoral staff, issuing from the base three Fleurs-de-Lis, Grimsby Abbey.
S. COE. ABBT. ET COVENT. MONSTII. SCI. AUGUSTINI. DE. GRIMESBY.

The Banner of Wellow Abbey Lodge, No. 8819, displayed in the Grimsby Masonic Hall

It is interesting to note that a seal of Wellow Abbey was found on the coast of Norway in 1911 and it was placed in the Riksarkivet, or State Archives, in Oslo.

The close connection between Norway and Grimsby and its Abbey is further emphasized by the fact that when the Papal Legate visited Norway, he was accompanied by the Abbot of Wellow.

Though Wellow Abbey was not one of the earliest Lincolnshire foundations, it was for some years the only autonomous religious house in the north of the county. Thornton Abbey was not founded until 1138. With only a fifth of Thornton's revenue, Wellow was never a wealthy abbey. By the latter half of the 14th. century the affairs fo the abbey were in a deplorable state. The aftermath of the Black Death and the silting up the haven reduced the town to poverty, with a consequent effect on the economics of the abbey. This was made infinitely worse by the gross misconduct and immorality of the Abbot and many of his monks, and the Abbot was eventually deposed for his misdeeds.

At the Dissolution, the yearly revenue of the abbey was estimated at £152.

The last Abbot of Wellow, Robert Whitgift, was uncle of Archbishop Whitgift.

In 1554 the abbey property was given to Sir Thomas Heneage.