| A ‘truly awful’ catastrophe

On 10 October 1323, while the church was full of men and women who had come to attend Mass, two large columns on the south side of the nave suddenly collapsed. The Abbey Chronicler, whose writings are recorded in The Deeds of the Abbots of St Albans, described it as a ‘catastrophe so horrific’ that previous disasters paled into insignificance by comparison.

Shortly afterwards, part of the roof fell in, crashing down on the shrine of St Amphibalus and damaging the marble columns. Fortunately, no one was harmed – a miracle attributed to St Amphibalus himself. The monk who had been celebrating at the shrine was luckily nearing the end of the ‘secret mysteries’, and was saved by a timely side-step. The relics in their wooden box were also unharmed.

The most severe injury recorded was sustained by one of the workmen who was helping to clear the site a few days later – he climbed to the top of the wall, which then collapsed under him. His thigh was broken, but he survived the incident.

We remain unsure as to exactly why the collapse happened. What we do know is that drainage and water damage was an issue elsewhere in the Abbey complex – earlier in the summer of 1323 part of the dormitory collapsed due to water dripping down the walls from the roof, rotting the walls right down to their foundations. During this period the monks would also keep buckets of water near the roof to catch rainwater and serve as emergency fire extinguishers in case of lightning strikes. It’s therefore entirely possible that water contributed to the great nave collapse.

Whatever the cause, Abbot Hugh de Eversden now had a major piece of reconstructive work on his hands. The work would take around 20 years, and Abbot Hugh would not live to see it completed.