The Tribunal in

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbury ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England, was built in the 15th century as a merchant's house. It has been designated as a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The history of the building is not well documented, although the majority of the present stone house was constructed in the 15th century on the site of a 12th-century wooden building. The current front wall, made of medieval stonework, was added at a later date. It has been used as a merchant's house, a shop, school and a convent. It was thought that it was the venue for court proceedings, hence the title Tribunal, however there is no evidence this ever occurred. One of the ground floor rooms still has the window and ceiling panels from the

Elizabethan era The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

. The front room upstairs has an arched braced, wooden,

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

roof. The building is currently in the guardianship of

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

. It contains the museum of the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society which houses artefacts from both the town and the

Glastonbury Lake Village Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village, situated on a crannog or man made island in the Somerset Levels, near Godney, some north west of Glastonbury in the southwestern English county of Somerset. It has been designated as a schedul ...

including the "Glastonbury Bowl". The museum opened in May 2022 and is entirely run by volunteers. It is usually open 10.00am - 4.00pm Saturdays and Sundays. Members of English Heritage and members of the Glastonbury Antiquarian Society enter for free. All other adults £2.00, children under 18 free.

History

Glastonbury Tribunal owes its name to the fact that it was formerly mistakenly identified with the Abbey's tribunals, where secular justice was administered for Glaston Twelve Hides. The name may have been first used by John Collinson in his ''History and Antiquities of the County of Somerset'' in 1791, however when investigated by Richard Warner in 1826 he could not identify where the name had originated. It was also thought to be the site of trials by

Judge Jeffreys George Jeffreys, 1st Baron Jeffreys, PC (15 May 1645 – 18 April 1689), also known as "the Hanging Judge", was a Welsh judge. He became notable during the reign of King James II, rising to the position of Lord Chancellor (and serving as ...

for the

Bloody Assizes The Bloody Assizes were a series of trials started at Winchester on 25 August 1685 in the aftermath of the Battle of Sedgemoor, which ended the Monmouth Rebellion in England. History There were five judges: Sir William Montague (Lord Chief B ...

after the

Monmouth Rebellion The Monmouth Rebellion, also known as the Pitchfork Rebellion, the Revolt of the West or the West Country rebellion, was an attempt to depose James II, who in February 1685 succeeded his brother Charles II as king of England, Scotland and Ir ...

. The current building was constructed in the 15th century on the site of a wooden building dating from the 12th century. In the 16th century a new facade was added to the original building. It is possible that the stonework and window of the front wall were removed from the abbot's lodgings behind the great kitchen of the Abbey as similar features can be identified in a 1712 engraving, and it is known that the building was ruined and without its front wall by 1723. The door is original and above it are the royal arms and a

Tudor rose The Tudor rose (sometimes called the Union rose) is the traditional floral heraldic badge, heraldic emblem of England and takes its name and origins from the House of Tudor, which united the House of Lancaster and the House of York. The Tudor ...

It is possible that the building was used as a hospice in the time of Abbot Richard Beere, as a document of 1716 describes "Beere's Hospital" although it is uncertain whether this is the same building. Clearer documentary evidence shows that it was used as a "commercial school for young gentlemen" in the second half of the 18th century. It is now in the guardianship of

and managed by Glastonbury Antiquarians Ltd.

Architecture

The building has two rooms and an attached kitchen on the ground floor with a staircase between them leading to the living quarters in the first floor rooms. The front room may originally have been a shop but was not used for trade after the installation of the new front wall in the 16th century. The front room has recesses on either side of the arched fireplace. The rear room on the ground floor was the hall and still has its 16th-century ceiling panels and four-light window. The ceiling has plaster decorations from the

, when the kitchen block was also added. The wooden stairs leading to the first floor replaced an earlier stone staircase, the remains of which can be seen protruding from the walls. The front room on the first floor had previously been partitioned, but the larger space was created when the new front wall was added to the building. Its roof has arched braced wooden

es. The rear room still has the remains of a large fireplace, however, the chimney was blocked when the downstairs fireplace was installed.

Glastonbury Museum at the Tribunal

The building now houses Glastonbury Museum at the Tribunal containing artefacts from the town and from the

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

, a "

crannog A crannog (; ga, crannóg ; gd, crannag ) is typically a partially or entirely artificial island, usually built in lakes and estuarine waters of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland. Unlike the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, which were bu ...

" or man made island, which were preserved in almost perfect condition in the peat after the village was abandoned. Glastonbury Lake Village was an Iron Age village on the

Somerset Levels The Somerset Levels are a coastal plain and wetland area of Somerset, England, running south from the Mendip Hills, Mendips to the Blackdown Hills. The Somerset Levels have an area of about and are bisected by the Polden Hills; the areas to ...

near

Godney Godney is a village and civil parish near Glastonbury on the River Sheppey on the Somerset Levels in the Mendip district of Somerset, England. History Near the village are the sites of the Iron Age Glastonbury Lake Village, and the now drained ...

, some north west of

. and covers an area of north to south by east to west. The village was built in about 300 BC and occupied into the early Roman period (around 100AD) when it was abandoned, possibly due to a rise in the water level. It was built on a morass on an artificial foundation of timber filled with brushwood, bracken, rubble and clay. The village housed around 100 people in five to seven groups of houses, each for an extended family, with sheds and barns, made of

hazel The hazel (''Corylus'') is a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, K. (1999). ...

and

willow Willows, also called sallows and osiers, from the genus ''Salix'', comprise around 400 speciesMabberley, D.J. 1997. The Plant Book, Cambridge University Press #2: Cambridge. of typically deciduous trees and shrubs, found primarily on moist s ...

covered with reeds, and surrounded either permanently or at certain times by a wooden

palisade A palisade, sometimes called a stakewall or a paling, is typically a fence or defensive wall made from iron or wooden stakes, or tree trunks, and used as a defensive structure or enclosure. Palisades can form a stockade. Etymology ''Palisade' ...

. At its maximum it may have had 15 houses with a population of up to 200 people. Glastonbury Log Boat 2

The exhibits include the metal "Glastonbury Bowl". It was made from two sections riveted together and repaired several times over its life. The bottom half has been dated as having been constructed in the

. The upper half was probably added in the 1st century from one sheet of metal, which may have been previously used for another purpose, and the two halves riveted together. Other artefacts that form the village include a clay

tuyère A tuyere or tuyère (; ) is a tube, nozzle or pipe through which air is blown into a furnace or hearth.W. K. V. Gale, The iron and Steel industry: a dictionary of terms (David and Charles, Newton Abbot 1972), 216–217. Air or oxygen is inj ...

from a pair of bellows, whetstones, iron knives and

iron currency Iron currency bars are regarded as being objects used by Iron Age people to exchange goods. Materials They were expensive objects, as it would take 25 man-days to produce 1 kilogram of a finished bar, consuming 100 kg of charcoal, usually ...

bars, which could be used as tokens and exchanged for goods. Some original storage jars are included in the displays which were re assembled by

Arthur Bulleid Arthur Bulleid (1862–1951) was a British antiquarian, known for the excavation of Glastonbury Lake Village and Meare Lake Village. He was born in Glastonbury, the sixth son of John Bulleid, the mayor and founder of the Glastonbury Antiquarian ...

, who discovered the site in 1892. In the Tudor kitchen at the rear of the building is an Iron Age log canoe which was discovered near the lake village. The museum is run by Glastonbury Antiquarians Ltd., on behalf of the Glastonbury Antiquarians Society.

References

External links

Glastonbury Lake Village Museum
– information and photos at Glastonbury Antiquarian Society
Glastonbury Tribunal: English Heritage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tribunal, Glastonbury, The Houses completed in the 15th century Grade I listed buildings in Mendip District

Tribunal A tribunal, generally, is any person or institution with authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title. For example, an advocate who appears before a court with a single ...

Grade I listed museum buildings Glastonbury English Heritage sites in Somerset

History

Architecture

Glastonbury Museum at the Tribunal

See also

References

External links