The tour of the Abbey’s exterior starts outside the north porch, the main entrance to the Abbey. Stand facing the abbey, a few metres to the left (east) of the porch.
The North porch was added in 1907 to celebrate 1000 years since the Foundation of the Abbey here in 907 and the 300th anniversary of the granting of borough status to Romsey. Its proportions are different from the original mediaeval porch, which was narrower and extended to where the low churchyard wall now stands.
Traces of the original round-topped Norman arches are still visible above the replaced stonework of the two windows nearest the porch. The other two windows further to the left had been similar but were removed in 1874 and replaced by Romanesque style windows and fitted with stained glass.
Below these two Victorian windows, the foundations of the transept or porticus of the Saxon abbey church protrude about 1m from the wall.
This whole area was once the site of an extension to the north aisle, built in the early 15th century to serve as the town’s parish church.
Now look up above the windows to see a number of interesting corbels, carved faces and animals sticking out from the wall.
The figures in the corbel table around the Abbey are of mixed ages. Those along this north aisle wall are all Victorian, since the originals were lost when the extension was built, but they are similar in style to the original Norman corbels elsewhere on the building.
Above the windows you will see that the third corbel from the left shows a cat swallowing a mouse.
Next to it is the Abbey's only dated corbel. Its west face is marked 1865. The corbel shows a woman's head and, between her thighs, a baby's happy little face at the moment of birth. Was this a play on the Reverend E L Berthon’s name? Berthon was vicar between 1860 and 1892 and was responsible for substantial restoration of the Abbey.
At about the same height but on the west facing wall of the north transept there is a square stone showing an abbess with her crozier, carved in about 1400. She seems to be squatting, perhaps at her toilet, and she clutches what might be a money-bag. It was installed in a place that would be seen by townspeople but never by the abbess! Perhaps it was carved by a mason poking fun at an abbess who was slow in paying the masons, just as a cartoonist might do in our own time.
Below this, the original nave walls between the still-existing pillars and the damage to the transept west wall were rebuilt using stone from the parish church extension after it was demolished after the Dissolution of the Abbey and its subsequent purchase from Henry VIII in 1544. Either the windows were reset into the walls, or possibly other windows were obtained.
Now, turn around and look at the churchyard.
