Page:Highways and Byways in Lincolnshire.djvu/510

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THE RUINS

Croyland Abbey.

great flood, followed by a pestilence and a fire which destroyed nearly all the village, but spared the abbey, are among the records of his abbacy. He vaulted the roofs of the aisles, glazed the windows, had the bells recast, and gave the choir an organ; also he built the great west tower for the bells and the porch with its parvise. He died in 1469. The short steeple was added to the tower later. The last abbot was John Welles, alias Bridges. Another campanile had been built beyond the east end of the choir by Abbot Ralph Marshe, 1260, which gave the abbey two separate peals, as once at Lincoln. After these many vicissitudes the greater part of the beautiful building