t
Aelfward, for something like a hundred pounds, about the year 1034.

A curious story relating to the remains of this saint is told in the
monastic chronicles. Edith, the queen of Edward the Confessor, being
anxious to acquire some precious relic for purposes of her own, called
upon a number of the religious houses of England to send their
treasures to Gloucester, there to be inspected by her, and, among
others, the convent of Evesham sent the remains of Saint Odulf and
Saint Egwin. As the queen was examining the shrine of the former, she
was suddenly struck with a peculiar form of blindness, and not until
she had invoked the saint's intercession, and declared her intention
of restoring the sacred relics to the monks, did she regain her sight!

Another interesting personality gained in a very different manner the
reverence, if not the worship, of the religious devotees of the time.
This was Saint Wulsy, a hermit of repute, who, we are told, lived for
seventy-five years a life of contemplation and seclusion. From
Crowland Abbey, his earlier home, Wulsy was led blindfolded, that he
might not be contaminated by the world, to Evesham, and near the
church he built with his own hands a chapel in honour of Saint Kenelm,
saint and martyr, with a cell adjoining, in which he spent the rest of
his life.

In the reign of Edward the Confessor the church was rebuilt and
greatly enlarged by Abbot Mannie, noted as a skilful craftsman in gold
and silver; but even this must have seemed to the ambitious Norman
insignificant, and unworthy of its high purpose, for very soon after
the Conquest it was pulled down to make way for a much larger and more
dignified building.

THE ABBEY AFTER THE CONQUEST

William the Conqueror did not oust the prudent Abbot whom he found in
office at Evesham. A favourite at the court of Edward the Confessor,
Abbot Agelwy stood high also in Harold's regard, and was not only
unmolested when William took up the reins of power, but was appointed
to other offices of great trust and political importance. On his death
the abbacy was given to a Norman monk, Walter of Cerasia, and in his
time the great church of which some foundations still remain was
begun. The "wily Agelwy" had left "four chests of silver" towards this
reconstruction, but this was not enough to build even the crypt and
chancel, and we find Abbot Walter sending the chief treasures of the
monastery, namely, the shrines containing the relics of