The Archaeology of Britain: An introduction from ... - waughfamily.ca

Middle Ages: churches, castles and monasteries
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for building projects, the foundation of chantries and details of internal furnishings and fittings.
Very occasionally, the foundation dates of churches can be recognized through the evidence of
placenames or inscriptions (Morris 1983).
The archaeological recording of churches has yielded new evidence on the nature of their
design and construction. Material for the building of masonry churches of Anglo-Saxon date
had been obtained by canabilizing Roman sites for brick, tile and stone, until the eleventh- and
twelfth-century expansion in church construction brought about a more systematic industry of
stone quarrying. The skills of the carpenter are evident in rubble-built parish churches well into
the twelfth century. Stone was used to imitate wood by producing the appearance of lathe-turning,
through pilaster stripwork that mimicked timber joints, for instance in the tower at Earls Barton,
Northants, and in the wooden or basketwork windows and templates that were used, such as
those at Hales and Framlingham Earl, Norfolk (Rodwell 1989). Regional building traditions resulted
from the availability of stone types and building material, in addition to the conscious promotion
of cultural preferences, such as the round-towers of East Anglian churches.
Dating of extant medieval buildings has been carried out predominantly through stylistic or
typological methods. Architectural style was regularly evolving from the late eleventh century to
the fifteenth, so that it is possible to date certain diagnostic features to within 20–30 years, notably
mouldings, capitals, window tracery and roofs. The dating of smaller parish churches can be
more problematic in the earlier period (pre-1120) and from 1350–1500, when the date ranges
achieved by means of stylistic methods can stretch from 50 to 100 years. An archaeological
approach to the study of buildings, developed for particular application to Anglo-Saxon churches,
is known as ‘structural analysis’: this consists of the close scrutiny of church fabric in order to
discern the sequence in which constituent parts were added, modified or removed. This is a nondestructive
approach that is based on the observation of vertical joints in walls, quoin types,
fabric changes and blocked or inserted features (Taylor 1972).
Scientific methods of absolute dating are used less frequently on medieval excavated evidence,
since after c.1050, radiocarbon dates yield broader chronological ranges than those achieved
through typological, stylistic or numismatic approaches. However, radiocarbon dates on human
bone from the primary burials in parish churches have been important in establishing dates for
the earliest structural phases, and dendrochronology, which has been used to date roofs, bellframes
and remains of timber scaffolding, has potential to establish firmer chronologies for
transitional periods of architecture.
Where church sites have been extensively excavated, a primary phase has often been revealed to
consist of a simple one- or two-cell church, sometimes constructed in timber. For example, singlecelled
timber churches have been recorded at Norwich Castle, Lincoln St Mark and Wharram Percy,
North Yorkshire; two-celled timber churches are known from Thetford St Michael and Rivenhall,
Essex, and a cruciform timber church was excavated at Potterne, Wiltshire. As churches evolved, these
timber precursors were later either encased in a stone structure, or a stone successor was built adjacent
to it (Rodwell 1989, 118). Excavations at Raunds, Northamptonshire, showed the changes and variations
that might occur: a single-cell church was established c.875–925, which was later enlarged to two cells,
rebuilt again and reorientated in the eleventh century, and finally fell out of use c.1200, when a church
about 230 m away continued to function (Figure 13.1) (Boddington 1996).
The parish church and churchyard were closely integrated physically and socially with the
community (Morris 1989). The seigneurial associations (i.e. feudal relationship with a lord) of
early churches were sometimes retained into the later Middle Ages, with churches situated adjacent
to later medieval manor houses, moated sites or castles. Churches were often associated with
villages, in cases of planned villages placed close to a green or at the head of a street, forming the
nucleus of the settlement. Where villages evolved from the coalescence of a number of settlements,