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Historical Background to the Sculpture _jl I I_ CHAPTER I HISTORICAL BACKGROUND TO THE SCULPTURE INTRODUCTION Devon by Crediton - later still Exeter. The division between east and west of Selwood however remained important in the ninth and tenth centuries, so theAnglo­ The areac overed bythis volume completes the survey of the kingdom of Wessex: through its consideration of the Saxon Chronicle for AD 893 describes how the ealdorrnen pre-1974 historic cOWities Devon, Dorset, Somerset andking's thegnsassembled an army against the Danish of force,including men'from every borough [burh] east of (togetherwith Bristol, a county then aswell as a city), and W!ltshire (Figs.1-3, 25--8 ), which together withBerkshire the Parrett, and both west and east of Selwood' and Hampshire(included in Volume South-EastEngland (Whitelock 1979, 203). The division was further N, recognisedin the reorganisation of the shires in the tenth - Tw eddle, Biddle and Kjtz�lbye-Biddle 1995), up make century when theealdormen weredivided into Western theheartland kingdom. Thewes ternpart ofSomerset of that Wessex (Dorset,Somerset and Devon) and Eastern and Devon (the old Britishterritory of the Dumnonil) may havebeen on theperipher y of the kingdom untilthe ninth Wessex (Hampshire, Berkshire and Wiltshire) (Yorke century, sinceBritish rulers, based in theland of the 1995, 100, fig.24). Comovii Thesedivisions are fitfully reflectedin thesculptures of (what is now Cornwall), maintained some independence and the ability to harass the WestSaxon � until finally this volume, but the new bishoprics and the reformed monasteries of the tenthand eleventh centuriesseem to defeated by King Ecgberht in AD 838. Cornw.ill is the have shared a common Christianculture which involved subject of a latervolume inthis series. The area west of Selwood (Fig.16), which constitutes the whole of Wessex and the old kingdom of Kent. the major part of the region covered by this volume, is Moreover, particularly in the eleventh century,the close one where there seems to have been considerableBritish political ties ofWessex and Normandy encouraged the survival into the post-Roman period, not only of adoption of new styles of art and architecture, which are population but of language and custom, and this is perhaps not as clearly demonstrated in the surviving reflected in the sculptures of the region, as is also the monuments as they mightbe ifthe legacy were not so cultural shading east and west, so that Wiltshire patchy and unrepresentative of major sites (p.27). monuments have much in common with Hampshire and the Thames Valley in the later period, and some THE ROMANO-BRITISH HERITAGE Devon monumentshave common links with Cornwall. Nevertheless the picture is not clear cut: there is good Thereis some relevance in brieflyconsidering the centres evidence fo r the survival of the British language and of Roman power, both in their relationship to one monument types as late as the seventh/eighth century at another and as foci of later settlement. The major Wareham in Dorset, and thereare exam ples in Devon of legionary fort in Devon was at Exeter, dvitas capital of monuments withanimal ornament and withplant-scrolls Dumnonia, and this has been defined also as a town which reflect fashions fo und right across the region in (Cunliffe 1993, fig. 7.1), as have Bath, llchester, and the eighth to tenth centuries (Figs.19and 21). Dorchester, which were centres in the country of the The coherence of the area west of Selwood (Dorset, Durotriges. Despite the decline of these Roman towns Somerset and Devon) was recognised in AD 705 when, theyremained as focal centresin thepost-Roman period, after the division of the huge southern diocese based on linked by major road networks. llchester and Dorchester Winchester, it became the Diocese of Sherborne with have provided evidence of late Roman Christianity and Aldhelm as its first bishop. In 909 new bishoprics were seem to have had importantpre-Conquest churches,but created, with Wiltshire and Berkshire served by withlittle surviving material remains in the post-Roman Ramsbury, Somerset by Wells, Dorset by Sherborne,and period, whilst Bath and Exeter (see below) were 1 11 11- _jl I I_ 2 CHAPTERI important monastic and administrative centres in the the otherhand, in Wiltshire,Amesbury, Mahn esbury and Anglo-Saxon periodand both have produced sculptures. Old Sarum are possible developmentsfrom forts to major The extensively excavated villa at Holcombe in Devon estatecentres (Haslam 1984b).The political configuration lies on the western borders of Romano-British villa of the south-west in the fifth to mid-sixth centuries settlement (Branigan 1976, 136--41; Costen 1992a, 32- remainsdiffi cult to decipher,but it is significantthat many 42), but east of thisthe region waswell settled with villas parish boundaries of the later period do seem to enshrine which aredistributed on good agriculturalland, avoiding the boundaries of earlier estates (see Finberg 1964a or the most hilly and marshy regions, except on the top of Pearce 1982b). Nevertheless, as Pearce says, 'It is, and no the Mendips where settlement is linked to the doubt always will be, impossible to actually prove that exploitation of lead. .& has been frequendy pointed out, any given late-Roman landed estate survived more or the distribution of settlements of the Roman and sub­ less intact to become an early -English minster's Roman period is much the same as today.Notable villas endowments or a thegn's bookland ... Nevertheless the in Somerset include Banwell, Chew Stoke, Congresbury, trend of anincreasing body of evidence, and its cumulative Keynsham, and Langridge, all parishes in which Anglo­ effect point in this direction' (Pearce 1982b, 133). Saxon sculpture has been found, but how much The evidence for Christianity in this region in the continuity there was in the post-Roman British Roman and sub-Roman period (Fig. 4) is not strong in controlled areas is uncertain. relation to public buildings, although it has been The toponymy of the region in some measure reflects postulated that the late Roman temples at Lamyatt its Roman past . .& well as Devon, which ultimately Beacon and Brean Down, Somerset, could have been derives from the name of the British kingdom of succeeded by Christian churches (Leech andLeach 1982, Dumnonia, the DornsaeteofDorset derive theirname from fig;. 8.18, 8.19). The small rectangular building; with a cornbination of the Anglo-Saxon name for settlers and their associated east-west burials could however be the first element of the Romano-British name for mausolea.Neverthelessthere does seem to be increasing Dorchester, Durnovaria, whilst Somerset seemsto derive evidence for the transition from hilltop temples to its first element from the royal vill of Somerton, but this Christian foci in the way that is more clearly evidenced waswithin the bounds of the Roman town and probable just outside the area at Uley in Gloucestershire civitascapital ofllchester.It is therefore possible that the (Woodward and Leach 1993; Yorke 1995, 156--7) and three western shires are based on ancient sub-divisions, also Nettleton in Wiltshire (Rahtz and Watts 1979, 189- formed from territories dependent upon the threecivitas 90). Rahtz's excavation at Glastonbury Tor also capitals of Exeter, Dorchester and llchester. Wiltshire, demonstrated that the hilltop was used, possibly by a where there is greater evidence for Anglo-Saxon Christianreligious community,in the late fifth!early sixth settlement, took its shire name from the settlement of centuries (Rahtz 1970). There is little evidence for how Wilton, which was not an administrative centre in the such sites fitted into an organised Christian structure Roman period, but it was a burgal centre in the later however and also no documentation for Christian Anglo-Saxon period and the site of a reformednunnery bishops; moreover, although villas such as Frampton, (see Fig;. 6 and 7). Hinton St Mary, and Fifehead Neville have been The redistributionof land which must have takenplace suggested as providing evidence for Christian after the decline of Roman power and the economic communities (Thomas 1981, 104-6), there seems to be changes which that brought about, probably did result no continuity into later periods (see Frend 2003). in estates which can be roughly related to the territories The most positive evidence for the acceptance of of earlier villas, but re-orientatedtowards new centres,as Christianity, and its transition into the post-Roman Costen has proposed for the Brent estate (1992a, 61-2), period seems to be in burial grounds.Cannington has which in the seventh century was transferred to been mentioned above (and see p. 147), but an important Glastonbury monastery. A similar estate is postulated for Roman cemetery with evidence for Christian burial the region around Cannington, which has a cemetery practice, including mausolea, at Poundbury near that spanned the period from later Roman times to the Dorchester,Dorset, came to an end in thefourth century. seventh/eighth century (Rahtz 1977, 56--9; Rahtz et al. .& Yorke stated, 'There now seems to be evidence to 2000). In Somerset it has been suggested that authority suggest that Christianity could be found at all levels of may havepassed from some Roman centresto reoccupied society in late Roman Wessex and not just among the hillfom such as South Cadbury or Cadbury Congresbury urban and rural elites represented by the Roman villas (Rahtz etal. 1992, 230-47), but these hillforts did not in Dorset and the mausolea of Poundbury' (Yorke 1995, develop into major settlements in the later period. On 152). It is however difficult to make the transition 11 11- _jl I I_ J-llSTORICAL BACKGROUND TO 11-IE SCULPTURE 3 between Roman and Anglo-Saxon organisation. in this region for which such a claim has been made is Settlements at Bath, Camerton and Shepton Mallet are Glastonbury; and the name was certainly known in Irish all on Roman roads, and the cemetery at Shepton Mallet tradition (Thomas 1994, 44-6) as well as English, but indicates a transition from pagan to Christian burial the evidence is debateable (Costen 1992a, 77-8).
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