Durham E-Theses Ancillary space in Anglo-Saxon churches Wickham-Crowley, Kelley Marie How to cite: Wickham-Crowley, Kelley Marie (1992) Ancillary space in Anglo-Saxon churches, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5812/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM ANCILLARY SPACE IN ANGLO-SAXON CHURCHES A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ARCHAEOLOGY BY KELLEY MARIE WICKHAM-CROWLEY 1992 2 DEC m Kelley Marie wlckham-Crowlay Anclllaxy__Snace in Ang^Lo-Saxon Churches M. A .*Yi Arcftaeoiogy.o; 1992 - This thesis examines documentary, architectural and archaeological evidence for ancillary space and its range of possible uses. Ancillary space (additions to the basic church form of nave and chancel) would be added based on liturgical or secular need and available resources. Three areas of additions are classified by form and correlated with possible uses. An appendix after each chapter gives detailed descriptions and speculations on specific churches. Notably, all three groups seem to have both autonomous and integrated functions, but autonomous functions predominate. Chapter one deals with porticus, aisles and transepts. Uses include burial chambers, chapels, meditation chambers, libraries, lodgings, and places of sanctuary and storage. These forms are those most likely to be restricted to clerical use or shared by clergy and laity. Chapter two examines the development of the west end and its use for burials and chapels again, penitents, catechumens, baptism rites, and liturgical elaboration centering on increasing attention to relics. The acquisition of relics emerges as the single most important factor in the development of the west end. Chapter three deals with the tower, a singularly symbolic form in Christianity that invokes, among others, the images of the Last Supper and the heavenly Jerusalem. The range of uses makes it the addition most likely to have combined secular and religious functions. TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 10 GENERAL INTRODUCTION 11 Methods and Objectives Influences on Thought and Architecture The Architectural and Archaeological Remains of the Period Notes on Format and Abbreviations PHOTOGRAPHS 25 Chapter 1. PORTICUS, AISLES AND TRANSEPTS 47 I. Archaeological Evidence and Classification North Porticus South Porticus North and South Porticus Aisles and Lateral Porticus Transepts and Porticus off Crossing II. Textual Evidence Burial and Chapels Separation of the Sexes Porticus for Meditation and as Libraries Porticus as Lodgings Porticus and Sanctuary Liturgical Use: Storage and Security 3 APPENDIX A 100 2. THE WEST END 122 I. Archaeological Evidence and Classification West Annexes Two-Storey West Porches West Chambers of Width Equal to Their Naves Porches Raised to Towers Narthexes Galleries Proposed Placement of Galleries II. Textual Evidence Western Burials Western Chapels Penitents and the West End Catechumens and Baptism The West End and Church Ritual Galleries APPENDIX B 159 3. TOWERS 176 I. Classification Churches with West Towers Churches with Central or Axial Towers Round Towers Problematic Towers II. Textual Evidence 1. Parallels and Symbolism 2. Uses of Anglo-Saxon Towers Storage and Treasuries Legal Proceedings, Secular and Religious Instruction Dungeons and Defense Towers as Vantage Points Belfries Church Feasts and Fairs Towers for the Display of Relics Chapels in Towers Towers as Naves Miscellaneous Liturgical Uses Conclusions APPENDIX C 228 BIBLIOGRAPHY 286 5 LIST OF PHOTOGRAPHS PLATE PAGE 1. Barnack tower 25 tower from southwest west face animal head west face upper opening 2. Barnack tower 26 first stage, south opening second stage, south 3. Barnack tower 27 second stage, west second stage, north 4. Barnack 28 Victorian sketch, south sculpture interior view of west end 5. Barnack 29 interior, west niche/seat interior, west aumbries 6. Brigstock 30 west tower and turret from southwest upper south face of tower 7. Brigstock south aisle 31 Corbridge west doorways 8. Brixworth 32 lower tower and turret on south exterior, wall of nave on south PHOTOGRAPHS, CONTINUED PLATE PAGE 9. Brixworth 33 external vestiges of narthex, north lower tower and turret on north 10. Brixworth 34 exterior, northeast nave wall and door exterior, north nave wall offset 11. Brixworth 35 interior, view from west upper chamber interior, west chamber column 12. Brixworth 36 interior, west chamber window details interior, west chamber, aumbry? 13. Bywell 37 St. Peter, north porticus indications St. Andrew, west tower from south St. Andrew, upper south doorway in tower 14. Earl's Barton, tower from southwest 38 Kirk Hammerton, south porticus doorway 15. Victoria and Albert ivory box/pyx 39 Escomb, north porticus doorway 16. Jarrow 40 tower from north north view of nave wall and lower tower PHOTOGRAPHS, CONTINUED PLATE PAGE 17. Jarrow 41 north nave wall exterior, north nave doorway 18. Jarrow 42 tower from south south tower window 19. Jarrow 43 exterior, south upper doorway exterior, south lower doorways 20. Jarrow, interior, south upper doorway 44 from east from west Monkwearmouth, tower from west 21. Staindrop, upper west doorway in nave 45 Hough-on-the-Hill, south entrance, west tower No material contained in this thesis has previously been submitted for a degree in this or any other university, nor does it contain any results from joint research. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and information derived from it must be acknowledged. 10 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My thanks to Professor Robert T. Farrell of Cornell, for his generous encouragement and support, and for the initial suggestion of study in England and application to the Marshall Commission. I thank also the Marshall Aid Commemoration Commission for choosing me as a Marshall scholar in 1981 and for supporting me in Durham for the next two years. Special thanks to Professor Rosemary Cramp for her rigorous expertise, a trip around southern churches, and a letter of access to the library of the Society of Antiquaries in London, in addition to her academic supervision while I worked in Durham. Thanks, too, to my teachers while at Durham, among them especially Mr. Christopher Morris and Mr. James Lang. My appreciation to the staff of the Society of Antiquaries library for their help in my visit during July, 1983. Mr. Tom Middlemass kindly gave me permission to use two of his photographs, and thanks to his skill and meticulous work, the plates in this thesis are far more professional than I could have managed on my own. My deepest gratitude remains for my husband Tim. He accompanied me to England with no promise of employment or access to collections in his own academic specialty. He has continued to help and support me during the years of completing this research amidst my Ph.D. work at Cornell and several necessary but less than satisfying jobs. For his faith and generosity, I dedicate this thesis to him. 11 GENERAL INTRODUCTION METHODS AND OBJECTIVES The special focus of this thesis is ancillary space in Anglo- Saxon churches, that is, rooms and levels added to the nave and chancel presumably to answer a particular need in a given church. The most basic form of a church requires space only for the clergy (chancel) and for the laity (the nave). Any other space would be added based on liturgical or secular need and available resources in a given area or time. I have examined both documentary and archaeological information in the hope that integrating the two would explain more about the remains than their physical examination allows. By the term documentary, I mean to include not simply the histories of individual churches and sites, something usually incorporated into archaeological investigation, but also sources which provide more of the Anglo-Saxon and Christian cultural outlooks. Among these I number the laws, church canons and pastoral letters, saints' lives, and synod records. While such sources may arguably be questioned at times as too general or irrelevant to architecture, by placing the sources next to isolated portions of a church (porticus, towers, narthex) I attempted to correlate possible uses with surviving evidence. The results are not always to argue that such places in a particular building were used as described, but to make concrete the possible range of uses in the churches for which we have remains, based on contemporary sources and their implications. 12 To date, the development of the form of Anglo-Saxon churches, their evolution, remains more a series of inferences from the published scholarly works than a topic examined in detail. While { Continental scholars such as Heitz ^attempt to reconstruct the relationship between liturgy and architecture, much of the effort in the study of Anglo-Saxon churches as a whole has been centered on determining which churches of those remaining actually belong to the period and what their chronology might be. Some scholars (e.g. Gem 1975; Taylor 1975b) have tried to look at specific periods of building, relating the circumstances of an historical era to the remnants and facts we have.