Monastic Chap2

4 J Patrick Greene 2 Strategies for Future Research and Site Investigation J Patrick Greene The advent of the National Lottery, and the National dramatic social and political change. The Norman Heritage Memorial Fund’s estimated income of £150 Conquest had the greatest impact on monasticism in million a year from its proceeds, provides a challeng- Britain until the Dissolution. Recent work at Canter- ing context in which to consider future research and bury, St Albans and Eynsham has resulted in the investigation strategies for monastic archaeology. discovery of the remains of Saxon buildings on sites New funds could provide excellent opportunities to that were refounded as Norman monasteries. The proceed with research projects that, for lack of massive and extensive nature of masonry foundations resources, have been intriguing to contemplate but at Canterbury and St Albans in particular has shown impossible to implement. The NHMF guidelines the large scale of the pre-Conquest establishments, certainly encompass such possibilities, ‘The fund will but also the thoroughness with which the Norman support research and recording projects which are abbots of the refounded abbeys set about the total related to a heritage asset. They should relate to a replacement of existing buildings, however grand. particular building, site or collections and be aimed There is clearly a potential for many further dis- either at preserving evidence of something under coveries of a similar nature on sites of refounded threat or at gathering information necessary for the monasteries. better care and management of the asset concerned’ (NHMF Lottery Guidelines). Ancient monuments, historic buildings and their contents and settings, The original layout of monasteries landscapes and museum collections are all eligible, and thus most of the research projects that are With few exceptions monasteries existed for several mentioned in this paper could qualify. However, it centuries and underwent modifications as a result must be emphasised that there are also many projects of wealth (expansion), poverty (contraction), civil that do not require large resources of money disorder, warfare and fire (destruction and rebuild- (although they may be demanding in terms of time) ing), changes of liturgical practice, structural failure, and which can continue to be pursued by monastic and the effects of the Dissolution. Detecting the archaeologists, professional and amateur, resulting earliest arrangements can be very difficult without in the steady accretion of knowledge about individual large-scale excavation, as at Norton (Greene 1989a), sites, orders or monastic practices. or where circumstances have conspired to keep the This paper concentrates largely on post-Conquest buildings largely in their original form (as with the topics as aspects of the archaeology of Saxon church at Portchester). It is in the early arrangements, monasteries are discussed elsewhere in this volume. however, that schemes of design are likely to be However, the first topic addresses the transformation found, as has been revealed by careful measurement of Saxon to Norman monasteries. at Norton and Bordesley (Hirst, Walsh and Wright 1983). Subsequent additions and modifications are likely to be more pragmatic in design than the Refounded Saxon monasteries original scheme, in which it may be possible to detect the presence of a ‘master plan’ for the The testimony of the archaeological record is capable individual monastery, or possibly for groups of of being particularly vivid at times of rapid and monasteries of equivalent size and date. Much more Strategies for Future Research and Site Investigation 5 could be learnt about the transmission of ideas of characteristics existed – for example the date of planning, layout and measurement by comparative foundation, the order, the founder, the size, the studies of early monastic plans, particularly those presence of standing remains and earthwork features. that fall into a specific group such as twelfth century It might be possible to detect a common approach to simple cruciform churches. That such may exist even design in the foundation period, but equally revealing in the midst of the grandest monastic remains has would be the ways in which the subsequent history been dramatically demonstrated at Fountains Abbey of the houses diverged or paralleled each other. There (Coppack 1994). would be possibilities of extending such a trans- national study to other countries. Funding through European Union programmes concerned with the The excavation of an early, temporary site Common European Cultural Inheritance could be explored. Many monasteries suffered a false start due to factors as various as poor water supply, flooding, a change of mind by the donor of the land, or of the Recording of standing buildings brethren themselves, or even the famous case of the confusion caused by the bells of Rievaulx Abbey and There is no doubt that monastic remains are suffer- Byland Abbey on their adjacent sites in Ryedale. ing accelerated deterioration as a result of aerial Fifty Augustinian and Cistercian houses moved site pollution, especially particulate emissions from (Robinson 1980; Donkin 1978). It follows that there vehicles and the chemical effects of acid rain. There is the opportunity to select such a site with a known is a need to raise public awareness of this damage, as history and likelihood of good preservation for a well as recording deteriorating remains for posterity. large-scale excavation. The short occupation would Projects such as that carried out by the Lancaster result in simple stratigraphy enabling extensive University Archaeological Unit at Furness Abbey examination to take place, relatively quickly. It provide a model for such studies, but recording can should be possible to reveal three aspects of the early take place at a number of levels including those within stages of a monastery: reach of the amateur archaeologist. The structures of standing, occupied buildings can also provide con- a) Temporary timber buildings for the brethren to siderable information from, for example, the study of live and worship in, as have been discovered at their timber roof structures as at Ely, Lincoln and Fountains, Norton, Sandwell and a few other Canterbury. Much can also be learnt about techniques sites. The opportunity to uncover a complete of construction of masonry buildings from traces such suite of such buildings would amplify greatly as marking-out lines, and the outline of mouldings as the excavated evidence and documentary recently discovered at Guisborough where masons accounts of the early years at Fountains, Meaux had used the flat surface of paving to design the nave and Kirkstall for example. arcade. b) The layout and construction techniques of masonry buildings. If the site chosen had been occupied for, say, two decades, substantial progress is likely to have been made with the Monastic cloisters construction of the church and the layout of the Whilst there is a powerful argument for concen- claustral buildings. Excavation would provide a trating future excavations of monastic sites away valuable picture of a stage in development that from the main claustral buildings, a surprisingly is obscured on sites where subsequent occupa- neglected subject for study is the cloister itself which tion, rebuildings, and burials in the church have would certainly repay detailed examination. There complicated the archaeological record. are several possible avenues of research: c) The short duration of occupation would provide a usefully restricted chronological context for a) The structure of early cloister walk arcades. The artefacts, contributing to studies of material revelation of the complex triple-shafted trefoil culture. headed arcade at Norton, the traceried, glazed cloister at Bordesley, and the recently discovered twin-shafted cloister arcade at Haverfordwest A linked investigation: Britain, France, demonstrate the exciting possibilities that exist. Ireland Whilst it might be imagined that to recover such designs would be impossible, experience has It would be possible to select pairs of sites for shown that fragments of open cloister arcades intensive investigation in France and Britain, and were frequently built into the foundations of their Britain and Ireland where a number of shared fenestrated successors and can be recovered by 6 J Patrick Greene excavation. The quality of stonework, especially water management. Another worthwhile study is the embellishment with foliage and figures in that of precinct boundaries which are capable of West Country style at Norton and Haverford- being traced through standing walls, earthworks, west, demonstrates the high level of investment charters and field names. The features of monastic that monasteries with limited resources were estates, including granges, widen the study still prepared to apply to the cloister. further; the earthworks and structures of a site such b) The cloister garden. Surprisingly little is known as Monknash Grange in South Glamorgan show about the layout and use of cloister gardens – what can be located (Williams 1990); the study of were they grassed, planted with herbs or other the field boundaries at Roystone Grange in Derby- useful plants, or decorative shrubs and trees? shire shows how the landscape of this grange of The use of techniques of garden excavation and Garendon Abbey has evolved (Hodges 1991). A final pollen analysis developed at sites such as Fish- topic offered

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