Thesis Submitted for the Degree of Master of Philosophy

University of Bath MPHIL Spolia Britannica The historical use of salvaged building materials in Britain Heaton, Michael Award date: 2016 Awarding institution: University of Bath Link to publication Alternative formats If you require this document in an alternative format, please contact: [email protected] General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 'Spolia Britannica: The historical use of salvaged building materials in Britain' (Revised) Michael John Heaton A thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering University of Bath Claverton Down BATH BA2 7AY February 2016 COPYRIGHT Attention is drawn to the fact that copyright of this thesis rest with the author. A copy of this thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that they must not copy or use material from it except as permitted by law or with the consent of the author. This thesis may be made available for consultation within the University Library and may be photocopied or lent to other libraries for the purposes of consultation with effect from ……………………(date) Signed on behalf of the Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering ……………………………………………………………………………… i CONTENTS INTRODUCTION The study of salvage in Britain 1 Evidence base 3 Method 4 Thesis format 7 CURRENT UNDERSTANDINGS: INSIGHTS AND LIMITATIONS Overview 8 Architectural history 8 Conservation case studies 13 Cultural and social history 15 Economic history 21 Archaeology 23 Summary 33 CASE STUDIES Selection criteria 35 Smaller buildings 35 A farm 42 Manorial buildings 48 A major church 61 A monastic ruin 71 CONCLUSION Received understandings 82 A new understanding ?: insights and limitations 83 Types of salvage 84 Sample validity 93 Interdisciplinary insights 95 BIBLIOGRAPHY ii ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1. No. 56 Market Place, Warminster, Wiltshire: Main elevation Figure 2. No. 56 Market Place, Warminster, Wiltshire: Internal view of the roof Figure 3. ‘Beekeepers’, Shalbourne, Wiltshire: Main elevation Figure 4. ‘Beekeepers’, Shalbourne, Wiltshire: Sectional drawing showing relationship of salvaged timber frame members to rest of structure Structure Figure 5. Netherhams Farm, Somerset: Donne’s survey of 1779 showing layout of farm buildings, church and Stawell mansion Figure 6. Netherhams Farm, Somerset: Re-used window and door frames in barn elevation Figure 7. Cockington Court, Devon: Main elevation Figure 8. Cockington Court, Devon: Detail of relic tenon socket in re-used beam Figure 9. Whitestaunton Manor, Somerset: Extract from John Dando Sedding’s notebook of 1875 Figure 10. Whitestaunton Manor, Somerset: Base of the main stairs under investigations Figure 11. Whitestaunton Manor, Somerset: Salvaged frieze in the ‘Frieze Room’ Figure 12. Whitestaunton Manor, Somerset: Salvaged ceiling over the dais Window Figure 13. Whitestaunton Manor, Somerset: The eastern range, showing archaeological relationship to rest of the house Figure 14. Whitestaunton Manor, Somerset: External elevation of the eastern range, showing salvaged architectural details Figure 15. Christchurch Priory, Dorset: Drawing of the north elevation Figure 16. Christchurch Priory, Dorset: North end of the pulpitum showing relationship with Crossing piers Figure 17. Christchurch Priory, Dorset: Nave roof structure showing scarfed timbers Figure 18. Christchurch Priory, Dorset: Nave roof structure showing relationship to redundant corbels Figure 19. Christchurch Priory, Dorset: faux door opening in Lady Chapel gable. Figure 20. Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire: Current skyline Figure 21. Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire: Historical views of the main elevation of the Priors’ hall, 1732, 1808 and 1919 Figure 22. Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire: Existing plan Figure 23. Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire: Rear (south) elevation of the tower showing salvaged and faux architectural details Figure 24. Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire: The internal flying buttress Figure 25. Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire: Loose chamfers on the buttress piers of the ‘medieval’ vaulted undercroft Figure 26. Bradenstoke Priory, Wiltshire: Empty notches on the buttress piers proving the reliability of Buckler’s painting iii APPENDICES Appendix 1: Gazetteer of building survey reports by Keystone Historic Building Consultants iv 'Spolia Britannica: The historical use of salvaged building materials in Britain' Heaton. Michael John. Thesis submitted for the degree of Master of Philosophy February 2016 Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering University of Bath ABSTRACT Using case studies from the author's professional work as an archaeological surveyor of historic buildings in southwest England, the thesis examines evidence for the historical use of salvaged materials in British buildings; compares it with accounts of the same in architectural, economic and cultural histories; and argues that the material is more common and of greater archaeological potential and historical significance than the limited anglo-centric literature would suggest. The thesis demonstrates that salvage was culturally endemic throughout England and probably the whole of Britain throughout the later Middle Ages and the early Modern periods and was facilitated by sophisticated markets, distribution networks and possibly customary ‘linear’ exchange; that, in addition to its iconographic and economic value, salvage was an important vector of technological and stylistic diffusion and development; and that salvaged architectural details – or spolia – were employed creatively by Catholic and other minority owners as expressions of cultural affinity and political legitimacy. That creative use reaches its ultimate expression in the 'ruins' of Bradenstoke Priory in Wiltshire , which were re-sculpted using salvaged materials by a succession of Catholic and latterly antiquarian owners during the late 17th , 18th and 19th centuries, before partial demolition – for salvage – by William Randolph Hearst in 1929. v SPOLIA BRITANNICA: THE HISTORICAL USE OF SALVAGED BUILDING MATERIALS IN BRITAIN Michael Heaton. INTRODUCTION The study of salvage in Britain Architectural salvage is an established subject of academic study, but one in which Britain hardly features. The re-use of materials and details – in specific circumstances referred to as spolia1 - recovered from older buildings was widespread in late imperial Rome2 and its early medieval successors3, was instrumental in the development of Renaissance architecture in Italy4 and was of considerable economic value throughout medieval and Ancient Regime France and Italy5, but the extent and manner in which those uses operated in Britain has not been addressed. Whilst several authors6 have referred in passing to the re-use of building materials in Britain, mainly with regard to the Dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century, few7 identify anything other than economic utilitarianism in the practice and fewer still are specific about examples. A rare exception, as a published British example of architectural spolia in the Classical sense of the word – i.e. a decorative detail chosen and re-used specifically for its associational value - is the late 17th century Barbican gate at Plymouth8. Admittedly, Britain is at the outer edge of the Classical and Renaissance worlds and a late recipient of their influences, but the purposeful use of salvaged materials and 1 The term is used variably by different authors: Brenck (1987) and Alchermes (1994), for instance, use it specifically to refer to architectural and epigraphic details of clearly understood associational value; Waters (2015) uses it to refer to all salvaged materials whether visible or not in the host building; whilst Bernard et al (2008) and Greenhalgh (2009) avoid the term altogether. The present author adopts Brenck and Alchermes’ usage, except in the conceit of the thesis title. 2 Alchermes, 1994 3 Brenck, 1987; Greenhalgh, 2009 4 Payne, 1998 5 Bernard, et al, 2008 6 Cf. Airs, 1995; Briggs, 1952; Colvin et al, 1982; Salzmann, 1952 7 Specifically Howard, 1987, p26; Stevenson, 2006. 8 Ibid 1 spolia, per se, has been demonstrated in 17th century Ireland9, physically more distant than Britain from the Classical world and having lacked direct contact with it, and throughout Medieval and Ancien Regime France10. There is no obvious geographical reason, therefore, for its absence from Britain11. Culturally, however, Britain became increasingly distinct from its two nearest neighbours and the rest of the Catholic world after the Reformation, and by the middle of the 18th century was the only industrialised economy in the world and well on the way to becoming the first urbanised one, with all the attendant

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