Gloucester Cathedral and Precinct
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GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL AND PRECINCT AN ARCHAEOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT by Carolyn Heighway BA FSA MIFA with contributions by Michael Hare and Arthur Price 3rd edition: 2003 Copy no .... of 10 copies i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks are due to English Heritage and to the Friends of Gloucester Cathedral who jointly funded this assessment. Thanks are also due to all those who read and commented on the draft produced in February 1999, including the Dean and Canons of the Cathedral, Basil Comely, Michael Hare and Richard Gem. David Jefferson read and commented on the section on building stone by Arthur Price. I have received help from the former Cathedral Archivist, Suzanne Eward, the present Librarian, Lowinger Maddison, the staff of the Gloucester City Library local history room, the staff of Gloucestershire Record Office, Richard Sermon and other staff at Gloucester Museum Excavation Unit, also Gloucester City Planning and Technical Services Department who provided data for spot heights. Map 8 was drawn by Richard Bryant who also designed the cover. Finally I wish to acknowledge my debt to Canon David Welander, whose book, The History Art and Architecture of Gloucester Cathedral, provides so much of the information incorporated into this report. For the third edition, produced for incorporation in the Cathedral’s Conservation Plan, it was possible to incorporate in the database (section XIII) information from the invaluable rapid buildings survey produced by Richard Morriss (Morriss 2001). Otherwise the database has not been updated since the second edition, except for the correction of a few errors. I am also grateful to Michael Hare for further commenting on the first edition. © Carolyn Heighway Cover illustration: The west front of Gloucester Cathedral, by James Ross, 1806 Carolyn Heighway is a Director of Past Historic and Archaeological Consultant to Gloucester Cathedral Past Historic 6 Church Street King’s Stanley GL10 3HW ii iii CONTENTS I INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................1 II HISTORY AND TOPOGRAPHY ...............................................................................7 III PAST ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND ARCHITECTURAL STUDY .........................10 IV THE ARCHAEOLOGY OF THE PRECINCT........................................................13 1: ROMAN ................................................................................................................13 2: ANGLO-SAXON ..................................................................................................13 3: MEDIEVAL ...........................................................................................................17 4: POST-MEDIEVAL ................................................................................................23 V THE DOCUMENTS .................................................................................................27 1: MEDIEVAL SOURCES by M J Hare ...................................................................27 2: POST-MEDIEVAL SOURCES .............................................................................27 VI THE BUILDINGS ...................................................................................................32 1: THE CHURCH ......................................................................................................32 2: THE CLAUSTRAL BUILDINGS .........................................................................39 3: THE OLD ABBOT’S LODGING .........................................................................42 4: BURIALS MONUMENTS AND LEDGERS .......................................................43 5: TIMBER ROOFS ..................................................................................................44 6: TILE FLOORS ......................................................................................................45 7: WALL PAINTINGS ...............................................................................................45 8: PAINTED GLASS .................................................................................................45 VII THE BUILDING STONE by A J Price ..................................................................46 VIII RESEARCH AND FURTHER WORK ................................................................51 IX ARCHAEOLOGICAL POTENTIAL .....................................................................53 1 BURIED ARCHAEOLOGY ..................................................................................53 2 HISTORIC BUILDINGS........................................................................................54 X RECOMMENDATIONS ..........................................................................................55 XI SUMMARY .............................................................................................................58 XII ABBREVIATIONS AND BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................59 XIII THE DATA ............................................................................................................66 FIGURES 1 Limits of various legislative controls and study area ...................................................4 2 Listed buildings and scheduled monuments, with database record numbers ..............5 3 Plot of all record numbers, except listed buildings .....................................................6 4 Contours in metres above OD of the cathedral precinct ..............................................8 5 Roman finds and monuments .....................................................................................15 6 Anglo-Saxon finds and monuments .........................................................................15v 7 The possible sites of the Anglo-Saxon minster ..........................................................17 8 Medieval buildings .....................................................................................................18 9 Maps of the post-medieval precinct ....................................................................... 24-5 10 Zoning of archaeological sensitivity ........................................................................56 iv I INTRODUCTION The need for an archaeological assessment The archaeology of a cathedral is defined as ‘the complete historical study of the fabric and material remains of a church, above and below ground; as well as its site, contents and historic setting, and...the community it has served.’1 Recent legislation has made archaeology a factor in the planning process, and the Care of Cathedrals Measure and accompanying legislation in the ecclesiastical field has meant that Cathedrals are no longer exempted from controls on development, repair and conservation.2 It is therefore important for the Dean and Chapter as the governing body of the cathedral to have access to a collection of information which can be used as a basis both for conservation practice and for formulating management strategies. CFCE guidelines emphasise the importance to the Administrative Body of commissioning an Overall Assessment.3 In the past when an archaeological assessment was required for a particular area of the Cathedral, it was created ab initio using a variety of sources including unpublished information. This Assessment creates a single consultation source, which should simplify future work of this kind. An Overall Assessment facilitates the planning of future research on the cathedral by making available to intending researchers and to those who deal with the general public such as the Cathedral Guides, an up-to-date statement of the current state of knowledge. An Overall Assessment creates research frameworks which can be born in mind by all those working on the cathedral. The existence of research frameworks should be part of the management of any archaeological and historical resource. The importance of informed management has given rise to the initiation by English Heritage of projects to create Urban Archaeological Databases for a number of major historic towns in Great Britain. The Gloucester Urban Archaeological Database for Gloucester (GUAD)4 is currently in progress (1998). Parallel work on the Gloucester Cathedral Assessment will ensure that correct information is provided for GUAD, and that relevant information from GUAD is included in the Cathedral’s Overall Assessment. Study area and scope of the study (Fig 1) The area covered by this Assessment is most of the Cathedral Precinct as historically defined: that is the area within the precinct walls. It includes the King’s School, once the Bishop’s Palace. This part of the precinct does not come under the jurisdiction of the FAC and CFCE; nevertheless it is historically part of the precinct and includes the site of the 14th-century abbot’s lodging. The study area includes the modern Bishop’s Palace in Pitt Street, also outside the FAC and CFCE jurisdiction. The study area excludes most of the properties on the east boundary along St John’s Lane. In medieval times this was part of the precinct but has long since passed into other ownership; however a few archaeological observations have been included in St John’s Lane which have relevance to the nature of the abbey precinct wall. The time period covered is from the Roman period to c. 1900. The post-medieval period after c. 1700 could be much more extensively dealt with, but the sheer weight of documentary material has precluded this. The GUAD excludes domestic architecture after 1701, unless listed; in the