Archaeological Recording at All Saints Church, Crondall, 1997
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Proc. Hampshire Field Club Archaeol. Soc. 55, 2000, 1-9 (Hampshire Studies 2000) ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDING AT ALL SAINTS CHURCH, CRONDALL, 1997 By DAVID and AUDREY GRAHAM ABSTRACT are generally considered to date to c AD 1170. The original 12th-century central tower was re In 1997 an oil supply pipeline was cut through the grave placed in 1659 by the present brick-built structure, yard and a new heating system inserted in All Saints which stands on the north side of the eastern end Church, CrondaU. The work was subject to an archaeologof the chancel. ical watching brief which showed that the graveyard had All Saints is the mother church of the Hundred been extended over 17th-century buildings and produced of Crondall, which was held by King Alfred in the evidence for one, and possibly two, earlier phases of the late 9th century, but by the Prior and Convent of church and for the reuse of Roman tile in the 12th-century St Swithun's throughout the medieval period. The fabric. Domesday Book records the existence of a church, worth 20s, at Crondall; presumably a pre cursor to the existing building, and which the INTRODUCTION church guide claims, on unstated grounds, was built of timber. All Saints Church, Crondall, Hampshire (SU 796 485) is located on the south-west corner of Crondall village and, being sited on rising ground, THE CHURCHYARD (Fig. 1) is clearly visible from a wide area of the surround ing countryside. The base geology is Upper As already mentioned, the first phase of works in Chalk, but the church itself is built, at least in part, volved digging a pipeline trench from the main on an overlying pocket of Clay-with-flints. entrance of the churchyard to the west side of the In the spring of 1997, work commenced on the tower, a distance of some 91 m. The trench ini installation of a new heating system. This in tially followed the line of the existing brick volved excavating a narrow pipeline service pathway, but deviated from this just over trench from the main entrance of the churchyard one-third of the way along its length. It then to the church itself and subsequendy cutting a fur crossed the grass of the original graveyard to skirt ther system of trenches within the building, to the north-west comer of the tower and to enter the connect the new radiator system. building under the door on the west side of the The archaeological watching brief was carried tower. The trench itself was approximately 48 cm out at the request of the Diocesan Archaeologist, wide and 60 cm deep and was only left open for a Dr David Bird, and this report covers the results short period of time. of observations made during a number of visits Along the entire length of the trench, the sec over a period of several weeks. tion showed that the top 60 cm of soil had been extensively disturbed and that virtually no stratig raphy remained intact. The only exception to this Background being the occasional thin layer of ash, mainly oc The existing church is large and consists of a curring near the surface between points C and D. two-bay chancel and four-bay aisled nave, which Otherwise, fragments of brick, tile, bone and rela- HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY * J* V. 1 ~ \ I * *• I t-K • ;-' " Crondall•/•--' L HAMPSHIRE r \\ ; ^-» i /i* / 1 \ 1 1 1 ~^? •K^ N A _A B. \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ J/ \ L \ "I ''•- \ \ ' / /rGraveyar dA ^.. •- // > / extension // /-D \ ' , •" » / I Graveyard \ V \ \ extension \ \ V E~Z //^L • • • *^ imL -L^iT \ \ - \ || Original J*-"*"'"""^ V \ II graveyard \ \ \ \V \ \ \ \\ \\ \\ \\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ 0 50m V Fig. 1 Crondall Church: location plan. A-E indicates the line of the pipeline trench GRAHAM: ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDING AT ALL SAINTS CHURCH, CRONDALL, 1997 3 V iA m r\ I m ,_..- Fig. 2 Crondall Church from the north west tively modern pottery occurred scattered ran globular wine botdes, which presumably repre domly through the level. sents rubbish from some activity carried out in or Below this upper level, only a few intact fea around the church. tures were noted, the first of which lay between B At point E, where the trench passed close to the and C and consisted of a rammed chalk surface tower, the base of the brickwork was exposed and (floor) which was exposed at the bottom of the resting on footings consisting of large irregular trench at a depth of 60 cm. The surface produced clunch and sandstone blocks. No other features bone, ash and one body sherd of 17th-century were visible in this area. green-glazed pottery. The chalk layer seems likely A metal detector survey was carried out on the to have been connected with the buildings that are spoil from the trench and produced a number of shown on the Tithe Map (Fig. 3) and which were items including a medieval thimble (Fig. 7), a mus demolished in 1879, to make way for the northern ket ball, clippings of roofing lead, culminating extension to the graveyard. Since no walls were with a number of modern low-denomination present, the surface may well represent the re coins. mains of a yard lying to the rear of one of the original properties. Nearer to the church, in the original graveyard THE CHURCH (Fig. 4) and between points D and E, the bottom of the trench exposed a number of grave cuts. These While it was not possible to examine the installa must have been of some antiquity since the cuts tion works for the boiler inside the tower, the did not continue into the section, which again in remaining works in the nave were, with one ex dicated that the upper 60 cm of soil had been ception, monitored closely. These works extensively disturbed. It was, however, noticeable consisted of cutting a number of trenches approxi that this section of the pipeline trench also pro mately 50-60 cm wide and 60 cm deep, through duced numbers of oyster shells and sherds of the concrete floor, which had been laid in 1957. 4 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY Fig. 3 Extract from the Tithe Map of 1846 showing buildings demolished in 1879 to make way for the northern extension to the graveyard The first trench to be recorded, was dug paral in the section, that the pad had been capped by a lel to the north wall of the nave and within 16 cm layer of orange coloured tiles. These, given their of the base of one of the Norman columns (Fig. 4, size, colour, texture and position are almost cer F-G). This showed that the base of the column it tainly Roman in date and were probably collected self, while surrounded by modern concrete, from the site of a nearby villa - perhaps that at actually rested on a pad of chinch boulders. This Barley Pound - for reuse in the church in the 12th pad extended slighdy to either side of the column. century. On the south side, however, the pad extended fur Between points G and H, the section showed ther, but appeared to end just beyond the no visible features, consisting of the modern con southern edge of the pipeline trench. The blocks crete floor, underlain by a layer of brick hardcore, were not mortared in any way, but appeared to in turn underlain by a layer of disturbed sandy have been rammed together into a footing trench, soil containing fragments of bone and tile. Just to the edges of which had been lost through later dis the west of point G, a small test hole was dug and turbance. It is, therefore highly unlikely that this clean natural clay was found at a depth of 1.01 m feature represents anything more than a footing from the floor surface. Soil from the test hole pro for the column. It was, however, interesting to see duced a 19th-century button from a depth of 70 GRAHAM: ARCHAEOLOGICAL RECORDING AT ALL SAINTS CHURCH, CRONDALL, 1997 5 t/5 V < •a s J3 o o bo 6 HAMPSHIRE FIELD CLUB AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY cm, which seems to indicate major disturbance to this time intact, vault, which was not seen by the this whole soil layer, at some stage in that cen authors. Accordingly, the pipeline was diverted tury - perhaps during the restoration works of westwards down the nave to avoid this structure. 1846 or 1871. Without doubt, the most significant archaeolog At point H, the contractors cut a hole through ical feature was encountered in section L-M, the footings of the Norman wall which consisted where a very substantial mortared flint wall foot of flint nodules bedded irregularly in clay. The ing was found running beneath and along the line footings were checked to a depth of 70 cm below of the Norman arcading (Figs 5 & 6). This wall modern floor level, but continued on down to an footing was approximately 1.4m wide and, on unknown depth. probing below the base from each side, was found Between points J and K, the same basic stratig to continue down to a depth of about 93cm below raphy as between G and H continued unchanged. the modem floor level. Either side of the wall However, a very small test hole just to the south were the slight remains of what may have been of point J, indicated that what had originally ap the original construction trenches (labelled DC, peared to be a layer of natural clay, encountered CCF and CWF), which at the lowest level con at a depth of 60 cm, was in fact only 12 cm thick.