A quick trip to the Stanleys

A quick trip to the Stanleys -Leonard and King's Stanley- to check for cross-slabs and to shelter from a cold and sleety shower. I couldn't spot any cross-slabs at St George King's Stanley; but there are some nice early 19th century signed copper plaques on many of the flat gravestones in the churchyard.

St Swithun's, Leonard Stanley was formerly part of an Augustinian priory founded in c.1131. The church contains some wonderful Norman architecture and sculptural details, with crocodile-like beast headstops and ornate carved capitals showing Mary Magdalene wiping Christ's feet, and the Nativity, and an aumbry with a reset carved Norman tympanum of rather oddly depicted Adam and Eve. There is much to see and to work out in the sequence of additions and alterations -a church to spend some time in before resorting to the 'answer book' and checking against the excellent guide.

Norman tympanum, apparently of Adam and Eve...

There are two medieval memorial recesses in the south wall, and two charming early 17th century ledgers in the north transept, but no medieval cross-slabs visible inside the  church. Outside in the churchyard is a cross-slab however -a coffin lid decorated with an inscribed cross atop a plain shaft, probably 13th century in date. The cross-slab is quite weathered, however the sleet had picked out the trefoil terminal on one arm of the cross, which is set within a ring or nimbus.  
 

Cross-slab -a 13th century coffin lid

Tucked around the corner, propped against a boundary wall, is the head end of a medieval stone coffin, with a rounded recess for the deceased's head. The coffin would have been topped by a cross-slab -a carved coffin lid similar to the one surviving on site. 

Stone coffin with recess for head, 30cm scale

'Engineer Captain' H H Wilmore recorded twenty eight Gloucestershire stone coffins in 1939 (Transactions of Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society Vol 61), but he doesn't mention this one. The coffin conforms to Wilmore's 'Type C' -'tapered coffins with or without a head recess' which is the most common type of stone coffin recorded, all but one having a recess for the head.

Each coffin lid would have fitted on top of a stone coffin, these two don't match, which means that we are missing another coffin and lid....

'Pale death knocks...'

A visit to Gloucester Cathedral to finish recording the wonderful Lancault font gave a spare hour to admire the architecture and have a quick look for cross-slabs that we can record....once we have finished the east of the county.

Holy Trinity Minchinhampton

A quick trip just down the road to Holy Trinity, Minchinhampton to record three cross-slabs.

Two late 12th to early 13th century tapered cross-slabs are set up in the nave and are fixed to the south wall. The upper slab is in two parts but cemented together. The bottom half is carved from different stone to the upper, and is probably Victorian. The cross-head is quite geometric and angular: an incised cross paté with ring in front, atop a shaft with an incised six-petalled flower halfway down. The base is carved with a simple two-stepped calvary with a cross inset.

Two small brass plaques are fixed to the front:

"This ancient grave stone formed part of the foundation of the old church at Minchinhampton on the removal of which in 1842 when the present edifice was erected it was found and presented to Mr John Chalk by the contractor for the new work.

In the reign of Henry the third when Minchinhampton church was taken down and rebuilt it is presumed this stone was taken from the then churchyard and used as building material"

Henry III ruled from 1207 to 1272, it will be interesting to check what 13th century fabric was taken down during the 1842 Thomas Foster renovation, the cross-slabs are certainly old enough to have been reused at this time.

Only the upper half survives of the lower slab, however the whole of the cross-head is present, despite some old damage on the right hand side. The cross-head is an incised expanded arm cross with a ring, and four pellets set within the internal panels.

A further cross-slab is lying on the path outside the east wall of the chancel; it is broken into two pieces, but seems safe enough for now. It had been cemented back together but broke, presumably when it was moved to its current position. The stone is a dark grey limestone and it is quite hard to make out the design, but it is actually a very nice bracelet cross with a cross-patée halfway down the shaft, the base ending in a rounded trefoil. It is similar to a cross-slab at St Kenelm Sapperton and is probably the same date - late 12th or early 13th century.

Cross-slab cross head style guide

One of the wonderful things about cross-slabs is the sheer variety of types of cross that adorn these stone slabs. It can however be more than a bit confusing as there are a huge range of individual designs, based on a number of simple forms, all with a bewildering set of names. 

To help in the recording of these slabs I've redrawn Peter Ryder's cross-head design figure from his 'The Medieval Cross Slab Grave Cover in County Durham', a fantastic book which is available from the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Durham and Northumberland. This figure gives a good introduction to the basic forms of cross, as well as showing how we describe the different aspects of each design through a combination of terms.

 

 If anyone would like a copy of the crib, then please email and I'll send a pdf through.

Burial vault found beneath ledger stone in Gloucester cathedral

Archaeologists have discovered a previously unknown family vault in the north transept of Gloucester Cathedral. The vault contains well preserved coffins belonging to the Hyett family dating from the 17th and 18th century. Burial vaults are not unexpected finds within our churches and cathedrals, however the undisturbed condition of this vault is perhaps surprising. The vault was found when building work -part of the Project Pilgrim refurbishment of the cathedral- meant a ledger stone set into the transept floor had to be moved, and a void under the slab allowed access into the vault.

No cross-slabs, but a very fine font....

No cross-slabs, but a trip to St Lawrence Sandhurst was still well worthwhile. The Romanesque lead font is now recorded, one of a set of six cast from the same mould to be found in Gloucestershire and dating from c1130-1140.

Read more at http://urban-archaeology.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/six-romanesque-lead-fonts-from.html

Getting ready....

Recent work has concentrated on gathering existing 'baseline' data before the fieldwork really starts in earnest. The Gloucester Diocese and A Church Near You have both kindly provided information on existing Church of England churches, this will form the core of a database of sites to visit -there are over 400 churches in Gloucestershire, although some are relatively modern, whilst others are redundant and not on these lists. Luckily we are starting with just the eastern part of the county, as covered in the 'Cotswolds' volume of the Buildings of England Series which has about half that number of churches. To this list will be added museums, archive stores and former monastic houses, all of which will need to be checked and potentially visited.