Saxo-Norman
There were possible traces of the Norman cathedral LUB 39.
Fig 2.24 ny87: Pits cg514 and cg515: LUB 37
Fig 2.25 lc84 area C: plan of trenches 1–6; the line of the Norman cathedral is indicated: LUB 39
30 Cathedral sites LUB 39 Norman cathedral (Fig 2.25)
The line of the north wall cg301 of the Norman cathedral appears to have been traced in Trench 4 as the edge of the cut of a robber trench; however, it was not obvious in either Trenches 3 or 5.
Early Medieval (lc84 Area C)
The foundations of the early medieval arcade and crossing piers were observed LUB 40.
LUB 40 Nave pier foundations (Figs 2.26 and 2.33) The piers of the nave northern arcade were con-structed of local limestone stone and Purbeck marble.
The foundations of five of the piers cg308 in the north part of the nave were viewed during the uncovering of the paving slabs. The foundations included some re-used material, possibly from the Norman nave, including a Norman column base and the remains of a pillar. To the north-west of the 6th pier from the west, in Trench 4, were fragments of Purbeck marble cg302, probably waste material used as make-up under the flagstones.
The foundations of the crossing piers cg309 at the east end of the nave were observed in Trenches 5 and 6. The nave was probably completed by the mid 13th century (Antram and Stocker 1989, 465).
Medieval to Post-Medieval (lc84 Area C)
Graves and make-up under the flagstones LUB 41 were noted.
LUB 41 Makeup and graves under the flagstones In Trench 1 there were patches of mortar cg306. In Trenches 3 and 6 there were areas of mortar rubble cg304 and cg303. In Trenches 1, 5 and 6 there were possible traces of graves. In Trench 1 a possible grave cut was visible cg305; this appeared to be cut and sealed by a slab, possibly a tomb base cg311. In Trench 5 there was an outline of stones cg310, perhaps marking the edge of a grave. In Trench 6 there was a cut cg307, possibly the edge of a grave.
(vii) Excavations on the north-west side of the cathedral, in Dean’s Green, dg83
Saxo-Norman to High Medieval (dg83)
There was evidence for foundations LUB 42 in Trench III; no positive dating evidence was re-covered. To the east of this, also in Trench III, was a different foundation LUB 43, possibly dating to the 13th century and the construction of the Morning Chapel.
LUB 42 Foundations (Figs 2.27 and 2.48)
At the limit of excavation in Trench III were lime-stone rubble foundations in the west part of Trench III. They extended for an unknown distance to the north and west of the trench, and consisted of irregular rubble cg403.
No positive dating evidence was recovered, but cg403 was sealed by the Morning Chapel to the south and the limit of cg403 aligns approximately on the east edge of the surviving 11th-century western block of the cathedral. Perhaps cg403 dated as early as the Norman period.
LUB 43 Foundations (Figs 2.28 and 2.49)
To the east of foundations cg403 (LUB 42) was an area of foundations which consisted of more evenly-sized, regularly-laid blocks cg417 whose northern edge lay within the area excavated. No positive dating evidence was recovered, but the foundations cg417 might relate to the Morning Chapel con-structed around 1240. It would seem that the level-led cg403 (LUB 42) foundations were re-used for this purpose also.
Late Post-Medieval (dg83)
Sealing the foundations LUBs 42 and 43 in Trench III, as well as the limit of excavation in Trench II was rubble LUB 44; it seems possible from the pottery throughout the later sequence, as well as that from the rubble, that this was deposited in the 18th century. Probably of a similar date was rubble LUB 45 at the limit of excavations in Trench 1. Cutting rubble LUB 44 was a charnel pit LUB 46. Over rubble LUB 44 in Trenches II and III were layers LUB 47.
Both LUBs 46 and 47 contained 18th-century pottery.
LUB 44 Rubble
At the limit of excavation in Trench I was rubble, limestone with occasional brick and tile mixed with clay, silt and sand cg401.
LUB 45 Rubble
Rubble cg404, in Trench III, sealed the apparently robbed foundations cg403 (LUB 42), as well as the foundations cg417 (LUB 43) which extended from the Morning Chapel. There was a similar rubble layer cg402 in part of Trench II, at the limit of excavation.
It is difficult to date this LUB, as the small group of pottery (3 post-Roman sherds) includes both residual and possibly intrusive material. Sherds of Roman, medieval, post medieval and early modern material are present. Finds are largely structural, including nails and roofing lead, but include possibly intrusive modern (19th-century) vessel glass.
31 Cathedral sites
LUB 46 Charnel pit (Fig 2.29)
Cutting the rubble cg401 (LUB 44) in Trench I was a large charnel pit cg407, packed with human bones.
Only two vessels of 18th-century date occurred.
LUB 47 Layers
Overlying the rubble layers cg402 (LUB 44) in Trench II was soft dark yellowish clay loam cg409 sealed by a limestone rubble patch cg410 and a patch of decayed limestone fragments cg411. These layers Fig 2.26 lc84 Area C: plan of trenches 1–6 and standing piers: LUB 40
Fig 2.29 dg83: plan of trenches I–III, showing charnel pit cg407: LUB 46
Fig 2.27 dg83: plan of trenches I–III, showing foundations cg403: LUB 42
Fig 2.28 dg83: plan of trenches I–III, showing foundations cg417: LUB 43
32 Cathedral sites produced a sherd of post-medieval pottery and
residual sherds of Saxo-Norman and early medieval date; there was also 18th/19th-century glass.
Sealing cg404 (LUB 44), in Trench III was a rubble and earth layer cg405. Spit cg406 included layers cg404 (LUB 43) and cg405. This layer produced a very small pottery group (16 post-Roman sherds) dominated by 18th-century wares. The finds were largely structural (nails, lead cames and roofing waste) but also present were intrusive modern clay tobacco pipes, ironwork and glass.
Modern (dg83)
Cutting LUBs 44 and 45 were various cut features LUB 48, sealed by a dump with service trenches cutting it LUB 49. Both LUBs 48 and 49 were associated with modern material. All these features appear to represent operations to repair or to provide services to the cathedral.
LUB 48 Cut features
Posthole cg408 cut cg402 (LUB 44) in Trench II; it was very neat and flat bottomed and a piece of lath, probably modern in date, was recovered from it.
East–west trench cg414 (about 0.32m wide) in Trench II, had been cut into the limit of excavation; it contained part of a modern lightning conductor and perhaps was excavated for conductor renewal.
Running parallel to cg414 and very similar was trench cg412 in Trench II, which cut rubble cg411 (LUB 45). Cutting north–south through the limit of excavation was an electric cable trench cg413 in Trench II.
LUB 49 Dumps and service trenches
In Trench II sealing trench cg412, trench cg414, cable trench cg413 and posthole cg408 (all LUB 48) and rubble cg410 (LUB 45), as well as rubble cg405 (LUB 47) in Trench III and charnel pit cg407 (LUB 46) in Trench I were clay loam dumps cg415. Seen to be cutting this were modern service trenches cg416. A range of pottery dating from the late medieval to the modern period was dominated by material of 18th-century date. There was a mid-19th-century clay tobacco pipe from cg415.
Discussion
Roman fortifications
The vertical joint cg228 (LUB 25; Fig 2.32) in lc84, Area B suggested to the excavators that there was at one stage an opening here; such a feature is unlikely to have been present in the original 2nd century wall (M J Jones pers comm), and the excavator suggested that this may have been the south jamb of a postern gate inserted through the wall in the later Roman
Fig 2.30 lc84 Area B: east–west section showing dumps LUB 26, against the Roman wall LUB 25
Fig 2.31 Looking south-west giving a general view of lc84 Area A
Fig 2.32 Looking north-west at the excavation of lc84 Area B
33 Cathedral sites
so it had seemed possible that this was a gate (M J Jones pers comm) rather than a tower. Another interpretation given for this projecting masonry was that it formed part of the early Norman re-fortifi-cation of the city (Stocker, loc. cit.)
The north–south wall LUB 9, cat86, probably represented the east wall of the Upper colonia along the line of the wall (Figs 2.13, 2.38–9). Residual Roman pottery recovered in later layers (LUBs 12, 15 and 18) would have all been brought in as part Fig 2.33 Trench 3 looking south-east, towards the 5th
pier from the west: lc84 Area C
Fig 2.34 Looking south giving a general view of cat86 under excavation
Fig 2.35 Looking south-east at the foundations cg101 of the retrochoir: lc84 Area A, LUB 1
period (Stocker 1985a, 17). It was considered that all but the lowest three courses of the wall cg201 had been refaced at the time of the construction of the projecting structure cg230 (Stocker 1985a, 17). The joint cg228 no longer existed at the uppermost of the three courses where the projected masonry cg230 was bonded in the wall cg201. This projecting masonry was interpreted as an external tower (Stocker 1985a, 17); no such structure is known elsewhere on the Roman circuit, except at gateways,
Fig 2.36 Looking west at the foundations cg103 of the Fleming Chapel: lc84 Area A, LUB 2
34 Cathedral sites of dumps from elsewhere, and so cannot provide
any independent dating for the wall. The projected line of the foundations (Jones, M J 1980, fig 1) lay along the edge of these excavations. The ditch to the east of the wall was not excavated. The wall foundations LUB 9 were damaged after truncation.
The northern part appears to have been cut during the construction of the flying buttress of the Chapter House. The southern end may have been disturbed during insertion of a manhole just south of the buttress.
The pottery dating from the mid 3rd century, recovered from layers (LUB 32) which abutted the wall suggested a Roman context. If so, it might have formed part of a large civic or private structure within the upper colonia. The eastern defences lay less than 25m to the east. A Norman date is just as likely.
Norman Cathedral
The western foundations cg403 (LUB 42) found at dg83 pre-dated the construction of the Morning Chapel, built c1240 and were possibly related to the original late 11th-century cathedral. Richard Gem (1986) suggests that the western foundations cg403 may relate to an 11th-century structure north of the surviving 11th-century block. This would have made the cathedral more credible as a military structure, as it would have enclosed the
Fig 2.37 Looking south-west at the base of the flying buttress cg601 of the Chapter House with well cg610
and soakaway cg611: ch83, LUBs 6 and 7
Fig 2.38 Looking west at the east face of the west wall cg4 of the Roman/Norman defences; sealing the truncated wall were the foundations cg7 of the chapel and over the levelled remains of these, the 1773 chapel cg23: cat86,
LUBs 9, 12 and 20
Fig 2.39 Looking south-east at the ragged north end of Roman wall cg4, sealed by the north-west corner of the
chapel foundations cg7: cat 86, LUBs 9 and 12 large ground-level arch on the north side of that block, which would otherwise have been vulnerable to attack (see now Stocker and Vince 1997).
Traces of the Norman cathedral (LUB 39) were also found at lc84, Area C in the form of possible robber trenches of wall foundations, while the early (undated) wall at ny87 (LUB 31; Fig 2.47) may have belonged to an early transept, perhaps a chapel, or even an earlier chapter-house.
35 Cathedral sites
Early Medieval Cathedral St Hugh’s Choir
When St Hugh’s Choir and apse were built, it involved the partial demolition of the city wall and filling of the ditch, but no record existed concerning this action until 1255 when the king responded to a petition for licence to lengthen the cathedral by removal of the wall (Hill 1948, 120).
David Stocker has interpreted the whole sequence of the construction of St Hugh’s Choir (Stocker 1985a, 18–19). He considered that the sequence of development on the site during the Roman period must have raised the surface level inside the wall much more than outside (Jones, M J 1980, fig 9 & fig 11). This disparity in levels would have created problems in building an extension of any size to the Norman cathedral. The floor level would have been on higher ground to the west of the Roman wall and there would have been lower ground to the east, a drop of perhaps 2–3 metres. It is suggested by Stocker that the difference in level was resolved by constructing ‘foundations’ which were partly above the contemporary ground level and then raising the ground level outside the wall to match that inside, a process which buried the newly built foundations. He considered that the first operation was undertaken outside the wall, the filling in of the ditch with earth and rubble. A very large pit was dug, both through any ‘archae-ological’ levels which had accumulated on the berm, and through the area of the back-filled ditch to receive a ‘lower foundation’ perhaps a giant masonry ‘raft’. The foundation pit was probably back-filled soon after the raft had been built within it, leaving just the upper part visible as a masonry platform.
The walls were then built on top of the raft, at a level which at that time, would have been above Fig 2.40 Looking south at the foundations cg6 of one of
the radiating chapels of St Hugh’s Choir; the foundations are abutted by later wall cg21, which can be seen (right);
the foundations cg36 of the Angel Choir were built over cg6: cat86, LUBs 10, 11, and 14
Fig 2.41 Looking down the walls of the Angel Choir cg36, facing north on the foundations cg6 of one of the radiating chapels of St Hugh’s Choir; to the north-west the chapel is abutted by a north–south wall cg12; the chapel foundations are encased by wall cg21; the chapel foundations cg7 can be seen to the north: cat86, LUBs 10, 11, 12, 14 and 22
Fig 2.42 Looking south-east at the relieving arch in the foundations cg32; foundations cg7 were constructed above:
cat86, LUB 12
Fig 2.43 Vertical view (west at top) of the foot of a stone coffin reused for drainage cg24: cat86, LUB 21
36 Cathedral sites ground level. These walls would, at some stage,
have to be coordinated with foundations constructed in the usual way (probably in trenches) to the west of the city wall. The city wall itself would thus have been embedded in the new building providing a sleeper wall for the eastern arcade and, no doubt, giving the whole structure an added rigidity. Once the walls of the eastern end had reached a sufficient height, the ground level outside the former city wall was raised by the dumping of enormous quantities of material around the east end. These dumps would have buried the lowermost 2.5m of the new walls, converting them into conventional foundations and continued until the top of the city wall had been covered to a depth of approximately 1m.
Stocker’s proposed sequence of events culminated in the construction of the eastern end of St Hugh’s Choir. The excavations at lc84, Area B showed the truncated Roman wall being used as foundations for the cathedral, and dumps cg204, cg205 and cg226 (LUB 26) built up the ground over the Roman ditch.
Fragments from the construction of St Hugh‘s Choir were recovered in dump cg206 (LUB 26), which sealed the earlier makeup dumps. Foundations cg203 (LUB 26) for the cathedral, perhaps the ‘raft’ men-tioned above sealed cg206 (LUB 26).
Fig 2.44 Looking north-east at the west side of the east wall cg201 of the upper colonia, reused to underpin the foundations cg229 of St Hugh‘s Choir: lc84 Area B,
LUBs 25 and 26
Nave
Following the demolition of the Norman nave, fragments of its fabric were re-used in the early 13th-century pier foundations (LUB 40), lc84 Area C.
High Medieval cathedral North-east transept chapel
The elucidation of the history of this chapel was the main purpose behind the excavations at cat86.
Documentary evidence states that that body of Bishop Hugh was originally buried by the altar of St John the Baptist. David Stocker considered the mostly likely location of this altar to be in the north-east apse of the north-north-east transept (Antram and Stocker 1989, 450). In 1280 the corpse was eventually transferred with great ceremony to the purposely-constructed Angel Choir (Antram and Stocker 1989, 465). The architectural details of the chapel (recorded in the Hollar engraving; Fig 2.50) suggest that it replaced the north-east chapel within 20 to 30 years of its construction, involving a major re-modelling of the north end of the relatively new transept (Stocker 1987, 110–124). It is likely that the removal of St Hugh’s shrine to the Angel Choir would have been accompanied by alterations to the arrangements of the chapel. Stocker suggests that the dedication of the altar was changed at this time (Stocker 1987; see now also Alexander 1995). A partial refenestration would also have been appropriate.
Fig 2.45 Looking north-west at the east side of the east wall cg201 of the upper colonia, showing the joint cg228 and masonry projection cg230; on the right of the photograph are the foundations cg203 of St Hugh‘s Choir:
lc84 Area B, LUBs 25 and 26
37 Cathedral sites
For the erection of the chapel, the ground was built up with layers of mortar, sand and limestone cg1, cg34, cg35 and cg8 (LUB 12). These were cut by foundations cg32 to the east, and constructed on both these foundations and the truncated Roman wall were the upper foundations cg7 (LUB 12; Fig 2.34). The make-up and the trench foundation fills both contained pottery dating to the early to mid 13th century. The foundations cg7 contained re-used architectural off-cuts of a similar date (1230–1250).
The stratified demolition layers of the chapel (LUB 17) did not contain any architectural frag-ments: but fragments which may well have been derived from its demolition were recovered in the latest layers on the site cg31 (LUB 24). There was a group of stiff-leaf capital fragments belong to from the first half of the 13th century. A keeled roll (1)<59> is indicative of a date range from the late 12th (eg, the Norman House on Steep Hill) to the mid-13th century. A date in the 1230s or 1240s is proposed for (1)<61>, a moulding with freestanding fillet, quirk and roll similar to mouldings from the nave dado arches.
Similarly, the window glass from cg31 (LUB 24) also may well have originally come from the chapel Fig 2.46 Looking west along intact cist burial cg219:
lc84 Area B, LUB 29
Fig 2.47 Almost vertical view looking west at the foundations of a massive wall cg503: ny87, LUB 31
38 Cathedral sites as suggested by David King, who has contributed
the following account (King 1995d):
“The majority of the painted window glass from cg31 (LUB 24) appears to have come from grisaille glazing with stiff-leaf foliage and cross-hatched backgrounds. Eight pieces of this group have both foliage and cross-hatching, two have just the foliage and five others have just the cross-hatching. Four other pieces have dec-oration consistent with their having been fillets or borders within such grisaille windows, although of course they could have come from other types of glazing.
The type of grisaille glazing represented by
The type of grisaille glazing represented by