Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-30T19:12:23.642Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Excavations at Gloucester. Fourth Interim Report: St. Oswald's Priory, Gloucester, 1975–1976

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Carolyn Heighway
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Excavations at St. Oswald's Priory, Gloucester, showed that the site was occupied in the second century by the Roman municipal tile works which was abandoned by the fourth century. The ruined church which now stands on the site shows two successive building phases pre-dating a Norman arcade; excavation established part of the plan of this late Anglo-Saxon church and also uncovered part of the tenth- to thirteenth-century cemetery. Documentary evidence suggests that this was the ‘new minster’ built by Æthelflæd and Æthelred of Mercia. Taking other historical and archaeological evidence into consideration, Gloucester can be argued to have had, in the late ninth to early tenth century, a special significance for the rulers of Mercia.

Specialist reports are offered on the stratified medieval pottery, and on the inscribed bell-mould from the tenth-century church.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 1978 , pp. 104 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1978

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

NOTES

1 Hurst, H., ‘Excavations at Gloucester, 1971- 1973: Second Interim Report’, Antiq. Journ. liv (1974), 46–8.Google Scholar

2 Located in excavation: ibid., 46.

3 Toulmin-Smith, L. (ed.), The Itinerary of John Leland (London, 1908), p. 57.Google Scholar

4 Hurst, op. cit., p. 41; N. Spry et al., forth-coming.

5 Interim report by Dr. A. J. Parker forth-coming in Britannia.

6 There is an outline plan of the Roman features in Glevensis, x (1976), 8Google Scholar.

7 Recorded by A. P. Garrod.

8 , R. E. M. and Wheeler, T. V., Excavations at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire (Soc. Antiq Research Report ix), p. 83, no. 63Google Scholar; a similar pin i s also illustrated in Stephenson, R. B. K., ‘Pins and the Chronology of Brooches’, P.P.S. xxi (1955), 289, no. 8Google Scholar.

9 Architectural report by R. M. Bryant.

10 Medland, H., ‘St. Oswald's Priory, Gloucester’, Trans.Bristol and Gloucester. Arch. Soc. xviii (1888–1889), 122Google Scholar; Kendrick, T. D., Anglo-Saxon Art to A.D. 900 (London, 1938), p. 187,Google Scholarand pl. LXXXII; Museum Accession no. A2656.

11 Med.Arch.xi (1967), 265Google Scholar;Museum Accession nos. A5075 and A6305; Cramp, R., ‘Anglo-Saxon Sculpture of the Reform Period’ in Parsons, D. (ed.), Tenth-Century Studies (London and Chichester, 1975), p. 191Google Scholar.

12 Gloucester Museum A4.

13 Antiq. Journ. xlv (1965), 254–5.Google Scholar

14 Theophilus, , De diversis artibus, ed. and tr. Dodwell, C. R. (London, 1961).Google ScholarThere is a useful summary of bell-making techniques in Blagg, T. F. C., ‘An Umbrian Abbey; San Paolo di Valdiponte’, Papers of the British School at Rome, xlii (1974), 133–45Google Scholar.

15 Conant, K. J., Carolingian Romanesque Archi-lecture 800–1200 (Harmondsworth, 1959), p. 11 and pp. 20–1.Google Scholar

16 e.g. Cologne, Paderborn (Abdinghofkirche), and Reichenau-Oberzell:Oswald, F., Schaefer, L., and Sennhauser, H. R., Vorromanische Kirchenbauten (Munich, 1966–1971), pp. 141, 249, 282Google Scholar.

17 At Winchester:Antiq. Journ. xlv (1965), 258–9;Google Scholarand at Augustine's, St., Canterbury: Med. Arch, ii (1958), 186Google Scholar.

18 Taylor, H. M., ‘The Anglo Saxon Cathedral Church at Canterbury’, Arch. Journ. cxxvi (1969), 107–30;Google ScholarR. D. H. Gem, ‘The Anglo-Saxon Cathedral Church at Canterbury: a further contribution’, ibid, cxxvii (1970), 196–201;Biddle, M., Lambrick, H. T., and Myres, J. N. L., ‘The Early History of Abingdon, Berkshire, and its Abbey’, Med. Arch, xii (1968), 26–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Dr. H. M. Tayor commented that the arch is similar in style and size to the porticus arches at Worth, Sussex.

20 H. Medland, op. cit., p. 121 and pl. iv, figs. 1 and 2.

21 Howitt, G. A., Gloucester's Ancient Walls and Gatehouses (Gloucester, 1890), p. 24.Google Scholar

22 Gloucester Journ., 5 Jan. 1824.Google Scholar

23 After 1854 burial came under the jurisdiction of the town Burial Board and a town cemetery was created. Statutes 17 and 18 Victoria (London, 1854), pp. 302–4Google Scholar.

24 Oyler, C. R., Report on the Human Remains Found on the Site of St. Oswald's Priory, Gloucester, 1967Google Scholar(unpublished, Museu m Excavation Unit).

25 Russell-Smith, F., ‘The Medieval “Brygyrdyl”’, Antiq. Journ. xxxvi (1956), 218–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26 McWhirr, A. (ed.), Studies in the Archaeology and History of Cirencester (B.A.R. xxx (1976)), p.26 fig. 3. 2, nos. 18 an d 20.Google Scholar

27 Dr. Oyler suggests that, as this burial was in a coffin, it may have been buried the wrong way round by mistake.

28 They were thought to be th e result of a Romano-Celtic massacre. Bellows, John, ‘Remarks on Some Skeletons Found at Gloucester in 1881’, Trans. Bristol and Gloucester. Arch. Soc. vi (1881–1882), 345Google Scholar.

29 Kjolbye-Biddle, Birthe, ‘A Cathedral Cemetery: Problems in Excavation and Interpretation’, World Arch. viii. I (1975), 87–108.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

30 Bede, Historia Ecclesiastica, in Plummer, C. (ed.), Baedae Opera Historica (Oxford, 1896), vol. 1, pp. 138, 145–52Google Scholar.

31 Whitelock, D. (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (London, 1961), anno 909.Google Scholar

32 Malmesbury, William of, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum (Rolls Series, ed. Hamilton, N.E.S.A., London, 1870), p. 293Google Scholar(our translation). A tradition of a foundation of the seventh century is without supporting evidence. Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, vi (London, 1830), 82Google Scholar.

33 Liebermann, F. (ed.), Die Heiligen Englands (Hanover, 1889), pp. 9–10.Google Scholar

34 Dugdale, W., Monasticon Anglicanum, i (London, 1817), 542.Google Scholar

35 Denton, J. H., English Royal Free Chapels 1100–1300 (Manchester, 1970), pp. 51–7;Google ScholarCal. Close Rolls 1313–18, p. 596.

36 Cal. Close Rolls 1227–31, p. 31. For the palace at Kingsholm see Hurst, H. ‘Excavations at Gloucester, Third Interim Report: Kingsholm 1966–75’, Antiq. Journ. lv (1975), 267–94CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

37 Hamilton-Thompson, A., ‘The Jurisdiction of the Archbishops of York in Gloucestershire’, Trans. Bristol and Gloucester. Arch. Soc. xliii (1921), 90, 98.Google ScholarHamilton-Thompson does not accept William of Malmesbury's statement that an earlier colony of monks had been dispersed by the Danes and canons introduced; in view of the minster's Royal privileges, it seems most likely that the college was a secular one from its foundation.

38 Ibid. 104; the original survey is in the Register of Archbishop Zouche, f. 224V. Enclosure map of 1799, Gloucester Records Office QRI 70.

39 Its other names are St. Mary de Port, St. Mary before the Gate, St. Mary Broadgate. Smith, A. H. (ed.), The Place-Names of Gloucestershire, ii (1964), 125Google Scholar.

40 Taylor, C. S., An analysis of the Domesday Survey of Gloucestershire (Bristol, 1889), p. 175Google Scholar; Fosbrooke, T. D., An Original History of the City of Gloucester (Gloucester, 1819), pp. 342–3Google Scholar.

41 GR O QRI 70. ‘Barton Farm ‘belonged to the abbey at the Dissolution, by which time the distinction between King's and Abbot's Barton had been lost.

42 Feudal Aids, ii, pp. 263, 264. Th e present hundred includes that of Dudstone.

43 Finberg, H. P. R., Early Charters of the West Midlands (Leicester, 1961), pp. 158–66.Google Scholar

44 Hart, W. H. (ed.), Historia et Cartularium monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae, i (Rolls Series, London, 1863), 64Google Scholar; Finberg, op. cit., p. 41, no. 45. The charter is lost.

45 Cal. Patent Rolls 1385–9, p. 472.

46 Cf. the foundation of the New Minster at Winchester: see Biddle, M. (ed.), Winchester in the Early Middle Ages (Winchester Studies, i), p. 465Google Scholar.

47 Wainwright, F. T., ‘Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians‘in Clemoes, P. (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons (London, 1959), p. 55.Google Scholar

48 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, anno 874.

49 Stenton, F. M., Anglo-Saxon England (3rd edn., Oxford, 1971), p. 252.Google Scholar

50 Sawyer, P. H., Anglo-Saxon Charters (London, 1968), nos. 215, 216.Google Scholar

51 Jones, T. Thomas, The Chronicle of the Princes, Peniarth MS 20 Version (Cardiff, 1952), p. 5, anno 878.Google Scholar

52 Sawyer, op. cit., no. 397.

53 Ibid., no. 220.

54 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, anno 909.

55 Stevenson, W. H., Asser's Life of King Alfred (Oxford, 1959), p. 66.Google Scholar

56 Annales Cambria (Rolls Series 20, London, 1860), anno 881: ‘Rhodri avenged by God’. In 878 Clwulf had had slain the King of North Wales, Rhodri Mawr.Google Scholar

57 Sawyer, op. cit., no. 396.

58 Heighway, C. M. and Garrod, A. P., ‘Excavations at Gloucester 1975: 1 Westgate Street, Gloucester’, Med. Arch,Google Scholar forthcoming. Timber buildings at the centre of Gloucester have been dated by the radio-carbon method to the eighth century. Hurst, , ‘Excavation in Gloucester 1968–71’, Antiq. Journ. lii (1972), 60Google Scholar;Harwell 1636, 1443, 1446, 1444; note by Hurst (forthcoming).

59 Dolley, R. H. M. and Blunt, C. E., ‘The Coinage o f Alfred the Great’ in Anglo-Saxon Coins (London, 1961), pp. 77–94.Google Scholar

60 Hurst, Antiq. Journ. lv (1975), 284.Google ScholarLobel, M. D., Historic Towns Atlas, i,Google Scholar‘Gloucester’, p. 3.

61 Hurst, opp. citt. (1972), 66–8 and (1974), 13; the type of the street plan is still the only evidence for postulating an early tenth-century date for Gloucester's street layout. Biddle, M. and Hill, D., ‘Late Saxon Planned Towns’, Antiq. Journ. li (1971), 70–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

62 Sawyer, op. cit., no. 1441, dated 896.

63 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, anno 914.

64 Sawyer, op. cit., nos. 223 and 1280.

65 Campbell, A., The Chronicle of Æthelweard (London, 1962), anno 911.Google Scholar

66 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (Mercian Register), anno 918.

67 Hamilton-Thompson, A., ‘The Jurisdiction of the Archbishops of York in Gloucestershire’, Trans. Bristol and Gloucester. Arch. Soc. xliii (1921), 85–180.Google Scholar

68 Cal. Patent Rolls 1334–8, p. 286; Cal. Patent Rolls 1364–7, pp. 285, 305.

69 Stevenson, W H. (ed.), Rental of the Houses in Gloucester A.D. 1455 (Gloucester, 1890), p. 98.Google Scholar

70 Many leases refer to this property, whic h was appurtenant to the post of Provost Marshall in 1671: Gloucester Borough Records 1448/1570, 106.

71 Hamilton-Thompson, op. cit., p. 129; Symeon of Durham, ap. Durham, Reginald of, Vita Sancti Oswaldi (Rolls Series, London, 1882), pp. 75, 370Google Scholar.

72 Malmesbury, William of, Gesta Pontificum Anglorum (Rolls Series, London, 1870), p. 293.Google ScholarWilliam was writing c. 1125 so the alterations were presumably complete by then.

73 There was certainly no corresponding twelfth-century south aisle, since the excavations would have traced its south wall in the cemetery area. Nevertheless, it is possible that the ‘widening’ included a twelfth-century south transept or chapel further east which has not yet been located.

74 See the editor's gloss in the Gesta Pontificum, p. 34, and Hamilton-Thompson, op. cit., p. 129, note 2. The latter was satisfied that Æthelflæd was buried at St. Oswald's, but this mus t remain doubtful.

75 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, ed. Whitelock, , anno 918.Google Scholar

76 Malmesbury, William of, Gesta Regum Anglorum (Rolls Series, ed. Stubbs, W., London, 1887), p. 136.Google Scholar

77 Medland, op. cit., p. 127.

78 Cal. Pat. Rolls 1391–6, p. 505.

79 Hamilton-Thompson, op. cit., p. 90, 98.

80 Cal. Close Rolls 1231–4, p. 363; Cal. Pat. Rolls 1249–58, p. 490.

81 Hart, , op. cit. i, pp. 171–2.Google Scholar

82 Ibid, ii, p. 65; Hamilton-Thompson, op. cit., p. 106.

83 Register of Archbishop Grey (Surtees Soc. lvi (1870)), pp. 276–7.Google Scholar

84 Hurst, H., Gloucester Castle, forthcoming.Google Scholar

85 Dugdale, , op. cit. i, p. 564.Google Scholar

86 H. Hurst, op. cit. (1975), p. 286.

87 Hamilton-Thompson, op. cit., pp. 138 ff.; Denton, op. cit., p. 55.

88 Letters and Papers of Henry VIII, vol. xv; p. 292.

89 Medland, op. cit., p. 127. He cites no authority for his statement.

90 Gloucester Wills 1541–1650 (London, 1895), p. 1.Google Scholar

91 GBR 1377/1452, p. 775.

92 Gloucestershire Notes and Queries, iv (1890), 484–6.Google Scholar

93 Heighway and Garrod, op. cit.

94 Vince, A. G., ‘The Pottery’ in Heighway, C. M. et al. , Excavations at the North and East Gates of Gloucester (C.R.A.A.G.S., forthcoming)Google Scholar.

95 Transliterated according to the following system: A indicates a clearly legible letter; A a letter damaged but legible; [A] a damaged lette r where the restoration is fairly certain; A/B ligatured letters; [] one letter lost; —text lost at beginning or end; / the end of a complete text.

96 See Okasha, E., Hand-list of Anglo-Saxon non-runic inscriptions (Cambridge, 1971), p. 156,Google Scholarindex VI.

97 Okasha, op. cit., p. 117, no. 115 and fig.

98 Some of these appear in Okasha, op. cit., pp. 128–9, no. 142 and fig. They will all appear in Biddle, M. and Keene, S., ed. The Crafts and Industries of Medieval Winchester, part ii: Crafts and Industries Other than Ceramics (Winchester Studies, vii)Google Scholar.