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Excavations at Rivenhall Church, Essex: An Interim Report*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Warwick Rodwell  and
Kirsty Rodwell
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Summary

Excavation near and adjacent to Rivenhall church in 1971–2 revealed a sequence of occupation beginning in the Iron Age. The present church, thought to be a nineteenth-century rebuild, was shown to be largely a late Saxon structure, with medieval additions. It seems to have been preceded by a small wooden church constructed of upright timbers set in wall-trenches. The whole overlies the remains of a large Roman villa. Finds of pagan period and later Saxon pottery suggest continuous occupation from Roman to medieval times.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 53 , Issue 2 , September 1973 , pp. 219 - 231
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1973

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References

page 219 note 1 R.C.H.M., Essex, iii (1922), p. 194Google Scholar.

page 219 note 2 King, Laurence & Partners, Report upon Survey made of the Parish Church of St.Mary and All Saints, Rivenhall, Essex (1970)Google Scholar.

page 219 note 3 The work was sponsored by the Essex Archaeological Society and financed by the Department of the Environment, the British Academy, the Society of Antiquaries, and the Carnegie U.K. Trust Fund, The opportunity was seen as a valuable one for teaching as well as ‘rescue’ and two Training Schools in Archaeology and Architecture were run. The project was directed by W. J. R., with Assistant Directors: K. A. R. (Fieldwork) and D. J. Fowler (Architecture) and other assistants: Misses M. Fox and M. Haynes, and Messrs B. Cartwright and P. Whiteley.

page 220 note 1 W. J. and Rodwell, K. A., ‘Rivenhall Roman Villa: Interim Report’, Britannia, iv (1973), 115–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 222 note 1 H. M. and Taylor, J., Anglo-Saxon Architecture (1965), pp. 262–3Google Scholar.

page 222 note 2 Med. Archaeol. xv (1971), 130Google Scholar.

page 222 note 3 H. M. and J. Taylor, op. cit., p. 263. Although the log walls of Greensted are now tenoned into a cill, and apparently were so before the 1848 restoration, this may not represent the original form of construction. The cill could easily be a medieval insertion and indeed excavation in the chancel in 1960 (still unpublished) revealed a wall-trench for timbers set upright in the ground.

page 223 note 1 We owe this suggestion to Dr. F. W. Anderson.

page 225 note 1 Cf. the sand-filled vaults under the temple of Claudius at Colchester.

page 227 note 1 Gardner, J. S., ‘Coggeshall Abbey and its early brickwork’, J. Brit. Archaeol. Assoc. (3rd. ser.), xviii (1955), 19 fCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 227 note 2 Med. Archaeol. xvi (1972), 200 fGoogle Scholar.

page 229 note 1 This is scarcely ever done on currently-used churches in Britain; exceptions are rare and yield impressive results. Yet there is no good reason why church archaeology should be thus shunned. Excavation and architectural study at Rivenhall proceeded for 6½ days a week without any disruption of services, weddings, funerals, etc.

page 229 note 2 H. M. and J. Taylor, op. cit., and Taylor, H. M., ‘Structural Criticism’, Anglo-Saxon England (1972), i, 259 fGoogle Scholar.

page 229 note 3 Rahtz, P. A., ‘Deerhurst’, Current Archaeol. 28 (1971), 135Google Scholar.

page 229 note 4 H. M. and J. Taylor, op. cit., p. 333.

page 229 note 5 Ibid., p. 76.

page 229 note 6 Ibid., p. 19.

page 229 note 7 Ibid., p. 279.

page 229 note 8 Ibid., p. 489. Here, as at Rivenhall, the plinth is not continuous around the apse which, together with the curious spacing of the windows, strongly suggest that Pentlow originally had a simple square chancel also. The apse may well be a Saxo-Norman addition to an earlier structure. Excavation should resolve the point.

page 230 note 1 Fletcher, E. and Meates, G. M., ‘The Ruined Church of Stone-by-Faversham’, Antiq. Journ. xlix (1969), 273 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 230 note 2 E.g. St. Bride's, Fleet Street, London. Grimes, W. F., The Excavation of Roman and Medieval London (1968), pp. 182 ffGoogle Scholar.

page 230 note 3 Rodwell, op. cit.

page 230 note 4 Ekwall, E., English Place Names (1960), p. 389Google Scholar.