Anglo-Saxon architecture

thumb|Distinctive Anglo-Saxon [[Lesene|pilaster strips on the tower of All Saints' Church, Earls Barton in Northamptonshire]]

Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. No universally accepted example survives above ground. Generally preferring not to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town, a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.

There are many remains of Anglo-Saxon church architecture. At least fifty churches are of Anglo-Saxon origin with major Anglo-Saxon architectural features, with many more claiming to be, although in some cases the Anglo-Saxon part is small and much-altered. It is often impossible to reliably distinguish between pre- and post-Conquest 11th century work in buildings where most parts are later additions or alterations. The round-tower church and tower-nave church are distinctive Anglo-Saxon types. All surviving churches, except one timber church, are built of stone or brick, and in some cases show evidence of re-used Roman work.

The architectural character of Anglo-Saxon ecclesiastical buildings range from Celtic influenced architecture in the early period; Early Christian basilica influenced architecture; and in the later Anglo-Saxon period, an architecture characterised by pilaster-strips, blank arcading, baluster shafts and triangular headed openings. In the last decades of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, a more general Romanesque style was introduced from the continent, as in the now built-over additions to Westminster Abbey made from 1050 onwards, already influenced by Norman style. In recent decades, architectural historians have become less confident that all undocumented minor "Romanesque" features post-date the Norman Conquest. Although once common, it has been incorrect for several decades to use the plain term "Saxon" for anything Anglo-Saxon that is later than the initial period of settlement in Britain.

Houses and other secular buildings

thumb|Reconstruction of an Anglo-Saxon hall from c. 1000 AD at [[Wychurst, Kent]]

Anglo-Saxon secular buildings were normally rectangular post-built structures, where timber posts were driven into the ground to form the framework of the walls upon which the thatched roofs were constructed. Only ten of the hundreds of settlement sites that have been excavated in England from this period have revealed masonry domestic structures and confined to a few quite specific contexts. The usual explanation for the tendency of Anglo–Saxons to build in timber is one of technological inferiority or incompetence. However it is now accepted that technology and materials were part of conscious choices indivisible from their social meaning. Le Goff suggests that the Anglo-Saxon period was defined by its use of wood, providing evidence for the care and craftsmanship that the Anglo–Saxon invested into their wooden material culture, from cups to halls, and the concern for trees and timber in Anglo–Saxon place–names, literature and religion. Michael Shapland suggests:

Anglo–Saxon building forms were very much part of this general building tradition. Timber was 'the natural building medium of the age': the very Anglo–Saxon word for 'building' is 'timbe'. Unlike in the Carolingian world, late Anglo–Saxon royal halls continued to be of timber in the manner of Yeavering centuries before, even though the king could clearly have mustered the resources to build in stone. Their preference must have been a conscious choice, perhaps an expression of 'deeply–embedded Germanic identity' on the part of the Anglo–Saxon royalty.

thumb|Anglo-Saxon house reconstruction at [[Butser Ancient Farm, Hampshire, 6th-8th century]]

Though very little contemporary evidence survives, methods of construction, including examples of later buildings, can be compared with methods on the continent. The major rural buildings were sunken-floor (Grubenhäuser) or post-hole buildings, although Helena Hamerow suggest this distinction is less clear. An excavated example is at Mucking in Essex. In addition to the sunken huts, vernacular buildings from the migration period found at Mucking included more substantial halls up to long and wide with entrances in the middle of both longer sides.

Even the elite had simple buildings, with a central fire and a hole in the roof to let the smoke escape and the largest of which rarely had more than one floor, and one room. Buildings vary widely in size, most were square or rectangular, though some round houses have been found. Frequently these buildings have sunken floors; a shallow pit over which a plank floor was suspended. The pit may have been used for storage, but more likely was filled with straw for winter insulation. A variation on the sunken floor design is found in towns, where the "basement" may be as deep as nine feet, suggesting a storage or work area below a suspended floor. Another common design was simple post framing, with heavy posts set directly into the ground, supporting the roof. The space between the posts was filled in with wattle and daub, or occasionally, planks. The floors were generally packed earth, though planks were sometimes used. Roofing materials varied, with thatch being the most common, though turf and even wooden shingles were also used.

The most archaeologically striking example of a royal palace is found at Yeavering (Northumbria). Excavated by Hope-Taylor, the 1977 site report illustrates a complex set of wooden halls, axially aligned. However, John Blair has made clear that, from c. 600 to c. 900, elite settlements are archaeologically invisible. From the mid-10th century onwards, a unique architectural form emerges at high-status thegnly sites – the Long Range. Comprising a combined hall and chambers, these are understood to represent a deliberate set of performative symbols of power and status put in play by the newly powerful thegnly class.

During the 9th and 10th centuries, fortifications (burhs) were constructed around towns to defend against Viking attacks. Almost no secular work remains above ground, although the Anglian Tower in York has been controversially dated to the 7th century. Recent evidence opens up the possibility that St George's Tower, Oxford, may be a surviving part of the defences surrounding the Anglo-Saxon burh of Oxford.

Examples of this can be seen today in the form of rectangular dry-stone corbelled structures such as at Gallarus Oratory, Dingle and Illauntannig, Ireland. Christianity and Irish influence came to England through missionaries. In 635, a centre of Celtic Christianity was established at Lindisfarne, Northumbria, where St Aidan founded a monastery.

In 597, the mission of Augustine from Rome came to England to convert the southern Anglo-Saxons, and founded the first cathedral and a Benedictine monastery at Canterbury. These churches consisted of a nave with side chambers.

In 664 a synod was held at Whitby, Yorkshire, and differences between the Celtic and Roman practices throughout England were reconciled, mostly in favour of Rome. Larger churches developed in the form of basilicas, for example at All Saints' Church, Brixworth.

The Romano-British populations of Wales, the West Country, and Cumbria experienced a degree of autonomy from Anglo-Saxon influence, represented by distinct linguistic, liturgical and architectural traditions, having much in common with the Irish and Breton cultures across the Celtic Sea, and allying themselves with the Viking invaders. This was however, gradually elided by centuries of English dominance. Characteristically circular buildings as opposed to rectangular, often in stone as well as timber, along with sculptured Celtic crosses, holy wells and the reoccupation of Iron Age and Roman sites from hillforts such as Cadbury Castle, promontory hillforts such as Tintagel, and enclosed settlements called Rounds characterise the western Sub-Roman Period up to the 8th century in southwest England

All Saints' Church, Brixworth, Northamptonshire
St Martin's Church, Canterbury (7th century nave with parts of possible earlier origin)
Old Minster, Winchester (648) (only foundations remain, but are marked out)
St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex (c. 654, on the site of a Roman fort, with reused materials)
Ripon Cathedral crypt (c. 670)
Hexham Abbey crypt (674)
Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Priory, Northumberland (c. 675)
Escomb Church, County Durham (c. 680)

File:St Peter-on-the-Wall ext.jpg|St Peter's on the Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex.

File:Prittlewell church door.JPG|7th-century archway at Prittlewell parish church in Southend-on-Sea, Essex.

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8th to 10th centuries

Little is attributable to the 8th and 9th centuries, due to the regular Viking raids. Developments in design and decoration may have been influenced by the Carolingian Renaissance on the continent, where there was a conscious attempt to create a Roman revival in architecture.

St Wystan's Church, Repton, Derbyshire (crypt c. 750, chancel walls ninth century)
St Mary's Priory Church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire (c. 930)
All Saints' Church, Earls Barton, Northamptonshire
St Helen's Church, Skipwith, North Yorkshire (tower c. 960)
St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber, North Lincolnshire (tower c. 970, baptistery possibly ninth century)
St Laurence's Church, Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire

File:Repton crypt.jpg|A 19th-century engraving of the crypt at Repton where Æthelbald was interred.

File:Deerhurst tower.jpg|Detail of tower at St Mary's, Deerhurst.

File:Tri-windows.jpg|Double triangular arch windows in the tower of St Peter's Church, Barton-upon-Humber.

File:Fobbing-detail.JPG|Blocked Anglo-Saxon round-arched window at St Michael's Church in Fobbing, Essex

File:St Laurence's Church.JPG|St Laurence's Church, Bradford on Avon, seen from the south, 2005

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11th century

thumb|[[Greensted Church, Essex, with Anglo-Saxon oak wall]]

The 11th century saw the first appearance of the High Romanesque style in Britain. The decades before the Conquest were prosperous for the elite, and there was great patronage of church building by figures such as Lady Godiva. Many cathedrals were constructed, including Westminster Abbey, although all these were subsequently rebuilt after 1066. Norman workers may have been imported for Westminster Abbey through the Norman Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert of Jumièges.

Recent arguments and recent archaeological discoveries have raised the possibility that the 11th-century St George's Tower, Oxford, predates both the foundation of Oxford Castle and the Norman Conquest, and functioned as a gate tower commanding the western entrance into the pre-Conquest burh. If so, the tower was then incorporated into the Norman castle built on the site in the 1070s, instead of being constructed along with it as architectural historians have long assumed. It would thus be almost without parallel in England as a purely secular and defensive Anglo-Saxon structure (see below, Secular architecture).

Greensted Church, Essex (1013 with oak palisade walls)
Stow Minster, Lincolnshire (c. 1040 with a small part surviving from 975)
St Bene't's Church, Cambridge (c. 1040)
St Michael at the Northgate, Oxford (c. 1040)
St Nicholas' Church, Worth, West Sussex (c. 950 – 1050)
Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin, Sompting, West Sussex (c. 1050)
Odda's Chapel, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire (1056)
St Matthew's Church, Langford, Oxfordshire (formerly Berkshire) (after 1050)
The tower of Holy Trinity Church in Colchester, Essex has a pre-Conquest 11th-century tower built out of Roman rubble
St George's Tower, Oxford, Oxfordshire (now a part of Oxford Castle but possibly of pre-Conquest construction date)

File:St Bene't's Church - geograph.org.uk - 732864.jpg|St Bene't's Church, Cambridge.

File:Odda's Chapel (14403940907).jpg|Odda's Chapel, Deerhurst, attached to later house.

File:Holy Trinity Church Colchester - geograph.org.uk - 1590809.jpg|Holy Trinity Church, Colchester, the tower and west doorway of which are Anglo-Saxon

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Diagnostic features

There are many churches that contain Anglo-Saxon features, although some of these features were also used in the early Norman period. H.M. Taylor surveyed 267 churches with Anglo-Saxon architectural features and ornaments. Architectural historians used to confidently assign all Romanesque architectural features to after the Conquest, but now realize that many may come from the last decades of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom. Typical Anglo-Saxon features include:

long-and-short quoins;
double triangular windows;
narrow, round-arched windows (often using Roman tile);
herringbone stone work;
west porch (narthex).

It is rare for more than one of these features to be present in the same building. A number of early Anglo-Saxon churches are based on a basilica with north and south porticus (projecting chambers) to give a cruciform plan. However cruciform plans for churches were used in other periods. Similarly, a chancel in the form of a rounded apse is often found in early Anglo-Saxon churches, but can be found in other periods as well.

File:Quoins at Stow, Lincolnshire.jpg|Quoin stones in the south transept of Stow Minster, Lincolnshire

File:St Mary's Deerhurst - geograph.org.uk - 1733000.jpg|Double triangular windows at St Mary's, Deerhurst

Image:Corringham-detail.JPG|Herringbone stonework at Corringham, Essex parish church

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Notes

References

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People
Clapham, A. W. (1930) English Romanesque Architecture Before the Conquest, Oxford.
Fernie, E. (1983) The Architecture of the Anglo-Saxons, London.
Pevsner, N. (1963) An Outline of European Architecture, Harmondsworth.
Savage, A. (1983) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, London.
Taylor, H. M. and J. (1965–1978) Anglo-Saxon Architecture, Cambridge.

External links

Anglo-Saxon Houses and Furniture on Regia Anglorum
Blockley K. and Bennett P. (1993) Canterbury Cathedral, Canterbury Archaeological Trust Ltd

Houses and other secular buildings

8th to 10th centuries

11th century

Diagnostic features

See also

Notes

References

External links