Summary. Alongside the south choir aisle is the Consistory Court with St Chad’s head chapel above. Next door is the Verger’s office. The original use of these rooms is obscure. Dating is also uncertain, but some stonework is Early.[1]
A suite of
rooms on the south side of the choir aisle is unique to Lichfield.[2] Their origin, timeline and
function are obscure. Pier bases in the first three western bays of the choir were
thought to be Early English,[3] and the rooms are thought
to be the same era.[4]
Stonework in the aisle wall bench might be very early.
Rooms off
the south choir aisle
Early single room conjecture
Both Willis
and Rodwell thought there was initially only one chamber abutted, but not
connected, to the south choir aisle.[5] Willis thought originally there was one room and his drawing shows a
long, single, rectangular chamber.
Drawing by Willis, 1861, showing a simple side chamber, dated
c. 1200 or Early English in style. Note the corners are without turrets (appear
to be octagonal towers) and it is thought these were added when the upper
storey was built in the 13th-century.
Willis conjectured it was used as a sacristy and a chapel.
Such a building in the 13th-century would have been simple in architectural
design and contain chests storing chalices, altar linens, and vestments. It
would be a quiet place for prayer and preparation for the mass, and away from
the church. There is evidence for the sacristy to be physically separated from
the church.
Chapel Court
drawing, 1891, suggesting the room could have been separate from the church.
Rodwell said it was a
lateral sacristy next to the early high altar. [6] He also conjectured this single room might
have been only a foundation before there was a change of intention and a larger
chapel/sacristy was finally built.
Alternative Rodwell conjecture on the change from a one room to a two roomed building.
Within the interior north wall of
this building can be seen the remains of a three-bay arcade now infilled. Was
this part of the earliest single sacristy? The bases of these rounded arcades were
determined to be earlier than the aisle wall and Rodwell called this a
‘Transitional Sacristy.’ He
described it as the oldest standing masonry, he dated 1170–1180.[7]
The three bays are all different in pitch and the door into the building
(sacristy?) was off-centre, and so does not match the current door into the Consistory.
Infill stonework viewed from inside of the Consistory Court looking north and the south choir aisle. The arch opposite bay 1 of the choir is not shown and consists of a very small amount of stone. The column of stonework under the arches arises from a base estimated to be 0.9 m below the pavement of the south choir aisle and 0.1 m below the Consistory floor.[8]
When Gilbert
Scott uncovered this internal arcade, he was baffled by the sealed arches.[9]
Ward concluded the arches begin nowhere and finish nowhere and simply bear
evidence to frequent alteration.[10]
It is undoubtedly an interim arrangement, but for what purpose is
unknown and when it was constructed and re-constructed is unclear. Dating it by
the finish of the stone and the shape of the arch, Rodwell said Norman, is
problematical. What is very questionable is trying to date the cathedral by positing
the conjectured date of this sacristy. It is possible the sacristy was a
separate room on the south side of the second cathedral, and that makes it
Early Medieval. It is almost the same size as a chapel extension to the second
cathedral[11]
which, if contemporaneous, dates it anywhere between the 10th and 12th-century.
Later rebuild, either an entirely new building or a
reordering of the initial sacristy.
Sometime in the 13th-century, two rooms existed. The western
room (verger’s office or duckit) was smaller and opposite the first bay of the
choir. The eastern room was larger in length and width (used as a sacristy and
storeroom). This difference in size could also be accounted for by the small
room having to fit the north bay of the south transept (see Willis’s plan). The
earliest accounts[12]
call the rooms the Prebendary (large room) and Vestry (small room). Harwood[13] wrote the large lower
room was the Prebendaries' vestry, and is now the Chancellor's Consistory Court,
and an upper room added later was where the archives belonging to the Dean and
Chapter were kept. Under the vestry of the Prebendaries is a large vault which was
used as a charnel house. Later accounts call them a Chapel (large room) and
Sacristy or Treasury (small room).
Various plans of the two rooms. Notice there was once a connecting door between the two rooms, it is obvious in the wall but now blocked. It is possible to leave the small room via steps down in the south east corner and through a door reach the large room. A small passage from the south east corner of the large room leads downwards to a barrel vault or undercroft which once held the tombs of the Paget family. There is no internal passage to the upper room in the corner turrets. Britton shows the two rooms are not in precise alignment, but this is probably a fault of the drawing.
According to Rodwell this
rebuild occurred between c. 1220 and 1230. It first involved the
formation of a subterranean crypt with barrel vaults. Above this was
constructed a rib-vaulted chapel dedicated to St Peter with turrets at the
corners. It was now a multi-purpose structure used as a sacristy, treasury and
chapel.[14] The upper storey was added
between c. 1230 and 1240, and how it was accessed is unclear. Rodwell
conjectured there was a loft with stairway built out into the south choir aisle
opposite the third bay. The steps led to a platform at sill level of a window
now reshaped as a doorway.[15] At this time a small
room, Rodwell called it a treasury, was added between St Peter’s Chapel and the
south transept. Rodwell’s sequence has problems. The crypt or undercroft
extends the whole length and width of the chapel. Why 40-50 years after
building a lateral sacristy then pull the entire building down and dig down
into the bedrock to add the undercroft. Furthermore, the pier bases of the
filled-in arches are close to the roof of the undercroft suggesting they were
constructed together. Perhaps, the mystery is really why leave the remnants of
pier arches in the wall, when the whole sacristy building is being demolished?
AI rendition of a drawing of pier bases from a 1930s Lomax guidebook.
Vault under the Consistory. The end wall appears to be an infill and the vault must have extended under the duckit.
Entrance
from outside for the vault under the Consistory
St Chads Head Chapel stairs
Gallery drawing 1981 in ‘The Builder’, 1891, Note the door to the Consistory Court under the gallery.
Gallery St
Chad's Head Chapel. It has been called a Minstrel’s Gallery, but this is
hyperbole.
A mystery grave
Masonry
restoration of the Consistory east window in 1981 led to the discovery of a
grave 1.5 m (5 feet) above the current ground level within the wall under the
sill and above the chamfered plinth. It is where the monument is noted on
earlier plan drawings. A skeleton was found in a coffin made from a single
block of sandstone 2 m (6 feet 8 inches) long. The lid was a single stone slab
140 mm (5.5 inches) thick. Some bones were out of position and some not,
suggesting the grave had been interfered with; indeed, the skull was missing.
Rodwell suggested the repositioned bones could have been used as relics.[17] By the right elbow was a
decayed pewter chalice signifying this was the grave of a priest. There were
the remains of leather by the feet and pieces of cloth and string. Rodwell
deduced bones were removed and then replaced wrapped up in red cloth tied with
string. The skeleton was a male aged 50 to 65 years old and 1.7 m (5 feet 6.5
inches) tall. He suffered from osteo-arthritis in the jaw and wrists and the
fusion of vertebrae. The wall was thicker where the grave was placed suggesting
it belonged to a man associated with the building of the rooms. From this it
was concluded to be the grave of William de Manecestra (William of Mancetter),
1222–1254. He was the first elected dean and it is presumed building operations
must have been continuous during his time of office. This included the building
of a chapel dedicated to St. Peter, for his chantry; this was said in 1254 to
be 'attached to the church on the south side' and has been identified as the
room now used as the Consistory Court.[18] The word ‘attached’ might
suggest a separate chapel abutted on. The grave of a priest suggests the room
was primarily a chapel and this suggests the chapel could have contained the relics
of Chad. These dates do not fit entirely with an Early English architectural
style (Willis) or a Transitional time of building (Rodwell), unless the grave
was added in a later time. Perhaps, the grave is not that of Manecestra, but is
of an earlier canon. Precentor Adam de Stanford has been suggested.
Exterior
chapel, consistory, duckit showing position of grave
Civil War destruction and Victorian reordering
The upper
storey was badly wrecked in the Civil War, 1643–6, and the damage described by
Clifton.[19] The four walls were in a
broken condition and without a roof. The Early English windows, twelve lancets
in groups of three, were still evident. The site of the old altar was clearly
marked and a small portion, together with the piscina and aumbry, had been
preserved. At some unknown time, the chapel was roofed again, the tops of the
walls rebuilt and a flat, plaster ceiling added. The old chapel was now filled
with cupboards holding the muniments. Joseph Potter re-cased the south-east
turret, 1834, and renewed the stonework of the south-west turret, 1840. The
Consistory Court was refurnished in 1797.
In 1897, the
room was repaired as a chapel. Stone groining was restored and a second
staircase downwards was removed. New bosses and corbels were carved with
subjects denoting the history of Chad; windows showed angels playing ancient
instruments. The entrance was once a window, suggesting the chapel and balcony
were a compromise.
The duckit
floor was raised up to accommodate the heating system, 1850s, and now has a
step inside the entrance door. Assuming this floor would have been at the same
level as the Consistory Court means the floor was raised by around a metre. The
cupboards now at floor level in the verger’s office would have been originally
inset into the wall. Some think they housed the relics of Chad before the
shrine was built, but this is speculative.
Consistory Court 1833 J.C. Buckler
.JPG)
Consistory Court ceiling
Steps from Consistory Court to south choir aisle
AI gen. Bishop in judgement in Consistory Court.
It is clear
the south aisle suite of rooms has gone through many transformations and
adaptations, but still functions as a sacristy (lower room) and chapel (upper
room) with the sacristy and small verger’s room also holding onto items used in
the cathedral on occasions. The timeline and changes are uncertain.
[1]
T.G. Lomax A short account of the City and Close of Lichfield. (Lichfield:
1834) 43.
[2]
W. Rodwell, Archaeology at the cathedral: a new study of St Chad’s Head
Chapel. 48th annual report to the Friends of the Cathedral, (1985).
[3]
For Lichfield, Early English could be 1200–1300.
[4]
R. Willis, On foundations
of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral. The
Archaeological Journal, (1861), 18, 11.
[5]
See the post, ‘Two early chapels.’
[6]
W. Rodwell, ‘The development of the choir of Lichfield Cathedral: Romanesque
and Early English.’
in J. Maddison (Ed.), XIII Medieval archaeology and
architecture at Lichfield. The British Archaeological Association. (1993), 24.
[7]
W. Rodwell, Archaeology of the Cathedral: A new study of St Chad's Head
Chapel, Lichfield: Friends of Lichfield Cathedral, 48th Annual Report.,
held in the Cathedral Library. (1985).
[8]
See note 4 Rodwell (1993), 25.
[9]
J. G. Lonsdale, Recollections of work done in and upon Lichfield Cathedral
from 1856--1894. Lichfield, Alfred Charles Lomax: 1895).
[10]
H. Snowden Ward, Lichfield and its Cathedral: a brief history and guide. (London:
1892), 47.
[11]
See the post, ‘Two early chapels.’
[12]
S. Shaw, The history and antiquities of
Staffordshire, Volume 1. ( London:
1798) who copied from Gale, 1720.
[13]
T. Harwood, The history and antiquities of
the church and city of Lichfield. (London:
1806). 96.
[14]
See note 4 Rodwell (1993), 31.
[15]
Ibid, 32–3.
[16]
Rodwell thought previous access might have been by a wooden staircase, see note
5.
[17]
W. Rodwell, The skeleton in the wall. Unpub. article in the Cathedral
Library, (1983).
[18]
VCH, ‘House of secular canons- Lichfield cathedral: To the Reformation.’ A
History of the County of Stafford, Volume 3, (1970), 140–166, note 236
referencing S.H.C. (1924), 27–8, 19.
[19]
A. B. Clifton, The Cathedral church of
Lichfield. Bell Series. (London:
1900), 106–7.
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