Two early chapels

Summary. What was the purpose of the 10th-12th century chapel attached to the east end of the second cathedral found under the presbytery floor? The chapel appeared to be the same size as a room on the south side of the choir. Did they house relics?

     Archaeology in the 1850s revealed a rectangular chamber under the presbytery floor which abutted the east end of the second cathedral. There is some evidence of another rectangular chamber on the south side of the choir standing alongside the second cathedral. Dates for the two chambers are uncertain and their original purpose can only be guessed, but both would be present at a time of prolific collection of relics. If so, they would be chapels, sometimes known feretories.

 Chapel 1 under the presbytery floor.

Between 1856 and 1860, the floors of the choir, side aisles and presbytery were lifted to build an underfloor heating system. During the work foundations for the second cathedral and an adjoining rectangular building were revealed.^[1] A drawing of these foundations shows a rectangular chamber abutted the east end of the second cathedral.[2] No trace of a doorway or arch from the second cathedral to the chamber was seen, the chamber simply abutted against an apse without any bonding.

Plan of the rectangular chamber superimposed on the plan for the current cathedral.

                                            

 Rectangular chamber shown on the 1856 builder’s drawing.

     The chamber measured 12 m (39.3 feet) internally in length along the wall[3] and 6.4 m (21 feet) wide internally. Walls had small external buttresses indicating it was single storey. The foundation had a remarkably fresh external surface showing no signs of having been long exposed to the weather; the chamber must have had a short time of use. Unlike the second cathedral, the chamber had plinth mouldings which Willis tentatively dated to the latter half of the 12th-century.[4] Having simple plinths could suggest an earlier date between 950–1100; dating plinths is problematical.

 

Dimensions of the rectangular chamber.

Plinth at Fountains Abbey (1209) that Willlis said had a resemblance to the plinth around the chamber.

 Chapel 2 on the south side of the choir

          A suite of rooms was built on the south side of the choir which today are known as the consistory and sacristy (larger room) and duckit or verger’s office (smaller room); see the post ‘Rooms south of the choir.’ Willis,1861, thought originally there was one room and his drawing shows a long, single, rectangular chamber. Rodwell in 1985[5] and 1993[6] thought the earliest building was either a smaller foundation only, which changed its layout or it was a small, short-lived building later entirely rebuilt.

 

Drawing by Willis, 1861, showing a simple side chamber labelled Sacristy/Chapel, dated c. 1200 in an Early English 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 added, ‘the upper storey of the chamber seems to have had a wooden-ribbed vault in imitation of stone, for the springing stones of ribs are wanting. The vault, whatever it was, has disappeared.’ It is likely this early upper storey never existed.

There was a hint the chapel was a stand-alone in the diagrams of J. T. Irvine[7] and A. B. Clifton (1900).[8] There is a gap between the chapel and second cathedral choir wall and there is an angled wall of the chapel away from the aisle wall.

 

Plan of the chapel showing an angled corner as if the aisle wall was not present.

 

 

 

The internal dimensions of this early chapel, if it corresponded with the current consistory, are 7.4 m (24 feet 4 inches) long, east to west, and 6.4 m (21 feet) wide. If this early chapel extended as far as the south transept or opposite the first three bays of the choir it would have been 12.2 m (40 feet) long internally. In 1992, Rodwell[9] found a ‘springing point’ on the foundation of the second cathedral which he said was the beginning of an apsidal ambulatory foundation, but could not substantiate this. Instead, was this the springing point to the west end of the early chapel? If so, the internal length of the early chapel is now a little shorter, c. 10.7 m (35 feet). It is also possible this very short stretch of wall was part of the doorway between the chapel and the second cathedral.

 

Springing point found in 1992 

The vault under the consistory is 7.4 m long (24 feet 4 inches) and so corresponds with the consistory chapel. The width was 5 m (16 feet 4 inches) suggesting the outside wall was thicker at the base than at consistory chapel level. 

Consistory vault. The end wall appears an infill and at one time the vault extended under the duckit, then the treasury.

     Significantly, the dimensions of both chapels are almost the same.  That is, in length,12 m (chapel 1) compared to 12.2 m (chapel 2 extending to the south transept) with both 6.4 m wide. Is this similarity in size coincidental or an indication of a common plan[10]? Their roofs are unknown, though chapel 1 had two pier bases.

Plinths found near chapel 1 (left) and stonework around chapel 2 (right). They are different, but not by much.

 Two chapels on the scale of the current cathedral.   

   The enigmatic arches

Scott found three infilled arches on the inside of the consistory wall and could not explain them. Rodwell[11] found they extended c. 11.2 m or just over 2 choir bays. If there was a doorway on the western end, then possibly the rectangular chamber was around 11–12 m long and the length of three bays. Speculation on the arches has been heated, but there is no satisfactory conclusion. 

Two infilled arches seen on the inside wall (not the external face) of the north side of the consistory. The third arcade had a little stone and extended into the western wall of the consistory. A critical question is, are they pointed or rounded? It is very difficult to decide.

 

Conjecture on the purpose of the chapels

If one of the chapels had an earlier date, its purpose could have been to house reliquaries. It could have held the relics of Chad at the time of the millennium and was constructed in a context of great fearing of an impending end-time (the year 1000 or 1033). Was a reliquary chapel built during or after the reign of Edgar?^[12] The return of St Chad’s gospel from the monastery of Llandeilo Fawr before or during the time of Bishop Wynsige, 933–4 x 975, hints at renewed interest in the cult of Chad.^[13]  Was the chapel used to hold some of the many, around 300, relics and valuables listed in the 1345 Sacrist’s Roll?^[14]  Did it house the ancient font basin found on the floor of the chapel.^[15]  Were the relics of Chad’s brother Cedd kept at Lichfield by the 11th-century.^[16] All this chimes with Benedictine reform, increased possession of relics, evocation of saints and new architectural undertakings,^[17]  Edgar, for a time King of the Mercians and Northumbrians, was expected to accumulate relics on his travels,^[18]  and it might be significant between 957 and 959 Edgar had three close advisers including Bishop Cynesige of Lichfield, 946/9 x 963–4.^[19]  It fits with increased liturgical practice in the 10th-century onwards of carrying holy relics on Rogation days.^[20]  Plus, mass pilgrimage around the years 1000 and 1033 with anticipation of an apocalypse.^[21] Was the chapel a pre-emptive response to ‘End Times’ which had lost its relevance by the late-12th century?

 

If this similarity of construction was real and of a similar time, why would the cathedral want two chapels? Perhaps, one held the relics of Chad and the other the relics of minor cults or for the tombs of priests. If the two chapels were not of the same time, then one could have been built from the remains of the other; perhaps, chapel 1 was recycled to build chapel 2. There is another factor expressed by Savage.^[22] He thought there was a lack of building between 1208 and the 1220s caused by the Interdict restrictions of King John^[23] suspending all church activities of every kind, March 1208–July 1213, followed by the occupation of England by a French Army and exacerbated by the canons of the cathedral totally preoccupied by disagreements with the monks at Coventry. It suggests any extension and alteration of the early chapel built in the 12th century would have had to wait until 1214 at the earliest. After that any building would occur alongside the building of the cathedral.

 

An explanation 

Accepting the second cathedral foundation under the choir was Early Medieval (not Norman or Anglo-Norman) undermines Rodwell’s interpretation of the rooms south of the choir and gives a possible explanation.

Relic collection was vitally important from the mid-10th century and housing relics would have been required for a large collection. Chapel 2 was built by the millennium. It was built alongside the south side of the choir of the second cathedral and had three arcades. Chad’s relics were all-important and perhaps required their own shrine chapel. An undercroft would hold sacred bones. So, Chapel 1 was built abutted onto the apse of the second cathedral in the late-11th or early-12th century (Willis’s dates). A common plan of construction was used for the two chapels. When the east end of the cathedral was extended around the year 1200, chapel 1 was reduced to its foundation and Chad’s relics were housed for a second time in Chapel 2 which now needed enlargement. Chapel 2 was joined to the south transept with a treasury plus sacristy added on. Then a second storey was added with turrets, perhaps, using recycled stone from chapel 1.

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[1] R. Willis, ‘On foundations of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield Cathedral’ The Archaeol. J. (1861) 18, 1–24. Also, The Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1861, vol 210, 297.

[2] John Hamlet’s drawing, a plan of the apse and rectangular chamber, is held in the Staffordshire Record Office LD 289/16. There are small differences with Willis’s published drawing (Willis 1861). Willis’s notes are kept in Cambridge University Library, MS 5042, 67 folios, with the title Architectural drawings and notes of Lichfield Cathedral 1861‑64. Hamlet’s drawing has a few revisions with pen overlaying pencil.

[3] The length was determined by pushing a measuring rod under the altar floor; it therefore, cannot be verified precisely. It could not have been any longer because of the sanctuary wall. The length is taken from Willis’s drawing.

[4] Willis noted a partial resemblance of the upper moulding to that found in three Yorkshire abbeys. 5.

[5] 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).

[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), 17–35.  

[7] R. Paul, ‘Lichfield Cathedral’ in The Builder, (1891) 108–9.

[8] A. B. Clifton, The Cathedral church of Lichfield. Bell Series. (London: 1900), 106–7.

[9] W. Rodwell, 'Revealing the history of the Cathedral.' Report held in the Cathedral Library, (1992),  24--34.

[10] Not everyone has agreed the two chapels were of similar size. The two chapels were drawn in The Builder in 1891 and depicted unequally. In the same article R. Paul’s plan of the cathedral showed the two chapels drawn similar in size, so the writers, St John Hope and J. T. Irvine thought the original chapel 2 was small and then completely rebuilt and enlarged. It was this conjecture which prefaced Rodwell’s view of a small, earlier chamber, later entirely rebuilt.

[11] See note 6, Rodwell (1993), 25.

[12] This narrative fits with finding a King Edgar silver penny near where Chad’s grave was located.

[13] C. P. Lewis, ‘Communities, conflict and episcopal policy in the diocese of Lichfield, 1050—1150’, in P. Dalton, C. Insley and L. J. Wilkinson (eds.) Cathedrals, communities and conflict in the Anglo-Saxon world.  (Woodbridge: 2011), 61–76.

[14] J. C. Cox and W. H. S. J. Hope, ‘Sacrist's Roll of Lichfield Cathedral A.D. 1345’, Derbyshire Archaeological Journal (1882), 4, 107–138.

[15] See note 1, Willis (1861), 8.

[16] J. Crook, English Medieval Shrines (Woodbridge: 2011), 78.

[17] G. Baldwin Brown, The Arts in Early England (Glasgow: 1903), 333.

[18] C. R. Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art. A new perspective (Manchester: 1982), 196.

[19] C. P. Lewis, ‘Edgar, Chester and the Kingdoms of Mercians, 957—959’, in D. Scragg (ed.) Edgar, King of the English, 959--975 (Manchester: Manchester Centre for Anglo-Saxon Studies: 2008), 104–123. Edgar also had a connection with St Editha’s church at Tamworth; the moulding has not been found there.

[20] J. Blair, The church in Anglo-Saxon society (Oxford: 2005), 176 n179.

[21] J. T. Palmer, The Apocalypse in the early Middle Ages (Cambridge: 2014), 191, 220.

[22] H. E. Savage, St Chad’s Day address 1919 on The Chapter House. Unpub. Paper in Cathedral Library, 11.

[23] In a standoff between the pope and King John known as the Interdict John was excommunicated and the bishops gradually left the country. John then confiscated their estates. In 1210, he demanded money from all priests and monks. By 1215, John reversed his confrontation and appeased his irate clergy with judicious grants, return of land, and increased rights and benefices.