Summary. Early 7th-century churches followed a pattern in layout. Extrapolation provides an idea on how the early church at Lichfield might have looked. By the 8th-century the church was elaborate and decorated.
Three centuries after Christ’s
crucifixion Christians gathered secretly in houses to pray together. When
Constantine I legalised Christianity, 313, in the ‘The Edict of Milan’,
worshippers could gather in Roman basilica buildings adapted with maybe an
altar in an apse. Christianity did not have an architecture of its own,[1] for Christians a church
building considered holy would be idolatrous. Instead, house-churches appeared
in late Roman times.
Drawing of a bronze bowl with a Christian motif, the Chri-Rho sign, found at the Roman mansio of Letocetum, now Wall. The bowl could have belonged to a Christian. It has since been lost. There was a pagan temple at Letocetum, was it succeeded by an early house-church?
By the 7th-century, timber churches occurred at Lindisfarne, Bamburgh, Hartlepool, Yeavering, Ripon, Whitby and Whithorn. Escomb might have originally been constructed of timber. All were small, rectangular buildings, perhaps with a large flat stone for an altar, but little else is known.
Perhaps the early timber church was something like this house at Maelmin,
Milfield, Wooler, Northumberland.
In 2017, at Lindisfarne, Northumberland, on The Heugh, a narrow, rocky ridge overlooking the bay towards Bamburgh Castle, were found the foundations of two joined buildings. Their size, location and orientation suggested an early church. The white sandstone was crudely shaped with a pick and had no mortar which points to an early date. Much stone had been robbed for probable use in a later church. The larger room could be a nave and the smaller one a chancel. Perhaps, the upper structure was timber and reeds. Some stone appeared to have been crudely fashioned to give slit windows suggesting this was a stone church, and could be Cuthbert’s church. Whether it was once the smaller timber church of St Mary and later the second stone church of St Peter is uncertain.
Early 8th-century church on The Heugh, Lindisfarne,
The cathedral-churches of the
first four bishops of Mercia, 656–667, were almost certainly timber buildings
like a house. They would be simple, rectangular structures within an Early
Medieval settlement, and not necessarily at Lichfield. Baptism would be in the
adjacent stream or river. The most obvious location would be in the washlands
of the River Trent where many settlements existed.
Stone churches
Some early churches had a stone
foundation. St Paul-in-the-Bail, Lincoln
was a 5th or early 6th-century church built on the courtyard of a Roman forum.
The line of foundation trenches contained fragments of paving slabs thought to
have come from the paved surface of the forum.[2] It is uncertain whether
the above-ground building was of stone or more likely was timber with plaster.
Indicated shape of St Paul-in-the-Bail, Lincoln. The building was 9 m wide, and at least 2I m long. The foundation trenches of the nave were between 0.80 and 1.20 m wide and the apse at the end had a foundation trench 0.6 m wide. The apse was thought to have been separated from the nave by a quadruple arcade or screen, probably of timber.
In the late 7th-century, the
timber and thatch room became a dedicated ‘church’ building with decoration and
adaptations for various liturgical functions, but how much this changed is
unclear. They were probably like the ordinary hall or house.[3] Significantly, the
building was mostly constructed with stone, metal, plaster and reclaimed Roman
tiles. The earliest stone church still in use is St Martins, Canterbury, dating
from the 590s. Its chancel is built of Roman brick, and its later nave is of
reused Roman stone and brick, “laid in the Roman manner.”
Possible original plan of St Martins, Canterbury. St
Augustine is holding the church where he arrived in 697.
St Martins Canterbury, middle section dated to 600s. Brick is
laid in the Roman manner.
The use of
recycled Roman tile or brick which was crushed and mixed with mortar to create
a distinctive pink floor has been noted at Glastonbury, Reculver, Canterbury
and Jarrow. It has been suggested early churches declared their Romanitas
through plastered masonry buildings and terracotta-coloured floors in stark
contrast to traditional timber and earth constructions.[4]
Excavated Saxon church at Glastonbury, c. 700
The reason for the changeover to stone churches has been much speculated. Churches in Wales and Ireland did not change to stone construction for another three centuries. The Roman mission culminating in the Synod or Council of Whitby, 663–4,[5] is clearly a critical influence. Bishop Wilfrid had Ripon and York churches rebuilt in stone. This was repeated at Hexham, Hartlepool and most likely at Lindisfarne. Shapland wrote, Early Medievalists perceived stone as the material not just of Rome and the Roman Church, but as the material of permanence. Timber was the perishable material of the cyclical natural world and transient human life.[6] It also differentiated them from the Celtic/Folk churches of small communities. Many of the early churches went through several phases of development all on the same site with much the same material.
Lyminge Ango-Saxon church with apse and triple arch to the nave.
Deriving Chad’s early church at Licitfelda
King Wulfhere of Mercia and
Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon selected a sacred site called Licitfelda, 667–8,
for an early church.[7]
The location of Chad’s grave and the surrounding shrine tower is known, see the
post ‘Chad's grave-the evidence,’ Wilfrid would have insisted on a stone church
just like he did at Ripon and Hexham. The church would have had a rectangular
nave and possibly an apsidal chancel. It could have been constructed from
recycled Roman material obtained from Wall (Letocetum). It could have looked
like St Martin’s, Canterbury. The roof could be Roman tile.[8]
The shrine tower most likely
would be east of the main church. Shapland gives nine possible examples of Early
Medieval mausolea being small square, or rectangular buildings east of the
church.[9] Some of the examples are questionable,
especially in regard to their existence. He drew a comparison with
Charlemagne’s imperial mortuary chapel at Aachen and derived the mausolea from
early dynastic burial mounds and tombs. Many of the examples given are Mercian.
If this holds, then St Peters was located at the west end of the nave.
Speculated appearance of St Peters. The building has a nave and chancel. Stonework would be Roman-like.
Chad’s older
brother Cedd, supposedly had a cathedral-church at Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex, and
part is considered to be still standing. It could be similar to the one built
for Chad.
St.Cedd's
church of St Peter, Bradwell-on-Sea, and its plan
The extrapolation is Chad had a cathedral-church called St Peters
which most likely consisted of a nave around 30 feet wide, an east end that was
either small and square or had a simple apse and separating the two areas was a
triple arch. The floor was stone slabs and the roof was tile or thatch.
Entrance was at the west end and there could have been a small narthex. The
altar would be a stone slab and placed on it would be St Chad’s Gospels. The
seating for King Wulfhere could be separated by the arch. Some of the apparatus
used by the clergy could be pieces represented in the Staffordshire (Lichfield)
Hoard. This would include a handbell. If the cathedral was more elaborate then
there was a stone seat called a cathedra at the front for the bishop, walls had
biblical artwork, a tower stored valuables, a tank was used for baptisms, side
chambers called porticus had memorials, and a chamber or crypt might have
housed relics. Lighting would be by numerous oil-lamps in wall niches. Windows
would be small, but glazed.
Bugga’s church of St Mary
Aldhelm wrote a poem, 689-709, describing a church built by
Bugga, possibly his sister. It was rectangular, lofty and had 12 altars. It
glowed within with gentle light, presumably from oil lamps or bee’s wax candles,
and had glass windows. The altar cloth glistened with gold twisted threads. A
gold chalice had jewels attached and the platen was silver. A main cross was
burnished gold and silver and had jewels attached. A metal censer embossed on
all sides hung down by chains and through openings, it let out the smell of
frankincense. There was a good chance the walls were plastered or lime washed
and even had some painting. If there was a painted image, the likeliest would
be Mary, since the apse was dedicated to the Virgin. 12 altars suggested some
reference to the 12 disciples. The floor might have been tiled. If a baptismal
receptacle was present, it could have been wooden, but equally possible would
be a stone bowl with incised figures. The altar table would most likely be made
from stone and positioned so that worshippers could stand close to it. On it
might have been a small calling bell. It stated there were twin choirs of monks
and nuns singing antiphons and psalms, so presumably they were separated in
some way and the church was a double-cell. The abbot could be carrying a
cross-staff.
Aethelwulf’s imaginary churches
A poem known as the Song
of the Abbots written between 803 and 821 by an unknown monk, gave some
detail of three imagined churches which might have been based on Bywell
monastery, Northumberland, or Crayke monastery, Yorkshire. It described a
cruciform church with lofty walls and lead on the roof. Three large altars with
substantial jewelled crosses were placed with one in the nave and one in each
side porticus. The altars with golden offerings, perhaps a reference to a chalice,
had garlands of gold flowers which could have been on the altar cloth. There was
also a tomb with relics and across the top was a sparkling vestment of fine
linen.
By 700 when
Chad’s relics might now be on the surface of his grave, protected by ‘a little
wooden house’, according to Bede, the main church was elaborate, well decorated
and ‘illuminated’. Singing and music might have been heard, chanting
particularly the Psalms was normal and services were at least three times in
the day. The early church was now regular, defined and there to give awe to
God.
[1]
M. Shapland, ‘The Cuckoo and the Magpie: The building culture of the
Anglo-Saxon Church.’ Chapter 5 in The Material Culture of the built
environment in the Anglo-Saxon World, eds. M. C. Hyer and G. R.
Owen-Croker, (Liverpool: 2015), 92.
[2]
B. Gilmour ‘The Anglo-Saxon church at St Paul-in-the-Bail, Lincoln,’ In Notes
and News, Journal Medieval Archaeology, (1979), 23, 1, 214–18.
[3]
Ibid, 93. Shapland is adamant, “We should not think of a ‘church’ in this
period as a coherent building class, as a variety of naves and chancels.”
[4]
R. Gilchrist and C. Greeb, ‘Glastonbury Abbey archaeological investigations
1904–79. The Society of Antiquaries of London, (2015), 418.
[5]
The importance of this council has been argued. Essentially it was a local gathering
of the leading clergy of the Northumbrian church with some national bishops and
presided over by King Oswiu. It was symbolic. It marked Romanisation of the
church, but the changes were not fundamental. Perhaps, the most surprising
aspect was the hosts were the nuns of the monastery at Whitby (Bede names it as
Streanæshealh, which means ‘the bay of the lighthouse’.) It was a
testimony to Hild s influence, both as a member of the royal family of
Northumbria and as abbess of the monastery. Those who exalt the early Celtic
(Ionian) church see Whitby as a disaster, mainly from the perspective of Roman
control and order. The Roman church, unlike the Celtic, was seen to be obsessed
with sin.
[6]
M. Shapland (2015), 100.
[7]
[7] Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis
Anglorum. The ecclesiastical history of the English People, 731. Bede listed
this work as Historiam ecclesiasticam nostræ insulæ ac gentis in libris V,
which translates to, The ecclesiastical history of our island and nation in
five books.
[8]
The building could be a collaboration with Bishop Headda at a late 7th or early
8th-century.
[9] Ibid, 108. Notable kings or saints were buried in either a porticus on the side of the nave (Canterbury, Wearmouth, Hexham and Ripon) or in a separate mausoleum east of the church (Glastonbury, Whithorn, Hexham, Wells, Worcester, Winchcombe, Repton, Gloucester and possibly Bradford on Avon).