In 1854, the foundation to the second cathedral was found under the floor of the choir and presbytery area. This massive choir plus apse foundation made from concrete-hard mortar was described by Robert Willis in 1861.[1]
Foundation of second cathedral found 1854, with dimensions.
Fifty years ago, it was thought
Anglo-Saxon buildings were variable in size and laid out in a scattered
arrangement. Then careful archaeology of several sites including the 1970s
partial excavation of the site at Catholme, 5.3 miles (8.5 km) northeast of
Lichfield, provided early evidence for a change of mind. At least 18 of the
post-hole buildings, dated c. 680–700, at Catholme were aligned
more-or-less to a grid pattern with sides of 4.57 m or 15 modern feet, a unit length
known as a short perch. After a comprehensive research a 15-foot (4.57 m) grid has been
found in major church buildings[2] constructed in
eastern England[3]
between the years 600–800. Then occurred a gap in evidence, partly explained by
a lack of buildings surviving, followed by the short perch reappearing again
between 950 and 1020 in the layout of farmsteads, manor houses and settlements.
This unit of measurement then disappeared from the archaeological record.
Catholme showing alignment to a short perch grid. Thanks to
J. Blair4.
It is now understood a short
perch gridding is a signature in eastern England, for Anglo-Saxon planning in
the years 600 to 1020.[4] By the 12th-century, a long perch
gridding, 5.48 m or 18 modern
feet, was brought in from France, probably by the Normans, and many of the
great buildings at the end of the 11th-century and into the 12th-century appear
to be laid out with a module of 18 ft.[5]
St Pancras, Canterbury, 7th-century showing its dimensions on a short perch grid and the remains of the early church. This is one of many examples of this unit of measurement.
Short perch dimensions are obvious and evident in the foundation of the second cathedral. Five linear short perch measurements can be discerned, namely choir-apse length, internal choir width, cross distance between drum columns, cross distance between abutments/pillars on the choir west wall, and distance between the choir west wall and beginning (chord) of the apse.[6] Very significantly, no long perch (18 ft) length can be seen in the layout of the foundation. The only long perch measurement in this part of the cathedral is the wall-to-wall width of the current choir and aisles, 63 ft 8 in, or a little more than 3.5 long perches (so not perfect), dated 13th-century.
Short perch (sp) gridding of the great apse foundation. The grid is
drawn with 15 feet squares.
 |
| Best fit short perch dimensions for a possible wall. |
Five possible short perch
dimensions have been identified in the foundation and three more with a
possible upper wall calculated to be 3 ft 11 in. (1.2 m) wide. The precepts of
Blair for short perch gridded church and claustral buildings being earlier than
1020, strongly infers the foundation must be pre-1020 and pre-Conquest.
Resemblance to Brixworth Church.
Rodwell, who investigated again
the foundation in the choir aisles in 1992 and 1994, was certain churches, both
distantly separated and locally grouped, could have similarities of proportion,
or absolute measurement, as to leave little doubt master-plans existed in
pre-Conquest England.[8]
It therefore should not be surprising to find churches near to Lichfield with
similarities of proportion.
Repton church on a short perch grid. Thanks to J. Blair4.
Brixworth Church, Northamptonshire, closely fits the short perch module[9] and its dimensions are very similar to the second cathedral.
 |
| Brixworth Church and short perch grid. |
The width of the choir-apse (63
ft 8 in.) is the same as the width of Brixworth church (63‑4 ft). The cross
distances between the columns of the inner apse at Lichfield and the width of
the nave at Brixworth are both c. 9.1 m (30 ft), two short perches wide.
The distance between the inside edge of the piers at Brixworth is the same as
the estimated distance of the assumed piers inside the current nave columns at
Lichfield.[10]
The bay before the sanctuary (choir or presbytery) at Brixworth was c.
30 ft square and the first two bays in the inner apse at Lichfield also
measured 30 ft square and is presumed to be the choir or presbytery area. It is
thought at Brixworth there was a transverse wall with triple openings (a larger
central choir-arch and two lateral door-size openings) separating the nave from
the choir bay. This arrangement might have occurred at Lichfield.[11]
If the two pier bases were drum columns it accounts for the column fragments
found in 1994. The length of the choir, apse, and ambulatory at Brixworth is
approximately 21 m (69 ft). This is tentative because the thickness and
position of the original outer ambulatory wall is unknown. It is not very different from the
22.8 m (75 ft) length for the choir-apse. Distance between the nave and choir
columns at Lichfield is almost 75 ft or 5 short perches. Brixworth has a narrow
ambulatory, described as a ring crypt, external to the apse and 7 ft 6 in.
(half short perch) wide in the current passage. The narrow ambulatory in the
Lichfield apse was 6 or 7 ft wide. Both passages (now external at Brixworth)
had barrel vaulted roofs (suggested at Lichfield). The original apse roof at
Brixworth is unknown. The early semicircular apse at Brixworth lacked
buttresses.[12]
There is no evidence of buttresses or pilaster bases on the external face of
the apse at Lichfield. Both foundations at Lichfield and Brixworth are around
1.5 m wide.[13]
The wall thickness at Brixworth is close to the estimated thickness of a wall
at Lichfield. Plaster was evident at Brixworth and Willis thought it could have
been added externally to the apse at Lichfield.[14]
Both churches contain sandstones (Brixworth has an assortment of stone).
 |
Comparison of the apse and choir at Brixworth Northamptonshire, with the choir-apse foundation at Lichfield. All units are in feet.
In summary, many elements of the
second cathedral have proportions and features like those found at
Brixworth. If the correlation is more
than coincidence, it associates the second cathedral with a group of Mercian
basilican shaped churches with similar proportions, though not necessarily the
same date of build. Basilica-like churches include Brixworth, Cirencester,
Deerhurst and Wing.[15]
All had walls over 3 ft thick and three with an apse wall close to 4 ft thick.
All could have been late-8th or 9th-century buildings,[16]
and belonged to the Mercian kingdom.
The point of this comparison is a
date for building Brixworth Church was fixed precisely after an extensive
investigation, 1977–2010, with carbon dating of charcoal found in the mortar.
This church was built in the late-8th or early-9th-century.[17]
This was the time of King Offa, 757 x 796, or the very beginning of the reign
of Coenwulf, 796 x 821. This raises the hypothesis, was the second cathedral
built in a Carolingian basilical style; an archbasilica for Offa’s archbishop
and an emulation of Charlemagne’s basilica-style church of Saint-Denis, Paris,
dedicated in 775?[18]
The hypothesis Offa built a new church at Lichfield is not new.[19]
It is the author’s view that if the second cathedral was Anglo-Saxon, then the
most obvious date would be around 770. It would establish the view that Offa’s
ecclesiastical centre, and perhaps the heart of his kingdom was at Lichfield. Another centre was at Brixworth.
Lichfield Cathedral history is
very insecure regarding dates. The lack of documentary evidence due to the
ransacking of the cathedral in the Civil War, 1643, and a Victorian obsession
with monumental Norman cathedrals means the current narrative of the second
cathedral being Norman or Anglo-Norman is guesswork. The short perch
dimensions of the foundation and the best-fit upper wall ought to be seriously
accepted as strong pointers to an Anglo-Saxon origin. Its layout and size
correspondence with Brixworth Church ought to add to this conclusion. A simple
carbon dating of the mortar of the foundation would remove all doubt.
Historians have shied away from determining the timeline and it is time for
this uncertainty to be removed. A conversation with the cathedral is long overdue.
[1] R. Willis, ‘On foundations
of early buildings recently discovered in Lichfield,’ The Archaeological Journal, (1861), 18, 1–24.
[2] It has also been found in
smaller churches, but often for one dimension, length or width, only.
[3] Kent, Northumbria, Mercia
and East Anglia. Perhaps, rarely in Wessex.
[4] J. Blair, ‘Grid planning
in Anglo-Saxon settlements: the short perch and the four perch module’, in H.
Hamerow ed., Anglo-Saxon studies in Archaeology and History, 18 (Oxford
2013), 54 and J. Blair, Building Anglo-Saxon England (Princeton and
Oxford 2018), 71, 149.
[5] H. Braun, An
introduction to English Medieval architecture 2nd ed. (London 1968), 71.
[6] The measurement from the
outside edge of the round apse foundation at mid-line to the inside edge of the
choir west wall is 75 ft 1.5 in. equal to 5 short perches. The internal apse
width was 52 ft 3 in., 3 inches short of 3.5 perches. The choir or presbytery
fits a 12 short perch grid and the apse fits an 8 short perch grid. The
distance between the two (presumed) rows of drum columns forming an inner apse
has to be 30 ft or 2 short perches. This same 2 perch distance is evident
between the abutments on the west wall of the choir-apse shown on Hamlet’s
drawing, perhaps supporting a chancel triple-opening with the middle arch 2
short perches wide and lateral openings each close to half a perch in width.
The distance between the choir west wall and the west edge of the internal
pillar shown on Hamlet’s drawing (third choir pillar, bay 3 to 4) is 45 ft or 3
short perches. This distance delineates where the choir or presbytery ends and
the apse-sanctuary begins. It is the point where the straight lateral sides of
the choir change to the semicircular section of the apse.
[7] Pre-Conquest walls are
seldom as much as 3 ft in thickness and are more often nearer 2 ft 6 in.;
whereas Norman walls are seldom less than 3 ft thick. However, there are
exceptional Anglo-Saxon walls. The earlier semicircular apse at Deerhurst,
Gloucestershire, was 3 ft 9in. wide. South Elmham had nave walls uniformly 3 ft
10 in. thick. Brixworth, Northamptonshire, had walls between 3 ft 4 in. and 3
feet 10 ins. thick. Six miles (9.6 km) away at Northampton, a Saxon palace or a
monastic complex, built c. 825–850, had walls 3 ft 11in. thick. Walls barely 4
ft thick were found at Wenlock Priory and considered to be late Anglo-Saxon.
[8] W. Rodwell, ‘Anglo-Saxon
church building: aspects of design and construction’, in L. A. S. Butler and R.
K. Morris eds., The Anglo-Saxon Church. Research Report 60, The Council for
British Archaeology (1986), 157.
[9] See note 4, J. Blair, (2013),
26.
[10] The distance between the inner
faces of the Romanesque column foundations under the floor of the nave were
slightly narrower than the present columns.
[11] There are two pier bases
on the choir west wall drawn on Hamlet’s 1856 drawing
[12] C. F. Watkins, The
basilica or palatial hall of Justice and sacred temple; its nature, origin and
purport; and a description of the basilican church of Brixworth (London
1867), 51.
[13] D. Parsons and D. S.
Sutherland, The Anglo-Saxon Church of All Saints, Brixworth;
Northamptonshire: Survey, excavation and analysis, 1972—2010 (Oxford 2013).
[14] H. M. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon
architecture: vol III (Cambridge 1978) 1063. Taylor had little doubt
that most Anglo-Saxon churches were plastered inside and outside
[15] E. Fernie, The
architecture of the Anglo-Saxons (New York 1983), 64–5.
[16] E. Gilbert, ‘Brixworth
and the English Basilica’ in Art Bulletin, (1965) vol 47, 1, 14. Gilbert
concluded English basilicas were erected between 730 and 867.
[17] See note 7, Parsons and
Sutherland 2013
[18] Gilbert 1965, 1,
suggested Brixworth church was contemporary with Fulrad’s Saint-Denis church.
[19] S. Shaw, The history
and antiquities of Staffordshire: vol I (London 1798), 234; J. Jackson, History
of the City and Cathedral of Lichfield (London 1805), 73–74 and T. Harwood,
The history and antiquities of the church and city of Lichfield (London
1806), 7.