The Unfinished Chapel at Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire, and Ecclesiastical Politics in The Early Eleventh Century
An examination of the decorative elements on the structure of the Anglo-Saxon chapel of St Laurence at Bradford on Avon, Wilts., has suggested that the total decorative scheme, comprising different elements, was abandoned before completion. This hypothesis arises from an examination of the carved moulding on some of the internal and external pilasters, the external blind arcading, and the ‘unfinished’ rood on the eastern wall of the nave. A historical context for this is suggested in the abandonment of the nearly completed building on the death of King Æthelred, the sponsor of the construction of the chapel as a cult centre for Edward the Martyr from AD 1001. While his successor King Cnut would probably have been supportive of the continuation of the cult at Shaftesbury, the chapel was arguably soon abandoned because the underlying religious and political rationale for its construction no longer obtained in the circumstances of the new king's regime.
The Settlement and Landscape Context of the Battle of Hastings
THIS ARTICLE PUTS FORWARD A MODEL for the development of the settlement and landscape context of the town of Hastings (East Sussex) immediately prior to the battle of Hastings of 1066. It explores the new thesis that a burh or citadel was created on the site of Castle or West Hill at Hastings, the site of the later Norman castle, by King Æthelred II in c ad 990 as one element in a possibly systematic defence of southern England against Viking invaders. The burh was associated with the establishment of a mint, and both led directly to the development of the town of Hastings from that time, together with a probable port and associated ship-building industry. The site of this putative burh, which was likely provided with defences, a tower-nave church and a monumental gateway, survived to be used by Duke William for two weeks in the autumn of 1066 as his military command centre in preparation for the battle which made possible his subsequent conquest of England.
Staged Timber Spires in Carolingian North-East France and Late Anglo-Saxon England
Abstract The masonry buildings of the Carolingian period have long been recognised as constituting a definitive stage in the development of West European architecture. Some of the great churches of this period also had elaborate timber constructions associated with them, yet the significance of these has never been fully assessed. This paper examines the evidence for a key group of buildings in North-East France and suggests that their timber spires formed a coherent group which may be regarded as an important phenomenon in the architecture of the Carolingian renaissance. These spires have an origin in Late Antique and Merovingian architecture; they also seem to have a role in the development of later medieval spires. In the second part of this paper, the evidence is examined for spires in Late Anglo-Saxon England, and whether these were influenced by the Carolingian examples.