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The Anglo-Saxon Rood and other Features in the South Porch of St. Mary's Church, Breamore, Hampshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Warwick Rodwell  and
E. Clive Rouse
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Summary

Conservation in 1980 of the wall-paintings in the upper chamber of the south porch at Breamore church, where the notable Anglo-Saxon stone rood is sited, led to an archaeological study of the associated parts of the building. It was established that the rood is not in its primary location over the south door, but was only erected there in the fifteenth century. It is argued that the rood originally occupied a position over the western arch into the nave of the Saxon church, being enclosed within a chamber, now demolished. The Norman south doorway and added porch appear to be a refurbishment of an original entrance to the nave, although probably not the principal one, which, it is argued, lay at the west end. In the fifteenth century the church was repaired piecemeal, and this involved the demolition of the Saxon north porticus and western chamber, the partial reconstruction of the south porch and a lowering of its roof pitch, and the resiting of the displaced rood sculptures in the south wall of the nave above the porch. In the early sixteenth century the walls of the porch were raised, creating an upper storey which functioned as a chapel, probably dedicated in honour of St. Mary the Virgin. The rood then became a devotional object within the porch chapel, and an elaborate scheme of landscape painting was applied as a background, and was continued on the west wall of the chapel. The remaining areas of wall plaster in the chapel were painted with guttée-de-sang and sacred monograms. Later in the sixteenth century the Anglo-Saxon sculptures were deliberately defaced and their remains hidden by a layer of plaster. The re-exposure of the rood and paintings took place at an unrecorded date in the nineteenth century; the upper floor of the porch was removed in 1897, revealing the chapel to view from below.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 64 , Issue 2 , September 1984 , pp. 298 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1984

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References

* Sections contributed by E.C.R. are initialed thus; the remainder is by W.R., or another acknowledged contributor. Both authors have, however, mutually agreed the entire text.

1 Brown, G. Baldwin, The Arts in Early England, 11, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 2nd edn. (London, 1935), pp. 348–53Google Scholar; Kendrick, T. D., Late Saxon and Viking Art (London, 1949), pp. 46–7Google Scholar; Clapham, A. W., English Romanesque Architecture before the Conquest (Oxford, 1930), p. 140Google Scholar. A. R., and Green, P. M., Saxon Architecture and Sculpture in Hampshire (Winchester, 1951), pp. 5–10, 37–9Google Scholar; Rice, D. Talbot, English Art, 871–1100 (Oxford, 1952), p. 99Google Scholar; Taylor, H. M., Anglo-Saxon Architecture, in (Cambridge, 1978), p. 1056Google Scholar; J., and Taylor, H. M., ‘Architectural sculpture in pre-Norman England’, J.B.A.A. 3rd ser. xxix (1966), p. 11Google Scholar.

2 Taylor, H. M. and Taylor, J., Anglo-Saxon Architecture, 1 (Cambridge, 1965), pp. 94–6Google Scholar.

3 Hill, A. Du B., ‘A Saxon church at Breamore, Hants’, Arch. J. lv (1898), pp. 84–71Google Scholar.

4 A. R. and P. M. Green, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 5–10.

5 Fisher, E. A., The Greater Anglo-Saxon Churches (London, 1962), pp. 389–93Google Scholar, where the plan and description are largely taken from the V.C.H., , Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, iv (1911), pp. 598–601Google Scholar.

6 H. M. and J. Taylor, op. cit. (note 2), where some details of the Anglo-Saxon building have unfortunately been omitted.

7 Previously published plans have differed in the nature of the detail shown.

8 V.C.H., Hants, rv, p. 599.

9 Huggins, P., Rodwell, K. and Rodwell, W., ‘Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian building measurements’, in Drury, P. J. (ed.), Structural Reconstruction, B.A.R. no (Oxford, 1982), pp. 21–65Google Scholar.

10 It is centred at ⅚ N. rod from the west end of the nave.

11 If there was originally a north door it could not have been directly opposite the south door, but set slightly to the east; this is a common phenomenon in Anglo- Saxon churches.

12 This observation is discussed in more detail, in relation to the Anglo-Saxon church at Rivenhall, Essex, in W. J. and K. A. Rodwell, Rivenhall: Investigations on the Roman Villa, Church and Village, 1950–75 (forthcoming).

13 The low Norman arch inserted in the east wall of the south porticus still retains its plain, chamfered imposts.

14 Fifteenth-century ground level is indicated by the way the rebuilt quoin projects forward of the original line, as seen on fig. 43.

15 Hill, op. cit. (note 3), p. 84.

16 Baldwin Brown, op. cit. (note 1), p. 351.

17 Kendrick, op. cit. (note 1).

18 Fisher, op. cit. (note 5), p. 393.

19 A. R. and P. M. Green, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 5–10.

20 J. and H. M. Taylor, op. cit. (note 1), p. ii ; Taylor, 1056 (pp. cit., note 1).

21 A. R. and P. M. Green, op. cit. (note 1), fig.3.

22 Kendrick, op. cit. (note 1).

23 V.C.H., Hants, iv, p. 429.

24 Hill, op. cit. (note 3), pl. 2 shows the condition of the rood in 1896–7.

25 These areas were investigated and treated in 1979 and produced some interesting facts. The names of the saints whose carved figures were below are written at the top. That on the north is indecipherable, but MICHAEL can clearly be seen on the south, proving a change of dedication. Mr. Anthony Light's researches into the archdeaconry and other records have revealed eight references to the church's dedication to St. Michael between 1502 and 1548, and the change to St. Mary must have taken place at or near the latter date. This might account for the prominence given to the MARIA monogram in the porch chapel, and would seem to confirm the late date of the paintings.

26 Reader, F. W., ‘Tudor mural paintings in the lesser houses in Bucks.’, Arch. J. lxxxix (1933), pp. 134–7Google Scholar and pls. viii-xii.

27 Keyser, C. E., List of Buildings having Mural Decorations (London, 1883), p. 38Google Scholar.

28 Caiger-Smith, A., English Medieval Mural Paintings (Oxford, 1963), p. 143Google Scholar.

29 H. M. and J. Taylor, op. cit. (note 2), pp. 289–91.

30 Ibid., pp. 74–5.

31 Ibid., p. 87.

32 Ibid., p. 65.

33 Ibid., p. 232, fig. 104.

34 Ibid., pp. 214–16, but the west doorway is not shown on the plan, fig. 94.

35 Light, A. and Dampney, I., A Short History of the Village of Breamore, 4th edn. (Fordingbridge, 1980), p. 3Google Scholar.

36 Okasha, E., Hand-List of Anglo-Saxon Non-Runic Inscriptions (Cambridge, 1971), p. 56Google Scholar; and ‘A supplement to Hand-List of Anglo-Saxon Non-Runic Inscriptions’, in Clemoes, P. (ed.), Anglo-Saxon England, 11 (Cambridge, 1983), p. 88Google Scholar.

37 Illustrated in A. R. and P. M. Green, op. cit. (note 1), pl. II.

38 See ibid., pp. 36–7; V.C.H., Hants, iv, p.429; J. and H. M. Taylor, op. cit. (note 1), pp. 4–6.

39 Kendrick, op. cit. (note 1), p. 49, noted that the Romsey rood has a flat-topped head, as though it were intended to carry a crown; there is a small hole on the left side of the head, possibly for fastening a metal crown.

40 Illustrated ibid., pl. xxi, and Talbot Rice, op. cit. (note 1), pl. 79a.

41 Proc. Soc. Antiq. 2nd ser. xxii (1908), pp. 225–30.

42 When traced and corrected, the posture of Christ is seen to be exactly comparable to that on the Stepney panel.

43 J. and H. M. Taylor, op. cit. (note 1), fig. 6.

44 More detailed notes on the paintings and conservation have been deposited with the records held by the Council for the Care of Churches, in London.