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The Wooden Church of St. Andrew at Greensted, Essex
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011
Summary
The surviving wooden fabric of the nave at Greensted has no direct analogues in standing buildings either in England or on the Continent; but excavations have shown evidence for the former existence in both places of buildings with walls of upright logs, some set on sills and some fixed directly in the ground without any sill. Excavation at Greensted in 1960 indicated that the original chancel (and therefore probably also the nave) was of the earth-fast type, for which analogues have been found by excavation in Scandinavia.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1979
References
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1 Møller, Elna and Olsen, Olaf, ‘Danske traekirker’, Nationalmuseets Arbejdsmark (1961), pp. 35–58Google Scholar; Christie, Håkon, ‘Urnes stavkirkes forl’, Årbok for Foreningen til Norske Fortidsminnesmerkers bevaring (1958), 49–74.Google Scholar
2 Lethieul lier's drawings and extracts from his letter were published by the Society of Antiquaries (Vetusta Monumenta, II (London, 1789), pl. 7).Google Scholar The drawings were republished in V.C.H. Essex, IV (London, 1956), pp. 60–2.Google Scholar The text of the letter was published in greater detail, but without the drawings, in The Builder, LXXXVII (8 October 1904), 351.Google Scholar The letter is preserved in the British Museum (Stowe MS. 754, fo. 42). The earliest authority for the returning of St. Edmund's body in 1013 from London to Norfolk was written about the end of the eleventh century. It does not record that the body rested in a wooden chapel near Ongar: Hermann ‘De miraculis Sancti Edmundi’ in Memorials of St. Edmund's Abbey, ed. Arnold, T. (Rolls Series, 96, I) (London, 1890), pp. 40–5.Google Scholar
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7 In some places the space between the planks is large enough to allow us to see the base of the groove (for example in plank 23 of the north wall). Here shallow holes, about 10–15 cm. apart, have been observed. The holes were drilled with a bit about 2 cm. in diameter. The sides of the groove are fairly rough-hewn, with traces of an adze having been used. Thus when the grooves were made, a number of holes were first drilled into the side of the plank, then the wood between the holes was cut away, and the sides were tooled with an adze. The grooves in the planks of Norwegian stave churches were made in the same way.
8 Five of the planks of the south wall have also been cut down somewhat at the head, so that only the lower part of the splay remains. All the other original planks of the side walls retain the splay uncurtailed. A similar treatment of wall planks occurs in Scandinavian stave churches, see Ekhoff, Emil, Svenska Stavkyrkor (Stockholm, 1914–1916), and pl. xxxb, which shows the planks of Hemse church on Gotland.Google Scholar
9 Some of the wall planks have a slight external bevel at the foot. This might be interpreted as representing a splay also at the foot, most of which disappeared when the planks were cut and set on their present sills. However, the quality of the hewing of the bevelled surfaces shows them to be secondary. Moreover a couple of planks have holes from an attack by insects, and it is clear that the bevelled edge was cut after the insect attack.
10 A similar slight bevel of the interior wall face, immediately below the wall plate, may also be observed in Norwegian stave churches.
11 Large holes have been drilled right through this plank, about 40 cm. apart, along its entire length. Broken or cut wooden pegs remain in these holes. They may have been driven in from the west, to serve as a foothold for those who climbed up into the tower; in that case, they must have been installed after the plank had been placed in its present position as part of the wall, but before the present tower stairs were built.
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