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XVIII.—An Account of Excavations made on the site of the Chapter-house of Durham Cathedral in 1874

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

J. T. Fowler
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Extract

The sad story of the demolition of the Chapter-house at Durham has been so often told that it need not be repeated here. The eastern portion of that fine Norman building having been levelled to the ground at the end of the last century, its site came to form a portion of the Deanery garden, formerly the centry-garth or cemetery of the Abbey. In the summer of 1874, while a party of friends staying at the Deanery were surveying the spot, some curiosity was expressed as to whether the floor remained buried under the soil, and whether any part of the stone chair, the sedes episcopalis, in which the bishops were placed at their enthronement, was still in existence. An iron rod forced into the ground in several places was found to be stopped by something hard, at a greater depth westward than eastward, the difference being caused by the steps of the apse. A small excavation a little to the east of the present east wall revealed the inscribed slab of Ralph Flambard, and another on the site of the chair brought to light the lower courses of the semicircular eastern wall; no trace however of the chair itself could be found. It was now determined by the Dean that the removal of the earth should be proceeded with until at least all the central portion of the floor should be exposed, in order that the grave-covers indicated in Browne Willis's plan, of which one had been already found, might again be seen.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 45 , Issue 2 , 1880 , pp. 385 - 404
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1880

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References

page 385 note a See Carter's plates, and Rites of Durham, Surtees Society's edition, p. 48.

page 386 note a The plan was carefully made by Mr. C. Hodgson Fowler, F.S.A., F.R.I.B.A.

page 386 note b Simeon's Hist. Ecol. Dunelm. lxii. Raine's Priory of Hexham, Pref. part i. p. lvi.

page 386 note c Ealdhun's church was begun in 995 and completed about 999. It was called “The White Church,” and Reginald of Durham briefly describes it (cap. xvi.) This church was palled down, and the present cathedral begun in 1093 by Bishop Carileph. The present chapter-house (partly demolished 1795–7) was built by Bishop Geoffrey Rufus in 1133–40.

page 387 note a These numbers refer to the order in which the graves were examined.

page 387 note b It may be noted that the ring of Flambard, who ruled the bishopric for twenty-nine years, is much worn in comparison with those of Rufus and De St. Barbara, the former of whom ruled for eight years only, and the latter for ten. It was the signet ring of Flambard which he offered at the High Altar in Durham Abbey, and which was long attached to his deed of restitution. See Surtees's Durham, i. xx., note.

page 388 note a Durandus speaks of burning charcoal with incense being put into graves, and of the charcoal by reason of its enduring quality remaining as a testimony that the earth is no more to be put to common uses.—Rationale Div. Off. vii. 35.

page 388 note b This was found on microscopical and chemical examination to be a resinous material, which had probably been spread on some fabric that had totally perished, to form a kind of cere-cloth. It appears to possess some of the peculiar properties of crude lac, from which shell-lac is made, and which, though an Oriental product, may have been well known in Europe in the twelfth century.

page 391 note a It emitted a distinctly animal odour when heated.

page 393 note a “Sepnltus est in capitulo Dunelmensi coram sede episcopali, et lapide marmoreo coopertus.”—Graystanes, P. 37, Scriptores tres, p. 98.

page 394 note a Hist. Eccl. Dunelm. cap. xxxvii.

page 395 note a The modern east wall of the remaining portion of the Chapter-house.

page 399 note a Rolleston, Journal of Anatomy and Physiology, 1868, vol. iii. p. 254. British Barrows, p. 706. Archtcologia, vol. xlii. p. 171.

page 402 note a Huxley, Prehistoric remains of Caithness, p. 125, fig. 60, 61.

page 403 note a See Gent. Mag. Dec. 1801.

page 403 note b See Raine's Auckland Castle, p. 8, note.