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A Romanesque Roof at Odda's Chapel, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

C. R. J. Currie
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Summary

Timbers removed from the nave of the chapel in 1965, together with earlier photographs and traces in the surviving masonry, provide evidence of a rafter roof with a tie-beam, and probably a king-post and raking struts, at each couple. Later alterations to it are discussed in the light of what is known or can be deduced about the late- and post-medieval development of the farmhouse to which the chapel is attached. The alterations resulted in a roof largely seventeenth-century in form. It is shown, however, that the earlier timbers cannot be satisfactorily explained as post-medieval intrusions. The earlier design is compared with eleventh- and twelfth-century roofs known in north-west Europe. It was probably that of the original roof of 1056.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 63 , Issue 1 , March 1983 , pp. 58 - 63
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1983

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References

Notes

1 Taylor, H. M., Anglo-Saxon Architecture, III (Cambridge, 1978), p. 1060.Google Scholar

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3 SirFletcher, E., Odda's Chapel, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire (H.M.S.O., 1965).Google Scholar

4 Dept. of Environment, P.S.A. Photographic Library, A 6720/8 (here pl. XIII), 10, 15.

5 Ibid.

6 Inf. from the occupier (1971).

7 Dept. of Environment, P.S.A. Photographic Library, A 6720/9 and 12 (pls. XIVa and b respectively).

8 Butterworth, G. S., ‘The Saxon chapel at Deerhurst’, Trans. Bristol Glos. Arch. Soc. xi (1886–1887), 107.Google Scholar

9 Glos. R.O., G.P.S. 112/11.

10 Ibid.

11 Personal communication from Saunders, Mr. A. D., Chief Inspector of Ancient Monu-ments, 4th February 1981.Google Scholar

12 , V.C.H., Gloucestershire, VIII (1968), p. 37Google Scholar; Butterworth, G., Deerhurst, a Parish of the Vale of Gloucester (2nd edn., Tewkesbury, 1890), p. 158.Google Scholar

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15 Leland, Itin., ed. Toulmin Smith, iv, pp.

16 E.g. Westminster Abbey Muniments (hereafter W.A.M.), 8437, 8450–8462, 22211.

17 V.C.H., Glos., VIII, p. 38.

18 The V.C.H. ascribes the rebuilding to the early sixteenth century (ibid.) but the framing, with panels in four heights, curved lozenges, and ogee struts, rather suggests the later date.

19 W.A.M. 8512–8515.

20 Glos. R.O., G.P.S. 112/12.

21 Dept. of Environment, P.S.A. Photo-graphic Library, A 6720/8 (pl. XIII here), 10, 15.

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24 W.A.M. 8512.

25 Fletcher, op. cit. (n. 3).

26 G. S. Butterworth, op. cit. (n. 8).

27 E.g. , V.C.H., Glos., VIII, p. 48. The nineteenth-century work may even date from the 1885 restoration.Google Scholar

28 Ely, West Range (c. 1190, tie-beams at some trusses: Fletcher, J. M. and Haslop, F. W. O., in Arch. J. cxxvi (1970), 171–6)Google Scholar; Peterborough, Archdeaconry House (? infirmary hall, c. 1180: Fletcher, J. M. and Taylor, R. F., in Friends of Peterborough Cathedral (1972), pp. 7–9)Google Scholar; Little Hormead, Herts. (Hewett, C. A. and Gibson, A. N. B., in Herts. Arch, iii (1973), 126–7)Google Scholar; Chipping Ongar, Essex (Hewett, op. cit. (n. 2), p. 35, claiming late eleventh-century date, but citing late twelfth-century parallels); and possibly Roydon, Essex (ibid., p. 80) and Wistanstow, Salop, north transept (c. 1180–1200: Cranage, D. H. S., Architectural Account of the Churches of Shropshire, 1 (Wellington, 1894), p. 169Google Scholar, and personal observation).

29 Draper, W. H., Adel and its Norman Church (Leeds, 1908), pp. 230–2.Google Scholar

30 Hewett, op. cit. (n. 2), p. 51.

31 The roof is now being restored by the Department. I am grateful to Mr. Morley for kindly showing it to me.

32 See, e.g., for Germany, Ostendorf, F., Geschichte des Dachwerks (Berlin, 1908), pp. 12–13Google Scholar; for the Low Countries, Brigode, S., ‘L'architecture religieuse dans le sud-ouest de la Belgique…’, Bull. Comm. Royale des Monuments et des Sites, n.s., i (1949), 89–353Google Scholar; H. Janse and L. Devliegher, ‘Middeleuwse Bekappingen in het vroegere Graafschap Vlaanderen’; ibid. n.s. xiii (1962), 308–21; J. Martens, ‘Leefdaal’, ibid, n.s., v (1954), 162–3; for France, Deneux, H., ‘L'évolution des charpentes du xie au xviiie siècle’, L'architecte (1927)Google Scholar, and Charpentes (Paris, Centre de Recherches des Monuments Historiques, n.d.), i-ii; for Denmark, Møller, Elna, ‘Romanske Tagskon-struktioner’, Aarbøger (1953–1954), 137–49Google Scholar and Danmarks Kirker, xxi (Copenhagen, National Museum, 1957–1960), pp. 1171, 1186, 1196, 1264–5, 1267, 1356, 1390, 1407, 1446, 1462–3, 1646Google Scholar; for Norway, and Sweden, , Hauglid, R., ‘The trussed-rafter construction of the stave churches in Norway’, Acta Archaeologica, xliii (1972), esp. pp. 27–37.Google Scholar English summary of French and Belgian evidence in Fletcher, J. M. and Spokes, P. S., ‘Origin and development of crown-post roofs’, Med. Arch, vi (1964), 153–6.Google Scholar

33 Aarbøger (1953–4), 139; cf. Ostendorf, op. cit. (n. 32), p. 13, fig. 22 (c. 1100), and Acta Archaeologica, xliii (1972), 27.Google Scholar

34 St.-Germain-des-Près; Maastricht (Bull. Comm. Royale des Monuments et des Sites, n.s., xiii (1962), 315)Google Scholar; Tournai, transepts (ibid., 317).