Search

SummaryThe 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.

An account is given of the first stages of the concerted application of archaeological, architectural, and historical methods to the investigation of the church and its surroundings in the village of Deerhurst, Gloucestershire. It is the intention of the investigators to record, and as far as possible to interpret, all stages of development of the building, from its earliest days down to the present, and to link those developments as closely as possible to the life and history of the surrounding district.

SummaryA survey of the structural and contemporary literary evidence for the position of the altar in Anglo-Saxon churches before the Viking invasions of the ninth century indicates that it was not at the east end of the church but in a more central position. This was sometimes near the east end of the nave and sometimes in the eastern compartment. As an indication of how this practice may have arisen in England, references are given to evidence for similar treatment of the altar in Continental and North African churches at somewhat earlier dates.

The churches of Great Britain might be regarded as monuments which have been so closely studied by antiquaries for well over a century that they could scarcely be expected to be a fruitful subject for new intensive investigation. But in fact the true story is quite different; the antiquarian interest of the past was largely concentrated on architectural history and while much of that field has indeed been well explored there are many other fields that have scarcely been touched. In January 1972, the Council for British Archaeology set up a Committee to co-ordinate and encourage archaeological research on places of worship in Great Britain, and in particular to develop a research policy which would include both pure research and also the recording of all archaeological evidence that might be endangered when places of worship and their sites are threatened with alteration whether in normal circumstances or because of change of use.