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The Cambridge Manuals of Science and
Literature
THE GROUND PLAN OF THE
ENGLISH PARISH CHURCH
LONDON: FETTER LANE, E.C.
C. F. CLAY, MANAGER
EDINBURGH: 100, PRINCES STREET
BERLIN: A. ASHER AND CO.
LEIPZIG: F. A. BROCKHAUS
NEW YORK: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
BOMBAY AND CALCUTTA: MACMILLAN AND CO., LTD.
_All rights reserved_
[Illustration: Hedon, Yorkshire: nave from N.W.]
[Illustration]
THE GROUND PLAN
OF THE ENGLISH
PARISH CHURCH
BY
A. HAMILTON THOMPSON
M.A., F.S.A.
Cambridge:
at the University Press
1911
CAMBRIDGE:
PRINTED BY JOHN CLAY, M.A.
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
_With the exception of the coat of arms at the foot, the design on the
title page is a reproduction of one used by the earliest known Cambridge
printer, John Siberch, 1521_.
PREFACE
There is as yet no book entirely devoted to the development of the plan
of the parish church in England, and the body of literature which bears
upon the subject is not very accessible to the ordinary student. The
present volume is an attempt to indicate the main lines on which that
development proceeded. It is obvious that, from necessary considerations
of space, much has been omitted. The elevation of the building, and the
treatment of its decorative features, window-tracery, sculpture, etc.,
belong to another and wider branch of architectural study, in which the
parish church pursues the same line of structural development as the
cathedral or monastic church, and the architectural forms of the
timber-roofed building follow the example set by the larger churches
with their roofs of stone. To this side of the question much attention
has been devoted, and of late years increasing emphasis has been laid on
the importance of the vaulted construction of our greater churches,
which is the very foundation of medieval architecture and the secret of
its progress through its various "styles." It is expected that the
reader of this book, in which a less familiar but none the less
important topic is handled, will already have some acquaintance with the
general progress of medieval architectural forms, with which the
development of the ground plan keeps pace.
Some historical and architectural questions, which arise out of the
consideration of the ground plan, and have an important bearing upon it,
are treated in another volume of this series, which is intended to be
complementary to the present one.
The writer is grateful to his wife, for the plans and sketches which she
has drawn for him, and for much help: to Mr C. C. Hodges and Mr J. P.
Gibson, for the permission to make use of their photographs; and to the
Rev. J. C. Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., and the Rev. R. M. Serjeantson, M.A.,
F.S.A., for their kindness in reading through the proofs and supplying
suggestions of the greatest value.
A. H. T.
GRETTON, NORTHANTS
_26 January 1911_
CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH PLAN IN ENGLAND
SECTION PAGE
1. The basilican church plan 1
2. Problem of its derivation 2
3. Rival theories of its origin 3
4. The Roman basilica: old St Peter's 6
5. Basilicas at Ravenna 8
6. Tomb-churches and baptisteries 9
7. Centralised plans at Ravenna 10
8. Relative advantages of the basilican and the centralised
plan 12
9. The basilican church at Silchester 13
10. Early churches in Kent and Essex 14
11. Bradford-on-Avon, Wilts. 16
12. Escomb church, Durham 16
13. Early Northumbrian churches 18
14. Wilfrid's churches at Hexham and Ripon 20
15, 16. Brixworth, Northants: other basilican plans 21
17. Exceptional occurrence of the basilican plan in
England 24
CHAPTER II
PARISH CHURCHES OF THE LATER SAXON PERIOD
SECTION PAGE
18. The normal pre-Conquest plan 27
19. The western bell-tower 29
20. Plans in which the ground floor of the tower forms the
body of the church 30
21. Barton-on-Humber and the centralised plan 33
22. Centralised planning in England 34
23. The Saxon lateral porch 35
24. Development of the transeptal chapel 36
25. Towers between nave and chancel 37
26, 27. Development of the cruciform plan 38
28. Influence of local material upon the aisleless church
plan 42
CHAPTER III
THE AISLELESS CHURCH OF THE NORMAN PERIOD
29. Survival and development of the aisleless plan after the
Conquest 44
30. The nave of the aisleless church 46
31. Rectangular chancels 47
32. Churches with no structural division between nave
and chancel 49
33. Churches with apsidal chancels 49
34. The quire 53
35. The transeptal chapel 54
36. Cruciform plans: North Newbald and Melbourne 58
37. Later developments of the cruciform plan 60
38. Symbolism in planning 62
CHAPTER IV
THE AISLED PARISH CHURCH
I. NAVE, TOWER, AND PORCHES
SECTION PAGE
39. Survival of the aisleless plan 64
40. The addition of aisles 66
41. Use of aisles for side altars 66
42. Twelfth century aisled plans 69
43. Ordinary method of adding aisles 70
44, 45. Consequent irregularities of plan 74
46. Gradual addition of aisles 77
47. Raunds church, Northants 79
48. Conservative feeling of the builders for old work 81
49. Aisles widened and rebuilt 83
50. Rebuilding of aisles as chantry chapels: Harringworth,
Northants 84
51. Newark, Cirencester, Northleach, and Grantham 87
52. Naves lengthened westward 92
53. The western tower in relation to the plan 94
54. Engaged western towers, etc. 96
55. Rebuilding of towers 98
56. Porches 99
57. Position of the porch in the plan 99
CHAPTER V
THE AISLED PARISH CHURCH
II. TRANSEPTS AND CHANCEL
58. Cruciform churches with aisled transepts 101
59. Addition of transeptal chapels 102
60. Variety of treatment of transeptal chapels 105
61. Transeptal chapels as a key to original ground plans 107
62. Incomplete cruciform plans 108
63. Irregular cruciform plans 110
64. Central towers with transeptal chapels 113
65. Transeptal towers 113
66. Lengthening of chancels 114
67. Encroachment of the chancel on the nave: Tansor 115
68. Chancel chapels 117
69. Churches with one chancel chapel 119
70. Chantry chapels attached to chancels 120
71. Effect of the addition of chapels on the cruciform plan 121
72. The aisled rectangular plan 124
73. Variations of the plan with aisled nave and chancel 126
74. Development of the aisled rectangle at Grantham 129
75. Deviation of the axis of the chancel 131
INDEX OF PLACES 134
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Hedon. Interior of nave _Frontispiece_
FIGS. PAGE
1 Plan of old St Peter's 6
2 Plan of San Vitale, Ravenna 11
3 Plan of Escomb--typical Saxon church 17
4 St Peter's, Barton-on-Humber 31
5 Aisleless plan, 12th cent. 45
6 Birkin, Yorkshire: interior 51
7 Two aisleless plans with central tower 55
8 North Newbald 57
9 Sketch of older wall above nave arcade, Gretton 72
10 Plan of Raunds church 80
11 Plan of Harringworth church 85
12 Two plans, nos. 1 and 2, of Grantham church 88
13 Sketch of arch joining arcade to tower, Gretton 93
14 Plan of 13th cent. church: W. tower, S. Porch, transeptal
chapels 103
15 St Mary's, Beverley. Interior of transept. 111
16 Plans of Grantham church, nos. 3 and 4 130
CHAPTER I
THE ORIGIN OF THE CHURCH PLAN IN ENGLAND
Sec. 1. Side by side with the establishment of Christianity as the religion
of the Roman empire, there appeared a fully developed plan for places of
Christian worship. The normal Christian church of the fourth century of
our era was an aisled building with the entrance at one end, and a
semi-circular projection known as the apse at the other. The body of the
building, the nave with its aisles, was used by the congregation, the
quire of singers occupying a space, enclosed within low walls, at the
end nearest the apse. In the apse, raised above the level of the nave,
was the altar, behind which, ranged round the wall, were the seats for
the bishop and assistant clergy. This type of church, of which the
aisled nave and the apse are the essential parts, is known as the
_basilica_. The name, employed to designate a "royal" or magnificent
building, had long been applied to large buildings, whether open to the
sky or roofed, which were used, partly as commercial exchanges, partly
as halls of justice. It is still often said that the Christian basilicas
were merely adaptations of such buildings to sacred purposes. Some of
the features of the Christian plan are akin to those of the secular
basilica. The apse with its semi-circular range of seats and its altar
reproduces the judicial tribune, with its seats for the praetor and his
assistant judges, and its altar on which oaths were taken. The open
galleries, which in some of the earliest Christian basilicas at Rome
form an upper story to the aisles, recall the galleries above the
colonnades which surrounded the central hall of some of the larger
secular basilicas. Again, the _atrium_ or forecourt through which the
Christian basilica was often approached has been supposed to be derived
from the _forum_ in connexion with which the secular basilica was
frequently built.
Sec. 2. However, while the _atrium_ of the Christian basilica is merely an
outer court, the secular basilica, when planned, like the Basilica Ulpia
at Rome, with direct relation to a _forum_, was a principal building in
connexion with the _forum_, but not a building of which the _forum_ was
a mere annexe. Further, when we begin to seek for a complete
identification of the Christian with the secular basilica, we are met by
the obstacle that the secular basilica had no fixed plan. If we try to
trace any principle of development in its plan, we find that this
development is directly inverse to that of the Christian basilica. The
secular basilica, in earlier examples a colonnaded building with its
central space open to the sky, became at a later time a roofed hall,
either, as in the case of the basilica at Trier, without aisles, or,
like the basilica of Maxentius or Constantine in the Roman forum, with a
series of deep recesses at the side, the vaulted roofs of which served
to counteract the outward pressure of the main vault. The Christian
basilica, if it were a mere imitation of this type of building, would
follow the same line of development; but, as a matter of fact, the
highest type of Christian church is always a colonnaded or aisled
building. And, even if the Christian apse derived its arrangement from
the apse or apses which projected from the ends or sides of the secular
basilicas, there is again a difference. The apse with its altar was the
main feature of the interior of the Christian church: it was the place
in which the chief rite of Christian worship was performed before the
eyes of all. In the secular basilica the apse was devoted to special
purposes which set it apart from the main business of the body of the
building: it was an appendage to the central hall, not necessarily
within view of every part of it. In fact, the relation of the apse to
the main building was totally different in the two cases.
Sec. 3. It seems probable, then, that the identity between the two
buildings is mainly an identity of name, and that Christian builders,
in seeking for suitable arrangements for public worship, may have
borrowed some details from the arrangements of the secular basilica. It
is natural, however, to look for the origin of a religious plan in
buildings devoted to religious purposes. The Roman temple supplied no
help for the plan of buildings which were required for public worship.
Of recent years, it has been customary to assume that the Christian
basilica took its form from the inner halls of the private houses of
those wealthy citizens who embraced Christianity in its early days. Such
halls may have been used for Christian services; and if their plan was
adopted for the Christian basilica, the mature state of the basilican
plan at its first appearance can be explained. The _atrium_ or entrance
hall of the house is represented on this hypothesis by the forecourt of
the basilica; the peristyle, or colonnade round the inner room, becomes
the aisles and the space screened off at the entrance for those not
entitled to take full part in the service; the colonnade at the further
end survives in the arcaded screen which existed, for example, in old St
Peter's at Rome; the apse takes the place of the _tablinum_, where the
most sacred relics of family life were preserved; and the transept,
which is found in some of the early Roman basilican plans, represents
the _alae_, or transverse space, which existed between the _tablinum_
and the main body of the hall. But these close analogies are the result
of an assumption by no means certain. It is always probable that the
basilican plan had its origin in a plan originally aisleless. Some,
intent on its religious source, explain it as a development of the plan
of the Jewish synagogue. Others, regarding assemblies of Christians for
public worship as, in their essence, meetings of persons associated in
common brotherhood, have derived the basilica directly from the
aisleless _scholae_ which were the meeting-places of the various
confraternities or _collegia_ of ancient Rome. In these there is an apse
at one end of the building; and, if we imagine aisles added by the
piercing of the walls with rows of arches and columns, we have at once
the essential features of the basilican plan. Each theory has its
attractions and its difficulties; and to none is it possible to give
unqualified adherence. It may be stated, as a tentative conclusion, that
the basilican plan probably had its origin in an aisleless form of
building, and thus pursued a course directly opposite to the development
of the secular basilica. But it seems clear that, in many details of the
plan, especially as we see it in Rome, the peristyled hall was kept in
mind; while in two features, the arrangement of the apse and the
occasional appearance of galleries above the aisles, the secular
basilica was taken into consideration. The policy of the early Christian
Church, when its services were sanctioned by the state, was to adapt
existing and familiar forms where they could be suitably reproduced.
[Illustration: Fig. 1. Plan of old St Peter's: (1) _atrium_ or
fore-court; (2) nave with double aisles; (3) site of screen-colonnade;
(4, 4) transepts; (5) apse with crypt below.]
Sec. 4. The plan of the old basilica of St Peter at Rome, founded by
Constantine the Great, and destroyed early in the sixteenth century to
make way for the present church, explains the principal features of the
basilican plan in its developed state. (1) In common with other early
basilicas in Rome, and in other parts of western Europe, the entrance
was at the east, and the altar at the west end, so that the celebrant
faced the congregation during the divine office. (2) The church was
approached through a cloistered _atrium_ or fore-court, in the middle of
which was a fountain, the place of purification for those intending to
enter the church. (3) At the west end of the cloister three doorways
opened into the nave of the church, and one on either side into the
side aisles. (4) The nave communicated with the aisles by a row of
columns beneath an entablature: there were also outer aisles,
communicating with the inner by columns bearing rounded arches. (5) The
side walls of the nave, above the entablature, were not pierced for
galleries, but were covered by two rows of mosaic pictures, one above
the other, on each side, the upper row corresponding to the height of
the space between the outer and inner roofs of the aisle. Above this,
the walls rose into a clerestory, pierced with round-headed windows at
regular intervals; and a high entablature supported the great tie-beams
of the wooden roof. (6) The quire of singers, divided from the rest of
the church by low screen walls, probably occupied the centre of the
western portion of the nave. (7) A tall open arch divided the nave from
the transept, which was of equal height with the nave, and projected
south and north as far as the walls of the outer aisles. Here probably
were places reserved for distinguished persons, near the platform of the
altar. (8) West of the transept, entered by a tall and wide arch, was
the apse. Beneath the arch was a screen, formed by a row of columns,
under an entablature which bore statues of our Lord and the apostles:
this crossed the arch at the foot of the steps leading to the altar and
seats of the clergy. (9) Beneath the altar platform, and entered by
doorways on each side of the flight of steps, was the crypt or
_confessio_, the traditional place of martyrdom of St Peter, and the
resort of pilgrims to the tomb of the apostles. The hallowed place was
immediately beneath the altar.
Sec. 5. The sixth century basilicas of Ravenna, Sant' Apollinare in Classe
and Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, differ in plan from the Roman basilicas (1)
in the fact that they have always had the altar at the east, and the
entrance at the west end; (2) by substituting, for a colonnaded atrium,
a closed porch or _narthex_ in front of the entrance of the building. In
process of time, two of the greater Roman basilicas, San Paolo and San
Lorenzo fuori le Mura, were enlarged in a westward direction, so that
the positions of the altar and entrance were reversed; and, in several
of the early basilicas at Rome, a space near the entrance of the nave
was screened off, from which penitents and catechumens might watch the
service. But, in the first instance, the eastern chancel and the
structural _narthex_ appear to have been introduced from the eastern
empire. Neither at Ravenna nor at Rome did bell-towers originally form
part of the plan of the basilica: the round _campanili_ of both churches
at Ravenna are certainly later additions. It may also be noted (1) that
ordinarily the aisles were single, not double as at old St Peter's. (2)
The columned screen of the apse at old St Peter's appears to have been
exceptional. The ordinary screen or _cancelli_, from which is derived
our word "chancel" for the space thus enclosed, was a low wall. This is
the arrangement at the basilica of San Clemente, in which the enclosed
quire also remains. (3) The transept, even in Rome, was an exceptional
arrangement, and does not appear in the basilicas of Ravenna.
Sec. 6. Another type of plan, however, was used in Rome for churches
devoted to the special purposes of burial and baptism. In this case the
buildings were planned round a central point, and at Rome were uniformly
circular. Recesses round the walls of the mausoleum-church contained
sarcophagi: in the centre of the baptistery was the great font. The
church of Santa Costanza, outside the north-eastern walls of Rome,
circular in plan, with a vaulted aisle surrounding the central space,
was built by Constantine the Great as a tomb-church for his family, and
was also used as a baptistery. Both these uses were direct adaptations
of pagan customs. The baptistery, with its central font for total
immersion, was simply a large bath-room, like the great rotunda of the
baths of Caracalla. The mausoleum preserved the form of which the finest
example is the tomb of Hadrian, now known as the castle of Sant' Angelo.
In the course of the middle ages, certain tomb-churches in Rome, with a
centralised plan, were turned into places of public worship. But, for
the plan of the ordinary church, the basilica, with its longitudinal
axis, was general. In the eastern empire, on the other hand, the
centralised plan was employed from an early date for large churches; and
in this way was evolved the magnificent style of architecture which
culminated in Santa Sophia at Constantinople. Here the centralised plan
was triumphantly adapted to the internal arrangements of the basilica.
Sec. 7. The city of Ravenna, closely connected historically both with Rome
and Constantinople, contains a series of monuments which is of
unequalled interest in the history of the centralised plan. (1) The
mausoleum of the empress Galla Placidia, sister of the emperor Honorius,
who died in 450 A.D., is a building of cruciform shape, consisting of a
square central space covered by a dome, with rectangular projections on
all four sides. The projection through which the building is entered is
longer than the others, and the plan thus forms the Latin cross so
common in the churches of the middle ages. (2) To the same period
belongs the octagonal baptistery, known as San Giovanni in Fonte. (3) In
493 A.D. Theodoric the Ostrogoth obtained possession of Ravenna. To the
period of his rule belongs the Arian baptistery, also octagonal, known
as Santa Maria in Cosmedin. (4) Theodoric died in 526 A.D. His mausoleum
is formed by a polygon of ten equal sides, with a smaller decagonal
upper stage, a circular attic above which bears the great monolithic
dome. In the lower story was the tomb: the internal plan is a Greek
cross, _i.e._ there is a central space with recesses of equal depth on
all four sides. (5) In the year of the death of Theodoric, the octagonal
church of San Vitale was begun. It was consecrated in 547, when Ravenna
had become the capital of the Italian province of Justinian's empire.
Its somewhat complicated plan was clearly derived from an eastern
source, but not from Santa Sophia, which was not begun till 532 A.D. The
central space is almost circular. Between each of the piers which
support the octagonal clerestory at the base of the cupola is an apsidal
recess, with three arches on the ground floor opening into the
encircling aisle, and three upper arches opening into the gallery above
the aisle. On the east side of the central space this arrangement is
broken, and one tall arch opens into the chancel, which ends in a
projecting apse, semi-circular inside, but a half octagon outside. The
aisle with the gallery above thus occupies seven sides of the outer
octagon, the eighth side being occupied by the western part of the
chancel.
[Illustration: Fig. 2. Plan of San Vitale, Ravenna: (1) _narthex_ with
flanking turrets, as originally arranged; (2) central nave; (3) chancel
and altar.]
Sec. 8. Of the two types of plan, which can be studied so satisfactorily at
Ravenna, the ordinary basilican type is the more convenient. The long
nave provides the necessary accommodation for worshippers, the raised
apse gives a theatre for the performance of service within view of
everybody, the aisles facilitate the going and coming of the
congregation, and prevent over-crowding. The centralised plan provides,
it is true, a large central area conveniently near the altar; but the
provision of a chancel or altar-space necessitates the grafting on the
plan of a feature borrowed from the ordinary basilica, which, as at San
Vitale, breaks the symmetry of the design. At Santa Sophia, the
basilican chancel forms an indissoluble part of a centralised plan; but
this feat is beyond the reach of an ordinary architect. Even at San
Vitale the planning is highly complicated, and must be due to an
architect of some genius. In addition to complications of design, the
centralised plan raised questions of roofing which did not trouble the
builders of the long wooden-roofed basilicas. The vaulted half-dome of
the basilican apse was a simple matter, compared with the mighty dome of
Santa Sophia and its cluster of abutting half-domes. It was in the
centralised churches, with their domed vaults and the groined vaults of
their aisles, that the history of medieval vaulting began. But, even
when medieval masons had learned to regard the vaulting of their
churches as the controlling principle of their art, they left the
centralised plan almost entirely alone, and applied what it had taught
them to the work of roofing basilicas with vaults of stone. We shall
trace the influence of the centralised church as we proceed; but the
influence of the basilica will be found to predominate in the history of
medieval planning.
Sec. 9. In England, as in other portions of the Roman empire, we might
naturally expect to find the basilican plan applied to the earliest
Christian churches. The foundations of a small Romano-British basilican
church have been discovered at Silchester in Hampshire. The apse, as in
the Roman basilicas, was at the west end. The nave had aisles, which, at
the end nearest the apse, broadened out into two transept-like
projections. The entrance front of the church was covered by a
_narthex_, the whole width of nave and aisles. This feature, as has been
shown, is of eastern rather than of Roman origin; while the projections
at the end of the aisles appear to have been, not transepts like those
at old St Peter's, but separate chambers corresponding to those which,
in eastern churches, flank the chancel, and are used for special ritual
purposes. In fact, the basilica at Silchester recalls the plans of the
early basilicas of north Africa more closely than those of the basilicas
of Rome; while it has, unlike them, the Roman feature of the western
apse. This, however, gives rise to questions which, in our present state
of knowledge, are beyond solution.
Sec. 10. Of the seven churches which are usually connected with the
missionary activity of St Augustine and his companions, five, of which
we have ruins or foundations, certainly ended in apses; and the apse in
each case was divided from the nave, not by a single arch, but by an
arcade with three openings, which recalls the screen-colonnade at old
St Peter's. But only one church in the group, the ruined church of
Reculver, followed the plan of the aisled nave of the basilica. From the
description which remains of the early cathedral of Canterbury,
destroyed by fire in 1067, we can see that it, too, was an aisled
basilica, with its original apse at the west end. But the first
cathedral of Rochester, the plan and extent of which may be gathered
from existing foundations, was an aisleless building with an eastern
apse. The church of St Pancras at Canterbury, the lower courses of the
walls of which in great part remain, had an aisleless nave, divided from
an apsidal chancel by a screen-wall with three openings, that in the
middle being wider than the others. The foundations of two of the four
columns which flanked these openings can still be traced. The walls of
the chancel, which was slightly narrower than the nave, were continued
straight for a little way beyond the screen-wall; and then the curve of
the apse began. St Pancras also possessed a square entrance porch, much
narrower than the nave, at its west end, and two chapels projecting from
the nave on either side, half-way up its length. The church is thus
cruciform in plan. The western porch and the chapels seem to have been
added as the work proceeded, and not to have been contemplated in the
original design. The material of the building is Roman brick, and
buttress projections occur at the western angles of the nave and porch,
in the fragment which remains of the south wall of the chancel, and at
the outer angles of the side chapels. Small buttresses are also found at
the angles and on the sides of St Peter's on the Wall in Essex.
Sec. 11. In one respect the plan of St Pancras at Canterbury is allied to
that of the church at Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire. At Bradford there
remains one of the two porches, which also were probably side chapels,
projecting from the sides of the nave. But at Bradford the remaining
porch is larger in proportion to the nave than is the case at St
Pancras. There is no entrance porch on the west side. Further, the
chancel at Bradford is rectangular, not apsidal. Instead of a
screen-wall with a central opening nine feet wide, the wall dividing
nave from chancel is pierced by a small arch only 3 ft. 6 in. wide. The
date of this little church is a matter of great difficulty; and the
character of its masonry seems to demand for it a later date than the
early one popularly claimed for it. The contrast with St Pancras is
accentuated further by the fact that the internal measurements of the
nave show a different scheme of proportion. The nave of St Pancras is
some three feet broader in proportion to its length than the much
shorter nave at Bradford.
[Illustration: Fig. 3. Plan of Escomb--typical Saxon church.]
Sec. 12. A closer parallel to Bradford-on-Avon is found in the little
church of Escomb, near Bishop Auckland. No record of the early history
of this building is known; but its masonry is almost entirely composed
of re-used Roman dressed stone-work. In this respect it presents a
contrast to Bradford. In another respect the two churches are unlike.
Both have their entrances in the side walls; but at Escomb there were no
original porches covering the doorways, while there are traces of what
may have been an entrance porch, like that of St Pancras, at the west
end. But they have these points in common: (1) the nave at Escomb is
long in proportion to its width; (2) the chancel is a rectangular
eastern projection, narrower and much shorter than the nave; (3) there
is a solid wall of division between nave and chancel, pierced by a
narrow arch, broader than that of Bradford, but very much higher in
proportion to its width. It may be added that the walls of both churches
are high in proportion to their length and breadth, and that at Escomb
the original windows are small openings with rounded and flat
lintel-heads, and with internal splays.
Sec. 13. It is, however, with the plan that we are concerned. We now have
met with three separate forms in England, viz. (1) the rare basilican
plan; (2) the "Kentish" plan of aisleless nave with apsidal chancel; (3)
the plan of aisleless nave with rectangular chancel. We also have seen
that the screen-wall is common to (1) and (2), while the single chancel
arch belongs to (3); and that side chapels and western porches are found
incidentally in (2) and (3). Now, the early date of Escomb, apart from
the evidence supplied by its masonry, can be suspected only by its
analogy to the plan of other churches of which the date is practically
certain. Two such churches remain in the same county of Durham. One is
at Monkwearmouth, now a part of Sunderland. Its nave and the lowest
stage of its western tower represent, and in great part actually are,
the nave and western porch of an early Saxon church, which is generally
identified with the church built here by Benedict Biscop for the
monastery which he founded in 672 A.D. The nave was originally
aisleless, long, narrow and lofty: the entrance porch had an upper story
finished with a gabled roof, and a vaulted ground-floor with entrances
on three sides. There was evidently a chancel arch, and probably the
chancel was rectangular. The material of the building was not Roman;
but, in the decoration applied to it, Roman work was imitated. Only a
few miles further north, Benedict founded, in 680 A.D., the sister
monastery of Jarrow. The long and narrow chancel of the present church
of St Paul was the body of a church somewhat similar to that of
Monkwearmouth. Stone-work which may represent the jambs of a broad
chancel arch can be traced in the east wall; but this cannot be stated
with positive certainty. The lower part of the tower, now between the
present chancel and nave, may represent an original western porch; but,
in its present state, it is of much later date than the work east of it,
and its site must have been broadened when the tower was first planned.
At Jarrow there is no Roman stone-work; but one type of Roman masonry
has been imitated by the builders in the walls of the chancel, and small
decorative shafts, turned in a lathe after the Roman fashion, such as
exist at Monkwearmouth, have been found in the building. The inscribed
stone, recording the dedication of the church, is preserved in the wall
above the western tower-arch: the date given is 23 April, 684 A.D. In
this inscription the building, though aisleless, is called a basilica.
The word was now probably used to signify a Christian church,
irrespective of its plan. A third early church in this district is that
of Corbridge, near Hexham. Here, as at Monkwearmouth, the ground story
of the tower was originally a western porch; while the lofty arch
between tower and nave is, like the chancel arch at Escomb, entirely
composed of dressed Roman masonry, and seems to have been removed from
one of the buildings of the Roman station of Corstopitum, as the arch at
Escomb was probably removed from the not far distant station of
Vinovium.
Sec. 14. The date to which these four northern churches may be assigned is
the half century of the activity of St Wilfrid in England (664-709
A.D.). Bede's account of the architectural work of Wilfrid's friend,
Benedict Biscop, shows that he procured, for the building of the church
at Monkwearmouth, stonemasons and glaziers from Gaul, who were
acquainted with "the manner of the Romans." The account which another
contemporary, Eddius, gives of Wilfrid's church at Hexham, is clear
proof that this important building was a reproduction, in plan and
elevation, of the aisled basilicas of the continent--a fact in keeping
with Wilfrid's life-long aim of bringing English Christianity into
closer touch with the main current of historic Christianity in Rome and
Gaul. The foundations of the outer walls of most of Wilfrid's church
were uncovered when, lately, the new nave of Hexham priory church was
begun; but one of its features has been long known, and is of the
highest interest. The crypt for relics below the apse and high altar
consists of an oblong chamber, with a western vestibule, approached by a
straight stairway from the nave. In addition to the western stair, there
are two stairs which communicated with the apse. That on the south side
remains perfect, and ends in a passage and vestibule, through which the
relic-chamber is entered. The northern stairway leads through a passage
to the western vestibule, at the foot of the stair from the nave. The
crypt of Wilfrid's contemporary basilica at Ripon also remains: here the
arrangement is less complicated; but the arrangement of the main
relic-chamber is equally the chief feature of the plan.
Sec. 15. The foundations of the Saxon church at Peterborough present many
difficulties, and may be of a later date than the foundation of the
monastery in 655 A.D. But no such difficulties of date or plan exist
with regard to the large Saxon church at Brixworth, between Northampton
and Market Harborough. Its size and the fact that Roman material has
been much re-used in its building have given rise to the tradition that
it is a secular basilica applied to the purposes of a Christian church.
As a matter of fact, the Roman brick-work has been re-used in obvious
ignorance of Roman methods; so that this circumstance alone would make
the legend improbable. The date of the building can hardly be earlier
than about 680 A.D., when a monastery was founded here by a colony of
monks from Peterborough. The plan originally consisted of (1) a western
entrance porch, with a lofty western doorway, and smaller doorways on
north and south; (2) a broad nave, divided from the aisles by arches,
which spring from large square piers of plain brick-work; (3) a
rectangular presbytery, divided from the nave by a screen-wall pierced
with three arches; (4) an apsidal chancel, entered from the presbytery
by a single arch. On each side of the chancel arch, a doorway entered
into a narrow vaulted passage below the ground level, which probably
formed an aisle round a crypt below the apse. At a later date, probably
in the period of quiet following the later Danish invasions, the apse
seems to have been rebuilt, polygonal externally, semi-circular on the
inside, and the central crypt-chamber was then possibly filled up. The
western porch was also used as the foundation for a tower, and the
western arch blocked up with a filling containing a lower doorway,
through which the circular turret for the tower-stair was entered. The
aisles, either then or at a somewhat later date, having probably fallen
into ruin, were removed. The clerestory of the nave remains, with
unusually broad round-headed windows.
Sec. 16. The original plan of Brixworth has points in common with some of
the other plans which have been noted. In its triple arched screen-wall
it recalls the Kentish type of church; its rectangular presbytery
between nave and apse is a development of the chancel space which
existed west of the spring of the apse at St Pancras. It shares its
western porch with St Pancras and two, if not four, of the northern
group of churches. In the north and south doorways of this porch it has
kinship with Monkwearmouth, and at Brixworth there are definite signs
that these doorways led into passages which may have been connected with
other buildings of the monastery, or possibly even with an _atrium_ or
fore-court. The aisled nave and the traces of a crypt bring it into
relation, not merely with Hexham or Ripon, but with the historical
church plan of western Europe generally. At the same time, the plan,
regarded as that of an English church, is exceptional. The aisled plan
of the parish church was arrived at in spite, not in consequence, of the
few early aisled churches which might have supplied it with a model.
During the epoch which followed the Danish invasions the aisleless plan
was deliberately preferred: the rectangular chancel entirely superseded
the apse. No further example of the structural screen-wall occurs. In
addition to those mentioned, only three more pre-Conquest examples of
crypts are known, and such crypts as occur in parish churches after the
Conquest are exceptional, and are usually due to exigencies of site.
Only three more aisled churches of unquestionably pre-Conquest date
exist above ground. Reculver has been mentioned. The others are Lydd in
Kent, where only indications of an arcade remain, and the complete
basilican church of Wing, near Leighton Buzzard, which has a polygonal
apse with a crypt below. Wing is probably much later in date than most
of Brixworth, but one cannot but be struck by a certain resemblance in
construction between the two naves, and in plan between the crypt at
Wing and the remains of the crypt at Brixworth.
Sec. 17. These early churches have been treated at some length, because
they contain certain essential elements of planning in a state of
probation. The basilican plan was doubtless the ideal of English
builders during the sixth and early seventh centuries, but an ideal
which was hard to compass where good building material was not
plentiful. Thus Augustine and his companions contented themselves in
most instances with a plan which recalled the aisled basilica, without
following out its more elaborate details. It is remarkable that they
should have departed from the usual Roman custom, and made their
chancels at the east end of their churches: it is also remarkable to
find at St Pancras the western porch, the origin of which appears to be
the non-Roman _narthex_. Models existed, no doubt in the ruins of the
Romano-British churches, which they repaired; and we have seen that at
Silchester there is a regular _narthex_, while, on the other hand,
there is a western apse. These models, however, were probably all of one
general type, in which the chancel end was formed by an apsidal
projection. When Roman Christianity reached the north, it had to contend
with the efforts of Celtic missionaries; and those efforts were not met
by it effectively until, in 664, the energetic leadership of Wilfrid
secured a triumph for his party at the council of Whitby. Of the Celtic
churches of the north we know but little: it seems likely that they were
for the most part plain oratories of stone or wood, with or without a
separate chancel. The simplest form, obviously, which a church can
assume is a plain rectangle with an altar at one end. As the
desirability of a special enclosure for the altar is recognised, a
smaller rectangle will be added at the altar end of the main building,
and so the distinction between nave and chancel will be formed. There
are indications of this natural growth of plan in some of the early
religious buildings in Ireland. In remote districts, as in Wales, the
simple nave and chancel plan is general all through the middle ages; and
the smaller country churches often follow the common Celtic plan of a
single rectangle with no structural division. The ruined chapel at
Heysham in Lancashire, a work of early date, is an undivided rectangle
in plan. This is the form which would suggest itself naturally to the
unskilled builder: the division of nave and chancel into a larger and
smaller rectangle is the next step which would occur to his intelligence
in the ordinary course of things. It is possible that Wilfrid and
Benedict Biscop found that their aims would be best served by adhering
in certain instances to the familiar Celtic plan, and so, while they
hired foreign masons and craftsmen to build and furnish their earlier
churches, and to set the example of building stone churches after the
manner of the Romans, they were careful to avoid the prejudice which
insistence on a new plan would have excited. The simplicity, moreover,
of a plan like that at Escomb, which requires little architectural skill
to work upon, may have been a recommendation; and the fact that the
construction of an apse is more difficult than that of a rectangular
chancel must have weighed powerfully with English masons, both at this
time and later. The fact remains that, in the early age of our church
architecture in stone, the aisled basilica was a rare exception, and the
rectangular chancel was, in the north, at least as common as the apse.