The Saxon Chapel Recently Discovered at Deerhurst.

BY ALFRED E. HUDD, F.S.A., HON. SECRETARY.

(Read December 15th, 1885.)

SINCE the members of the Club visited Deerhurst, in September, 1884, discoveries of great interest to antiquarians and architects, as well as to the general public, have been made in the immediate neighbourhood of the Priory church in that village. These discoveries are of such importance, that, as remarked by a recent writer in "The Builder," (Nov. 21st, 1885), the monastic history of Deerhurst has been seriously misunderstood, and must be rearranged to agree with the facts which have lately been brought to light.

It has been thought that a brief account of the more important of these discoveries might be of interest to those of our members who visited Deerhurst, as an addition to the papers which were read on that occasion by the Rev. George Butterworth, and Mr. T. S. Pope, both of which are printed in this volume.

The last few years have added considerably to our knowledge of the architectural remains of pre-Norman times, and it is now generally admitted that the Saxons had a distinct architectural style of their own, not derived from Normandy, but more nearly resembling the early work of North Italy and the Rhine district. The West of England is rich in remains of this "primitive Romanesque style," amongst which the most famous are the cruciform church of St. Lawrence, Bradford-on-Avon, built by St. Aldhelm early in the eighth century (A.D. 705), the larger Priory church at Deerhurst, and the nave of the parish church at Avebury, all three of which buildings are well known to most of us. The discovery in the little village of Deerhurst of a second church of undoubted Saxon date has not only greatly

increased the interest in that popular place for antiquarian pilgrimages, but has added materially to our knowledge of the architecture of the period, a period just preceding that in which our earliest English style gave place to the foreign style brought in by the Normans.

In plate LV. of the "Collection of Gloucestershire Antiquities," published by Samuel Lysons, F.S.A., in 1804, is an illustration of "the north view of the Priory of Deerhurst," in the background of which may be noticed a picturesque half-timbered house, standing a short distance (rather more than one hundred yards) to the S.W. of the church. This house, called "Abbot's Court," consists of an irregular block of buildings of various dates, the original erection having been added to at both ends; the eastern addition consists of the fine half-timbered erection partially shown by Lysons, and is probably of the time of Elizabeth, or James I., while the western portion, plain and more modern looking, may have been added a century or two ago. Until the beginning of the year (1885) this house had been occupied by a tenant farmer, renting under the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, who took over this farm with the remainder of their estates in the neighbourhood, from the Chapter of Westminster Abbey, to which the property had belonged since the year A.D. 1065 (if not earlier).* In consequence of the Abbot's Court farm having been joined to another by the Commissioners, the old house was no longer required by the farmer, who has a more convenient residence upon another portion of the estate. The Abbot's Court buildings were therefore, at the beginning of August last, placed under the charge of Mr. Thomas Collins, of Tewkesbury, the well known builder whose careful treatment of ancient work in the numerous local buildings he has restored is probably known to many members of this Club; the choice of the Commissioners was from an antiquarian point of view, a most fortunate one. The original intention was to convert the farm house into two or three separate tenements, but, soon after the commencement of the alterations, features of great interest-which had been hidden for centuries under the mass of plaster and whitewash with which the walls were covered, both inside and out—were brought to light, and proved of so important

See letter from the Rev. George Butterworth in the "Journal of the British Archaological Association," vol. XLI., p. 415.

a character, that upon their being reported by Mr. Butterworth to the Commissioners, orders were at once given that all these ancient remains should be carefully preserved.

The first of these discoveries was made in the following manner. Mr. Butterworth had always suspected, from the great thickness of its walls, that the central portion of Abbot's Court was very old, but had not until last summer discovered anything to indicate its age. On visiting the house soon after the commencement of the repairs, in August last, a faint indication of a semi-circle under the plaster covering the front wall caused him to carefully examine this portion of the building, and, upon removing some of this covering, the remains of a round-headed doorway of very early character, were exposed. The eastern half of this arch had unfortunately been destroyed when the large square window of the farm house was inserted, but enough remained to indicate the great antiquity of the work. (See plate, "North door.") Shortly after this, some peculiarity about a window at the back of the house which gave light to a room on the first floor, caused the Vicar and Mr. Collins to remove a portion of the plaster from its upper portion and side, when a very curious double-splayed, round-headed window, of undoubtedly "primitive Romanesque" or Saxon character, was brought to light. (See plate, "Nave window.")

In the opinion of Mr. J. H. Middleton, F.S.A., who read a paper on the subject of the recent discovery to the Society of Antiquaries, this window and others similar to it (which have been destroyed) were probably always open to the air, and like those remains of which we saw on our recent visit to Avebury church, are believed to have been furnished with "wattle and daub " osier screens. A portion of the oak lining to the head of one of these windows, was found in situ; the arch of this window is formed of long, thin pieces of blue lias, with mortar joints from lin. to 2ins. in thickness, and was covered with stucco. It is double splayed, its sill being about 10 ft. from the ground, its opening about 24ft. wide by 3ft. 3ins. high. The construction of the voussoir of thin slabs of stone, instead of ashlar work, gives the window a very Roman-like appearance, reminding one of the Roman work at Lincoln, Dover and elsewhere, and it tends to show, that unless the 11th century builder copied some work then existing in the neighbourhood, that this portion of the