Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:41:12.916Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Orientation of Churches: Some New Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Jason R Ali  and
Peter Cunich
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We hypothesized that the important early second millennium churches in England may have been aligned using a magnetic compass. If true, the building orientations would enable the post sixteenth-century geomagnetic observatory records to be extended back several hundred years. Directional data were collected from 143 sites, most of which were constructed between the mid-eleventh and late twelfth centuries, including all of the old English cathedrals and many large church buildings in use today, as well as numerous ruined monastic sites. However, processing the data revealed that the compass was not used to align the buildings. Attempting to explain the data, we exhumed Wordsworth's suggestion that church orientation was governed by the sun's position as it rose above the horizon on the feast day of the saint to whom the church was dedicated. The data obtained in the present study suggest that Wordsworth's basic hypothesis might hold for as many as 43 per cent of the churches if sunrise and sunset positions are considered; sun-based Easter Day and equinoctial day orientations could explain a significant majority of the remaining sites.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 81 , September 2001 , pp. 155 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrahamsen, N 1992. ‘Evidence for church orientation by magnetic compass in twelfthcentury Denmark’, Archaeometry, 34, 293–303CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Aitken, M J, and Weaver, G H 1962. ‘Magnetic dating: further archaeomagnetic measurements in Britain’, Archaeometry, 5, 76–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ali, J R 1985a. ‘An electrical resistivity survey of Hulton Abbey, Stoke-on-Trent’, unpublished BSc project, North Staffordshire PolytechnicGoogle Scholar
Ali, J R 1985b. ‘The electrical resistivity survey’, in Hulton Abbey: A Century of Excavations (ed Wise, P J), Staffordshire Archaeol Studies, new ser, 2, Stoke-on-Trent City Museum and Art Gallery, 33–38, Stoke-on-TrentGoogle Scholar
Ali, J R 1989. ‘Magnetostratigraphy of early Paleogene sediments from NW Europe’, unpublished PhD thesis, University of SouthamptonGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, T D 1939. ‘On the orientation of Christian churches’. Church Q Rev, 256, 267–79Google Scholar
Batt, C M 1997. ‘The British archaeomagnetic calibration curve: an objective treatment’, Archaeometry, 39, 159–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Batt, C M 1998. ‘Where to draw the line? The calibration of archaeomagnetic dates’, Phys Chem Earth, 23, 991–5Google Scholar
Benjamin, P 1895. The Intellectual Rise in Electricity, LondonGoogle Scholar
Benson, H 1956. ‘Church orientations and patronal festivals’, Antiq J, 36, 205–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Binns, A 1989. Dedications of Monastic Houses in England and Wales 1066–1216, WoodbridgeGoogle Scholar
Bloxham, J, Gubbins, D and Jackson, A 1989. ‘Geomagnetic secular variation’, Phil Trans Roy Soc London, A329, 415–502Google Scholar
Bond, F 1913. An Introduction to English Church Architecture from the Eleventh to the Sixteenth Century, 2 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Brooke, C N L and Smith, D M 2000. ‘Addenda and corrigenda to David Knowles and R Neville Hadcock, Medieval Religious Houses, England and Wales’, Monastic Res Bull, 6, 1–37Google Scholar
Cave, C J P 1950. ‘The orientation of churches’, Antiq J, 30, 47–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheney, C R and Jones, M 2000. Handbook of Dates for Students of English History, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Clark, A J, Tarling, D H and Noel, M J 1988. ‘Developments in archaeological dating in Britain’, J Archeol Sci, 15, 645–67CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clifton-Taylor, A 1995. The Cathedrals of England, LondonGoogle Scholar
Cook, G H 1954. The English Mediaeval Parish Churches, LondonGoogle Scholar
Coppack, G 1998. The White Monks: The Cistercians in Britain 1128–1540, StroudGoogle Scholar
Coppack, G and Gilyard-Beer, R 1993. Fountains Abbey, LondonGoogle Scholar
Eeles, F C 1914. ‘The orientation of Scottish churches’, Proc Soc Antiq Scot, 12, 169–83Google Scholar
Erlandsson, H 1948. The Orientation of the Cathedral of Lund, LundGoogle Scholar
Fergusson, P 1990. Roche Abbey, LondonGoogle Scholar
Harradon, H D, 1943. ‘Some early contributions to the history of geomagnetism’, Terr Mag Atmos Elec 48, 3–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harvey, J H 1950. English Cathedrals, LondonGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, G S 1965. Stonehenge Decoded, New YorkGoogle Scholar
Hoare, P G and Sweet, C S 2000. ‘The orientation of early medieval churches in England’, J Hist Geogr, 26, 162–73Google Scholar
Keay, J 2000. The Great Arc, LondonGoogle Scholar
Knight, C and Lomas, R 2000. Uriel's Machine: The Ancient Origins of Science, LondonGoogle Scholar
Knowles, D and Hadcock, R N 1971. Medieval Religious Houses, England and Wales, 3rd edn, HarlowGoogle Scholar
Lang, J 1956. Rebuilding St Pauls after the Great Fire of London, LondonGoogle Scholar
Laurie, W A 1859. History of Freemasonry and the Grand Lodge of Scotland, EdinburghGoogle Scholar
Malin, S R C and Bullard, E 1981. ‘The direction of the Earth's magnetic field at London, 1570–1975’, Phil Trans Roy Soc London, A299, 357–423Google Scholar
May, W E 1949. ‘The birth of the compass’, J Inst Navigation, 2, 259–63Google Scholar
Needham, J 1962. Science and Civilization in China, IV, pt 1: Physics, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
New, A 1985. A Guide to the Abbeys of England and Wales, LondonGoogle Scholar
Nippoldt, A 1916. ‘Ein beitrag zu frage der Austrichtung der Kirchenenachsen mit dem magneten’, Archiv der Naturwissenschaften und der technik, 7, 109–114 and 236–244, LeipzigGoogle Scholar
Pinnell, J 1999. Wenlock Priory, LondonGoogle Scholar
Richards, E G 1998. Mapping Time: The Calendar and its History, OxfordGoogle Scholar
Robinson, D (ed) 1998. The Cistercian Abbeys of Britain, LondonGoogle Scholar
Searle, S 1974. ‘The Church points the way’, New Sci, 60 (no 879), 10–13Google Scholar
Shore, T W 1886. ‘Orientation of churches in Hampshire’, The Antiquarian Magazine and Bibliographer (ed E, Walford), X, 105–108Google Scholar
Silverman, S 1998. ‘A forgotten proposal for the determination of the temporal variation of the magnetic declination’, American Geophysical Union, EOS Trans, 79, 305CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, F M 1913. A History of Architectural Development, 3 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Smith, P J 1970. ‘Petrus Pergrinus Epistola – the beginning of experimental studies of magnetism in Europe’, Earth Sci Rev/Atlas, 6, A11-A17Google Scholar
Smith, P J and Needham, J 1967. ‘Magnetic declination in mediaeval China’, Nature, 214, 1213–14CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarling, D H and Dobson, M J 1995. ‘Archaeomagnetism: an error assessment of fired materials observations in the British directional database’, J Geomagnetism Geoelectricity, 47, 5–18Google Scholar
Tarling, D H and Kovacheva, M 1997. ‘Comparison of directional secular variation of the geomagnetic field between Britain and S. E. Europe’, J Geomagnetism Geoelectricity, 49, 507–17Google Scholar
Thorold, H 1993. The Ruined Abbeys of England, Wales and Scotland, LondonGoogle Scholar
Watkins, A 1925. The Old Straight Track, repr 1974, LondonGoogle Scholar
Wehner, H 1905. ‘Uber die Kenntnis der magnetischen Nordweisung im fruhen mittelalter’, Weltall, Heft 18–20, BerlinGoogle Scholar
Whitham, J A nd. The Church of St Mary of Ottery in the County of Devon: A Short History and Guide, Ottery St MaryGoogle Scholar
Wordsworth, W 1896. The Poetical Works of William Wordsworth (ed William, Knight VII 8 vols, LondonGoogle Scholar
Wright, G N 1994. Discovering Abbeys and Priories, 3rd edn, Shire Publications, BuckinghamshireGoogle Scholar
Wright, T (ed) 1863. ‘De naturis rerum’ (A Neckham), Chronicles and Memorials, Rolls Series, 34, LondonGoogle Scholar