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The Ruined Church of Stone-by-Faversham

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Eric Fletcher  and
Lt.-Col. G. W. Meates
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Summary

This article contains a report of excavations conducted in 196J and ig68 at the ruined church (or chapel) of Stone-by-Faversham, Kent. They were designed to establish whether or not the central part of the building (subsequently the western part of a medieval chancel) was an original Roman structure. The evidence, derived from the type of construction, an opus signinum floor, from the coins, burials, and pottery found in association with the building, all indicate that in origin it was either a mausoleum, or possibly a martyrium, probably datingfrom thefourth century A.D.

A Roman structure subsequently incorporated into a Christian church is unique in this country. The question as to when and how this transformation occurred is discussed in the context ofthepossible survival of Christianity in Sub-Roman Kent, and of St. Augustine's mission. Further excavation revealed foundations of a pre-Conquest wooden nave, and throws fresh light on the methods used by the Anglo-Saxons in building wooden churches.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 49 , Issue 2 , September 1969 , pp. 273 - 294
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1969

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References

page 273 note 1 Though Dr. Hope-Taylor found evidence of a wooden pagan temple at Yeavering later put to Christian purposes; Medieval Archaeology, i (1957), 71 and 149Google Scholar.

page 273 note 2 Our Lady of Elwarton may perhaps have been connected with the small hamlet of Elverton about half a mile away.

page 273 note 3 A letter to this effect was written on the 23rd February 1967 to Mr. Bedford, Vicar of the Brents, Faversham, as the local ‘incumbent’ of Stone.

page 273 note 4 National Grid Reference, T Q 991613.

page 273 note 5 Whiting, W., Hawley, W., and May, T., Report on the Excavation of the Roman Cemetery at Ospringe, Kent (Society of Antiquaries of London Research Report viii, 1931).Google Scholar The 387 burials in-eluded 172 cremations, 74 common burials, and 66 grave groups.

page 273 note 6 Proc. Soc. Antiq., 2nd series xv (1894), 122Google Scholar.

page 273 note 7 Hasted, E., History of Kent, ii (London), 1782), 800Google Scholar; ‘in the midst of the south wall of it there is a separate piece of a Roman building, about a rod in length, and near three feet high, composed of two rows of Roman tiles of about fourteen inches square. On them were laid small stones hewn, but of no regular size or shape, for about a foot high, and then tiles again, and so on alternately.’

page 273 note 8 Payne, George, Collectanea Cantiana (1893), pp. 92–4Google Scholar.

page 273 note 9 Arch. Cant, ix (1874), lxxviii–ixGoogle Scholar.

page 275 note 1 Irvine's original drawings are still available at the Northampton Central Library, Abingdon Street, Northampton. They are included in the Catalogue of Sir Henry Dryden's Collection (1912), p. 35.

page 275 note 2 J.B.A.A. xxxi (1875), 249–58Google Scholar; a concise and excellent summary of Irvine's article is to be found in H. M. and Taylor, J., Anglo-Saxon Architecture (1965), ii, 575–7Google Scholar.

page 275 note 3 J.B.A.A. xxxi (1875), 251Google Scholar.

page 276 note 1 Cf. Report of the Excavation of the Roman Cemetery at Ospringe, Kent (1931), p. 4Google Scholar: ‘In 1926 Colonel Hawley returned for further excavations, when the main object was to examine the ruined and desecrated church of Stone.’

page 276 note 2 Colonel Hawley's original notes (if extant) have not been traced.

page 276 note 3 Arts in Early England, ii (1925), 74 and 116Google Scholar.

page 276 note 4 Lewis, M. J. T., Temples in Roman Britain (1966)Google Scholar; Gildas, , De Excidio 4Google Scholar.

page 276 note 5 Cf. the temple known as Temple 4 at Spring-head: see Arch. Cant, lxxiv (1960), 118–20Google Scholar, and Lewis, M. J. T., op. cit, p. 76Google Scholar.

page 277 note 1 Op.cit., p. 116.

page 278 note 1 Ward, John, Romano-British Buildings and Earthworks, fig. 79Google Scholar.

page 278 note 2 Trans. Bristol and Glos. Arch. Soc. 73 (1954), 20Google Scholar.

page 279 note 1 See a note by Fletcher, Dr. John on ‘Radio-carbon Dating for Mediaeval Timber Building’ in Antiquity, xlii (1968), 230CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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page 282 note 1 An example from Wales of the custom of numerous burials close up to the walls—and particularly the eastern walls—of a reputed shrine or martyrium occurs at St. Bueno's Chapel at Clynnog-fawr, dated to the seventh century; see Arch. Camb. xiv (1914), 271Google Scholar.

page 283 note 1 Professor Jocelyn Toynbee drew our attention to the possibility of the building in its original form resembling the barrel-vaulted mausolea of which numerous examples are to be seen in the necropolis of Isola Sacra at Ostia, near Rome (cf. Calza, Guido, La Necropoli del Porto di Roma nell’ Isola Sacra (1940)Google Scholar, and the official Ostia guide book),

page 283 note 2 Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation, i, 26.

page 283 note 3 Jenkins, Frank: ‘St. Martin's Church at Canterbury’ in Mediaeval Archaeology, ix (1965), 12Google Scholar.

page 283 note 4 Bede, , op. cit. i, 30Google Scholar.

page 284 note 1 For some interesting comments on Gregory's letter see Brown, Baldwin, The Arts in Early England (1903), i, 273.Google Scholar

page 284 note 2 Bede, , op. cit. i, 32Google Scholar.

page 284 note 3 See Deanesly, Margaret and Grosjean, Paul, ‘Answers of Gregory I to St. Augustine’ (Journal of Ecclesiastical History, x (1959), 30)Google Scholar.

page 284 note 4 For a more detailed account of the St. Sixtus Episode seeDeanesly, Margaret, Augustine of Canterbury (1964), pp. 77–80Google Scholar.

page 284 note 5 The authenticity of the Gregorian Respon-sions, including the ‘Obsecratio Augustini’, is seriously criticised on textual grounds by Meyvaert, Dom Paul in ‘Les Responsiones de S. Grégoire le Grand à S. Augustin de Cantorbéry’ (Revue d'Histoire EccUsiastique, liv (1959), 879–94)Google Scholar.

page 284 note 6 In a letter to the authors.

page 285 note 1 J.B.A.A. xxxi (1875), 252Google Scholar.

page 285 note 1 Brown, Baldwin, The Arts in Early England (1925), ii, 39–41Google Scholar.

page 285 note 2 Davey, Norman, ‘A Pre-Conquest Church and Baptistery at Potterne’, Wilts. Arch. Mag. 59 (1964), 121Google Scholar.

page 285 note 3 Oswald, Adrian, The Church of St. Bertelin at Stafford and its Cross (1954)Google Scholar, published by the City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery.

page 285 note 4 Peers, C. R., ‘Recent Discoveries in the Min-sters of Ripon and York’, Antiq. Journ. xi (1931), 113–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and see H. M. and Taylor, J., Anglo-Saxon Architecture (1965), p. 700Google Scholar.

page 285 note 5 Brown, Baldwin, The Arts in Early England (1903), i, 26Google Scholar.

page 286 note 1 Ed. David Douglas, 1944, p. 79.

page 286 note 2 i.e. for the purposes of the distribution of the Holy Oils.

page 286 note 3 e.g. by a note in Sir Henry Dryden's handwriting contained among Irvine's drawings of Stone now to be seen at the Northampton Central Library, Northampton.

page 286 note 4 Anglo-Saxon Charters (1968), nos. 477, 515, 914, and 1047.

page 286 note 5 Arch. Cant, ix (1874), lxxviii–ixGoogle Scholar.

page 291 note 1 What appear to be further specimens of BMC type 54, but could conceivably be closer to the Stone coin, are recorded as being in the Maidstone Museum (found at Milton Regis) and (?) as having been found at or near Winchester.

page 291 note 2 B.N.J. XXVII, ii (1952), 25Google Scholar.

page 291 note 3 North, J. J., English Hammered Coinage, London, 1963, pp. 35–7Google Scholar.

page 291 note 4 A perhaps less plausible candidate would be Rochester.

page 291 note 5 B.N.J. xxx, i (1961), 23 and 24Google Scholar.

page 292 note 1 Since the above was written, Mr. Peter Addyman, F.S.A., has shown me a piece with the same types but of very different style, just found the current excavations at Southampton. The coin will be published by Mr. C. E. Blunt, F.S.A., with other Saxon coins as part of the excavation report, M.D.

page 292 note 1 Waterman, Dudley M., ‘Late Saxon, Viking and Early Medieval Finds from York’ (Archaeologia, xcvii (1959), fig. 22, 1–7, pp. 95–6)Google Scholar.

page 293 note 2 Holger Arbman, Birka, i, Die Graber, pp. 140, 309. (Graves 488 and 835: Plate 115, 1, 2.)

page 293 note 3 I am indebted to Professor Marten Stenber- ger for this information.

page 293 note 4 I am indebted to Dr. Bantelmann for drawing my attention to these examples.

page 293 note 5 A flat metal Gotland pendant of much the same form as the taller amber one from Elisenhof, but perforated in the opposite direction may suggest some relationship between these tall conical beads and metal ornaments (Fornvännen, 1911, Tillväxten p. 306, fig. 79); although amber beads of rounded form are very numerous on Gotland, there are none of this tall conical shape in the great corpus of Viking-period grave goods from the island. I am indebted to Professor Mirten Sten-berger for information as to the occurrence of such pendants on Gotland.

page 293 note 6 Jankuhn, Herbert, Die Ausgrabungen in Haithabu, 1937-1939, p. 115 and Tafel 3KGoogle Scholar.