The Golden Minster: The Anglo-Saxon Minster and Later Medieval Priory of St. Oswald at Gloucester

Description

With contributions by Eric Boore, Sarah Brown, Phil Greatorex, Michael Hare, Caroline Ireland, Arthur MacGregor, Donald MacKreth, Arthur Price, Richard Reece, John Rhodes, Juliet Rogers, Alan Vince, Malcolm Watkins, Michael Webber and Felicity Wild. A ruined arcade of 12th- and 13th-century arches in the suburbs of Gloucester is all that remains of a minster church founded c 900 AD by Æthelred, Ealdorman of Mercia and his wife Æthelflæd, daughter of Alfred the Great. The minster was established at the time of the refoundation of the town of Gloucester, and the new church was given the relics of St. Oswald of Northumbria. This site has become a major example of the combination of standing and buried archaeology, and the recovered detail enables both the plan and elevation of this important early 10th-century church to be reconstructed. The evidence is all the more valuable because it represents a period of Anglo-Saxon architecture when information about new buildings is very sparse. After the Norman conquest it became an Augustinian priory and then a parish church, only to be pulled down in the 17th century. This report describes the excavations of the late 1970s, and incorporates detailed accounts of the preconquest documentary evidence, the spectacular collection of Anglo-Saxon and later sculpture, and other finds including medieval floor tiles, and small finds. There is a full analysis of the human skeletal remains which provide important physical information spanning more than a thousand years. The evidence is combined to produce a full account of the site from its origin as a Roman tilery and cemetery, through the Anglo-Saxon years when the church may have been known as the Golden Minster, to its end as a ruin in an obscure corner of the town of Gloucester. List of figures vi List of tables x Preface: English, French and German xi Acknowledgements xiv PART I: GLOUCESTER AND THE MINSTER OF ST OSWALD: A SURVEY OF THE EVIDENCE by Carolyn Heighway and Michael Hare 1 PART II: THE EVIDENCE Chapter 1: The documentary evidence to 1086 by Michael Hare 33 Chapter 2: The excavation and the structural evidence by Carolyn Heighway and Richard Bryant 47 Chapter 3: The finds General introduction by Carolyn Heighway 108 Roman building materials by Richard Bryant, Carolyn Heighway and Arthur Price 108 Medieval building materials: Anglo-Saxon and medieval building stone by Carolyn Heighway and Richard Bryant 108 Medieval roof tile by Philip Greatorex 109 Medieval floor tiles by Alan Vince 110 Medieval stained glass fragments by Sarah Brown 119 Anglo-Saxon and later medieval wall plaster by Michael Webber 122 The Roman pottery by Carolyn Heighway, Caroline Ireland and Felicity Wild 124 The Medieval pottery by Carolyn Heighway and Caroline Ireland 126 The Post-medieval pottery by Caroline Ireland 128 Miscellaneous small finds 130 Roman coins by Richard Reece 144 Medieval and later coins by John F. Rhodes and Malcolm Watkins 145 Reckoning counters and tokens by John F. Rhodes and Malcolm Watkins 145 Chapter 4: Sculpture and architectural stone by Richard Bryant 146 Chapter 5: Burials: the cultural evidence The cemeteries 194 The burials 201 Analysis of burial rites 202 Roman, Anglo-Saxon and medieval coffins by Michael Webber 207 Post-medieval coffins and coffin furniture by Carolyn Heighway and Eric Boore 219 Post-medieval gravestones and epitaphs by Carolyn Heighway 226 Chapter 6: Burials: the human skeletons by Juliet Rogers 229 Appendix: list of context groups 247 Abbreviations 251 Bibliography 252 Index by Susan Vaughan 260