Treasure, Memory, Nature: Church Objects in the Middle Ages

Abstract

recent study has shown, by the packing between the rafters of straw daub, small patches of which have survived. Among the wealth of original fittings that have been uncovered are areas of tiled floor (the purchase of Penn tiles is documented in the accounts), plaster facing on the walls and, most remarkably of all, rich polychromatic decoration in at least a few rooms. In the house which occupied bay three, on one wall between the studs there were stylized trees on mounds, and on the wall opposite fictive studs to which were attached alternating paper quatrefoils and cinquefoils. Crook speculates that this may well be the earliest paper decoration in England and, perhaps, the earliest occurrence of paper put to any use at all. From an archaeological point of view, the most invaluable findings in the book are those relating to the 14th century. For the reader, however, one of the book’s major strengths is the way that it carries the story down to the present day. In the 15th century, as the author shows, overcrowding in the cloister was eased by the provision of completely new accommodation for the vicars further down the Lower Ward in the present-day Horseshoe Cloister, allowing the canons to double-up the houses and give themselves more space. With the arrival of married clergy in the 16th century, yet more space was needed again, and additions were made to the houses, either upwards through the construction of new floors, or even, in some cases, sideways, by punching out extensions into the cloister garth, producing the characteristic higgledy-piggledy appearance we appreciate today. As more information about the occupants becomes available from the 17th century, so the wealth of enjoyable anecdotage increases. We learn, for example, of Dr Keate, the headmaster of Eton— known as ‘Flogger Keate’ for having flogged no fewer than eighty of his pupils in one day—who, having constructed a watch-tower on the roof of his house, then needed also to construct a speaking-tube, to communicate with his servants four storeys below. In recent times the process of constant adaptation of the houses has continued, as the enlargements needed to accommodate large families have been replaced by sub-divisions to create flats for lay clerks, vergers and other staff. What Crook has given us here is a major work of record, an authoritative account of the canons’ cloister which will be the point of departure for all future discussions of the architectural history of the jumble of buildings to the north of St George’s Chapel. What is lacking, however, is any attempt to place the cloisters’ timber-framed construction in the wider context of developments in claustral architecture in the 14th century, or to assess the possible influence of the Windsor model on the numerous late 14th-century collegiate foundations that were to follow in its wake. The author’s exemplary study poses many questions for future research. It is to his credit, however, that he has given us a firm starting point from which to proceed.