Listed Building record MDO2380 - Sherborne Abbey, Sherborne; Saxon cathedral church

Remains of the Saxon Abbey and Cathedral church at Sherborne survive in the fabric of the present church of St. Mary. These remains include the west wall of the church and the north wall of the west end of the north aisle. Other elements of the Saxon fabric have been revealed piecemeal from 1849 during restoration work to the church and various archaeological excavations. These include a west central tower and north transept at the west end, attached to the north side of the tower.

King Ine established a new see at Sherborne and William of Malmesbury records that Aldhelm, the first bishop (705-9) constructed a new church there. Malmesbury was writing c.1125 and claimed to have seen this original church. In 998 Wulfsige III confirmed the conversion of the cathedral from an establishment of secular canons to a Benedictine monastery with the bishop as abbot, and built a cloister and conventual buildings. Bishop Aelfwold conducted building works in 1045-58. In 1122 the monastery was raised to the status of an independent abbey and a new phase of building work, attributed to bishop Roger was begun. This 12th century phase of work was substantial, destroying much of the original fabric of the Saxon church. Some of the fabric survives in the present church, notably, the west wall and the west end of the north aisle wall. (1) Remains of the Saxon church have been discovered on a number of occasions. Restoration work conducted between 1849 and 1877 revealed the foundations of the Saxon tower. The restoration entailed the demolition of the south porch and its reconstruction; the nave and transepts were restored and the west window was lowered. It was during this work that remains of the Saxon church were revealed outside the west of the Abbey church. ‘…remains…have been now however uncovered, and there are visible remains of a plinth or base course of a building 29 feet wide outside, the centre line of which corresponds exactly with the nave. This ancient porch was pulled down either in Norman days, or to make way for the later Allhallows Church of the fifteenth century, and nothing now remains of it above the floor line of this church.’ (2) Furthermore, during 1849 in lowering the perpendicular west window R.C.C. Carpenter discovered a double row of small pillars and arches of early date opening from an upper floor of the tower to the nave, an arrangement peculiar to Saxon churches. (3) The late Sir Alfred Clapham conducted excavations for the RCHM immediately to the west of Sherborne Abbey Church during 1949 in order to ascertain if there was evidence for the previous existence of a west axial tower. ‘the excavation revealed the massive south-west angle of the tower and a portion of the outer edge of the foundation of the west wall near the axial line.’ It projected c. 25 ft west of the church and sat on a massive foundation with a 2foot 6 inch offset. As no inner face to the foundation could be found, he concluded that it formed a solid raft under the tower. significantly he also uncovered the foundation of another wall running south from the SW corner of the tower and butted against it; both this wall and the tower foundation were bound with similar mortar. Unfortunately no notes or photographs of this excavation survive. (3)(4) J.H.P. Gibb conducted excavations for the Sherborne School Archaeological Society between 1964-1973. These comprised the digging of four small trenches; the NW corner of the Saxon West tower in the graveyard outside the west front of the church; the west wall of the NW transept or porticus (exploratory dig during 1964); the north wall of the NW transept and the interior of the NW transept.immediately west of Sherborne Abbey church during 1964 and 1965 in order to gather further information on the appearance and structure of the parish church of All Hallows. The first trench was excavated in the summer of 1964 to the north of the east end of the extant north aisle wall of All Hallows, and immediately south of the SW corner of the Sherborne School library. This small trench unexpectedly revealed a plinth constructed from cut Ham stone and thought to represent the foundations of a pre-conquest porch attached to the north end of the Saxon cathedral tower. This trench also revealed the west wall of the northern side chapel of All Hallows parish church, constructed on top of the Saxon plinth, and bonded with the extant north aisle wall at its southern end. (3)(5) At some time between 1964 and 1973 a small excavation was undertaken on the area formerly occupied by All Hallows church, Sherborne in order to try and expose part of the earlier Saxon church known to have existed on the site. Initially an area of c. 9ft x 6ft of the NW corner of the Saxon west tower was exposed. Unfortunately little stratification had survived the 300 years use of the site as a graveyard. Further walls were exposed one of which was interpreted as forming part of a narrow porch or narthex built against, and contemporary with the tower’s west face. Unfortunately the excavated area was too restricted to be sure of stratigraphical relationships. A further excavation was undertaken during the winter of 1967-8 in the interior south ground floor room of the School library. The discovery of dry rot had led to the floor being removed. This building had originally been the monastic outer parlour. At a depth of 2 ft below the floor, almost the whole length of a two-coursed plinth was uncovered, along the north internal face of the south wall. This plinth returned towards the south beneath the library wall and along the interior edge of the west wall of the church. This was interpreted as the north wall of the NW transept of the Saxon church. Furthermore, 3 ft north of the south wall of the library, a mass of large stones pitched into wet clay were interpreted as part of the massive foundations of the west tower and narthex of the Saxon church. A fine 15th century Ham stone fireplace was also revealed on removal of the 19th century dado on the west wall. Also the area of the library appears to have been used as a pottery in the 17th century with a cobbled stone floor, fire blackened in places, and post-holes for potters’ furniture. Many sherds of pottery, some possibly wasters were also found. Evidence for the east wall of an earlier west cloister range was also found running N-S at the east side of the library. The Archaeological Society of Sherborne School also excavated in an open area, which had previously been the site of the north chapel of All Hallows church. Green and yellow floor tiles associated with this chapel were uncovered along with two courses of the stone altar base. Following the demolition of All Hallows a cottage had been built on the site, the north end south wall of which was also uncovered. The mortar floor of the Saxon transept lay 3ft 3 in below the All Hallows tiled floor, at the same level as the Abbey church floor. It had been destroyed to the west by later graves and by part of the All Hallows foundations. A much corroded iron key, three pins, part of a whetstone and a fragment of course pottery were found in the mortar floor. Broken pieces of plaster were found on the surface of the floor and may have formed part of a broken plaster box, possibly a reliquary. The Saxon north wall of the transept sat directly on top of gravel. This gravel lay above hard packed and pitched stones in clay seen below the library to the north. This rubble foundation layer contained a sherd of 13th century green glazed pottery, although it is possible that this sherd is intrusive. The stone rubble foundation layer could not be bottomed for safety reasons. Part of the Saxon church was exposed within the present church during an excavation in June 1990. the floor of the west end of the north aisle was opened up prior to repaving and the archaeology recorded by Keen. The wall of the Saxon aisle was recorded and shown to be exactly the same thickness (0.79m) as the surviving Saxon west wall of the present church. Its width and position suggest that it was the outer wall of the north aisle of the 11th century catheral. A surface to the north may have been the floor of the south walk of the Saxon cloister. The Saxon aisle floor was also observed. (6) Abbey of ST MARY, SHERBORNE. The bishop's see of Wessex W. of SELWOOD was established in SHERBORNE in 705. The ch. remained a Cathedral till the removal of the see to OLD SARUM in 1075. In 998 (c.993) the minster was brought under the rule of ST. BENEDICT being reconstituted for Benedictine monks instead of secular canons. In 1172 it was elevated to the rank of Abbey. In 1152 there were 50 monks at SHERBORNE, but in 1539 - at the dissolution - only the abbot and 14 monks were noted. <10> Rebuilding and alteration of the ecclesiastic buildings took place in the 12th, 13th - 14th cents. (in the latter cent, ALL HALLOWS Ch. was built), major restoration also took place in the 15.c. After the dissolution the buildings were granted to Sir JOHN HORSEY, he sold the abbey ch., less the eastern chapels, to the townspeople in 1540, at which time the ph. ch. of ALL HALLOWS was demolished HORSEY sold the eastern chapels to the hospital, which in turn sold them, in 1560, to the school. The general reconstruction of the church was begun in 1849 extending into the 20th. Cent. <11>

Record last edited

Mar 20 2024 2:40PM