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THE
EXCAVATION OF BARGHAM CHURCH SITE BY A. BARR-HAMILTON TOPOGRAPHY Bargham Church site is located in the small field, known as Chapel Croft (National Grid reference TQ 0608/0609). which lies immediately westward of Upper Barpham Farm across the track from Angmering to Lee Farm, via New Place. The site rests on the southern slope of Barpham Hill, at the 400ft. contour, some five hundred yards below the triangulation point at the summit (469 feet). The hill falls steadily away to the southward to meet the coastal plain in the vicinity of Angmering village, some three miles distant. Tracks from The Dover and from New Place converge just below Upper Barpham Farm, while a number of others radiate from Lower Barpham Farm, which lies some five hundred yards north-eastward, at the foot of the steep northern escarpment of Barpham Hill. The neighbourhood has yielded considerable Roman and pre-Roman remains.1 A double-lynchet road runs south-eastward from Perry Hill. through traces of a Celtic field system, across Loasden towards Upper Barpham, to a point just below the 400ft. contour, forming, for a short distance, the parish boundary of Angmering as, almost certainly, it once did of Bargham. The site commands an extensive view of Downland, sea and coastal plain from Chanctonbury, Cissbury and Highdown to the Selsey peninsula and the Isle of Wight. GEOLOGY The subsoil of the site consists of Upper White Chalk, covered by a deposit of Tertiary Clay. with flints, which decreases in depth from north to south. Constructional materials of the churches and their furniture include flint, smooth-worn sarsens, chalk, Upper and Lower greensand, Petworth marble, Purbeck limestone, Purbeck marble, Bath stone, granite and Mayen lava. HISTORY OF THE SITE Surviving pre-Conquest records contain no reference to Bargham. A case can be made, however, that the Domesday entry for Bercheham, which mentions a church, refers to hill-top Bargham 2 and that
the riverside Burpham, with which Bercheham, hitherto. has been identified,1 was included in the survey under Wepham. It will be observed that, in Domesday, entries for neighbouring settlements in the Arun valley, namely Arundel, Warningcamp. Offham, Wepham and Stoke. give details of fisheries and. in some cases, of mills. It is, perhaps, not without significance, that these details are lacking in respect of Bercheham. Further, if the Domesday Bercheham is removed from the Burpham series of place-names and placed, chronologically, among those of Bargham, then the apparent confusion between the names of these neighbouring communities, of which Mawer and Stenton complain, largely disappears, at least in so far as the Bargham list is concerned. Thus, starting with Domesday, one has the consistent ' beorh ' formation of Bercheham, Bercham, Baregham and Bargham from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries. It is only in the sixteenth century records 3 that one first finds confusion with Burpham; and this may well have resulted from the name having become a written, rather than a spoken, one, following the depopulation of the manor. The dues in respect of Bargham, shown in the Subsidy Rolls of 1296, 1327 and 13234 suggest that a decline was in progress prior to the Black Death of 1348; and one may suppose that this calamity would have hastened the contraction of the community through a subsequent concentration of the reduced man-power upon the fertile lands of the coastal plain and the abandonment of the marginal Downland to sheep-rearing. In c. 1100, the church paid a pension to the Cluniac priory of St.Pancras, at Southover and the record of this payment 5 contains the last specific reference to Bargham church, until long after its destruction. Subsequent records refer only to landowners and retainers and to rectors, some of whom may have held the living as a sinecure. The last Rector, William Darlington, was instituted in 15216 and, in 1523 the emoluments of the Rectory were utilised by Bishop Sherburne 7 to form the Prebend of Bargham in Chichester Cathedral.
In 1650, Bargham was in the tithing of Ham, in Angmering and, at that time, there was " in Chapell Croft a small ruined part of a chapel."1 Late in the eighteenth century, when Bargham formed part of the Michelgrove estate of the Shelley family, the church site, evidently, was still in the possession of the Gratwickes of Ham. The following entries from the Tompkins Diary 2 are of interest: 1773. March 26. Friday John Tomkins Junr. By the order of Sir John Shelley met Mr. William Gratwick the proprietor of the Tythes in Ham at Bargeham farm & by the map ascertained and sett out in the field called the Chappelfield Mr. Gratwicks Glebe containing Two Acres three Roods & 20 perch. April 5, Monday .... Note Mr. Gratwicke has now in hand fencing his Glebe In the Chappel Croft which had not been enclosed from the Chappelfield in the memory of any man living which said Croft was ascertained and the bounds marked out from Mr. Browns mapp made when the said premise was surveyed in 1723. In 1828, the Shelley estate was sold to Bernard, Duke of Norfolk, since when the site has remained in the possession of his descendants. In 1912, Edwin A. Harris, in his Angmering: A Study, mentioned the church site of Bargham and said that " Treasure was locally supposed to have been hidden at the foot of the altar, and excavations were made on the site, when a knife and two skeletons were unearthed." The writer has been informed by local residents that, some years ago, the late Dr. Eustace, of Arundel, also carried out an excavation here. In the light of recent work, it would appear that Dr. Eustace's activities were confined to the chancel of the last building on the site; he is reputed to have recovered a portion of the font and other objects, but the whereabouts of these is not known and Dr. Eustace seems not to have published an account of his work. In the autumn of 1951, the writer visited the site and was interested to learn that the field which contained it was still known as Chapel Croft. On 18 May, 1952, excavation was commenced. At that time the spot was marked by low, green mounds, forming a rough rectangle; within this was a mass of bramble, nettle and scrub, while a large ash tree, some two hundred years old and victim of a recent gale, lay the length of the chancel, resting upon the remains of the eastern wall. Visible through the undergrowth, a stone chamfered on its interior face and evidently in situ, suggested a priest's doorway in the south wall of the chancel. Across the lane from the site were the great thatched barn, the long, low farmhouse of Tudor origin, the collection of venerable outbuildings and the ancient catchment pond that comprise Upper Barpham farmstead. Work proceeded steadily. ,winters excepted, and was completed on 27 July, 1958.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The writer wishes to record his thanks to His Grace the Duke of Norfolk. Earl Marshal. K.G.. and to the Worshipful Kenneth McMorran. Q.C.. late Chancellor of the Diocese of Chichester, for permission to excavate the site; to Captain T. G. C. Evans, O.B.E., F.L.A.S., Land Agent to the Duke of Norfolk, Mr. W. G. Thurston, formerly of Lee Farm, and Mr. T. Feist. of Upper Barpham Farm, for assistance in various ways: to Mr. Walter H. Godfrey, C.B.E., F.R.I.B.A., F.S.A.. and to Mr. L. F. Saharan. C.B.E., F.S.A., for advice; Dr. A. E. Wilson. F.S.A.. for a vice. and, with Mr. A. E. Smith, for classification of the pottery; Mr. G. P. Burstow, F.S.A., who, with Mr. N. E. S. Norris F.S.A., produced the plan of the first season's work, which formed the basis of that shown in Fig. 1; Mr. Norris, whose technical advice and. active participation in the initial stages of the excavation were invaluable; Mr. Eric Holden, of the Sussex Archaeological Society, Mr. John Misselis, of Upper Barpham Farm, and Mr. frank Thorn: s, of Hove, for photographic assistance: Mr. A. Cunnington, formerly of Angmering, for local information and a copy of Angmering: A Study; Mr. H. H. Brazenor, of the Brighton Museum, and Dr. J. Roder, for identifying geological specimens, animal bones and metal objects; Mr. G. Noel-Hume, formerly of the Guildhall Museum, and Mr. Robert Charleston, of the Victoria and Alter?. Museum, for information regarding the painted glass; Mr. J. G. Hurst, Assistant Inspector of Ancient Monuments, for his advice and for his provision of aerial photographs and the drawing of the ornamented bronze fragment; the Director of the Building. Research Station, Watford, for arranging the analysis of mortars, and, finally, to Mr. T. J. P. Pierce, of Brighton, and Dr. A.. Sims. formerly of Hove, and to the many other friends who gave up their time and energy to work, voluntarily, upon She site.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE. SITE. The series of footings and walls, which were uncovered, and which represent successive buildings upon the site, are grouped below in chronological order. It will be seen that there was a tendency for these to he more substantial on the south side, due, no doubt, to the fact that the ground falls away from north to south.
Building 1 (Plan Reference F) The plan of excavation adopted was, basically, to commence at the internal face of a known, architectural feature and to ground-plan of a laterally to a logical conclusion and when the ground plan of a cell or building had been determined to clear the interior downwards layer by layer to natural base; then, to repeat the process externally.
Chancel Firstly, elder and bramble were removed from the site, with the result that some details of the chancel were revealed, notably the base of the chancel arch (D 32. Plates Ia and Ib), the lower courses of the east wall (F 8) and, in the south wall, the lower part of the jambs of a priest's doorway (F17-Plate IIIa). It was evident that some clearance of the chancel had been made not many years earlier, no doubt by the late Dr. Eustace, of Arundel, and, possibly, by the nineteenth-century treasure-seekers of Angmering. Next, the chancel walls (F7-F10), were completely exposed on the inside and the interior of the chancel cleared down to floor level. Objects found were Horsham slab and broken roof tiles, including glazed ridge tiles, of fourteenth- or fifteenth-century date; and some fragments of the font. adhering firmly to the roots of the fallen ash tree, which were sufficient to show that it had been of the rectangular Norman type, common in West Sussex, executed in Purbeck marble, having a circular basin and ornamented on the exterior with shallow arcading. By a coincidence, the northern range of the ancient farmhouse, little altered since its erection, was undergoing renovation at the time and the removal of an interior wall brought to light a large portion of the same font, a capital, with volute carving, probably of eleventh-century date, and a number of other stones, including flags. which appeared to have been removed from the church. The chancel walls were of flints, set in hard, white mortar, with some dressed stones of hard chalk.. sandstone. Purbeck limestone and sonic broken Roman bonding tiles. The flints were neatly knapped on their internal faces. The floor was of trodden earth, but there were indications, in the form of damaged shallow rectangles of mortar, that it had been covered, at least in part, by stone slabs,. some of which were grave slabs.1 One broken, glazed brick was recovered from the earth covering the floor and the writer is informed that an encaustic tile, found previously on the site, is in the possession of the Littlehampton Museum. ft is likely that the floor of the chancel consisted of grave slabs, surrounded by glazed bricks and encaustic tiles. One dressed stone. of hard chalk, was recovered of the internal arch of a window. probably a lancet. The priest's doorway was constructed of Bath stone, with line vertical tooling, the jambs having chamfered inside angles. terminating in stop moulding; it appeared to date from the fourteenth century. Before work inside the chance( could be completed it was necessary to remove the fallen ash tree; this was done by means of a tractor. 1 Appendix 1.
Nave Next, the nave walls (F4-F6, F11-F12) were cleared on the inside, in order that the complete ground-plan of the building could be ascertained; it was found to comprise rectangular nave and chancel only, with respective average internal measurements of 32ft. x 15ft. and 18ft. x Oft. 6in. A break in the nave walls, north and south (F15, F16), indicated the position of doorways, roughly opposite, one jamb stone surviving of the north doorway. Between chancel and doorway, the north wall of the nave (F6) was roughly chequered in flint and ashlar, the latter consisting mainly of re-used, dressed stones of Purbeck limestone, some carved, and contained the greater part of a large grave slab of Petworth marble. with foliated cross, of thirteenth- or fourteenth-century date, which had been broken into sections for use as building material. The corresponding section of the south wall (F11, Plates IIa and IIb:) tray have been of identical construction. but little remained above the plinth, which consisted. on its internal face. entirely of large, used, dressed stones of Purbeck limestone. West of the doorways, the walls (F4, F5. F12) were of a different character, consisting mainly of large, unbroken flints, with a considerable quantity of broken Roman brick, particularly in the wear v aft, which had also, a plinth of reused, carved stones of Purheck limestone (Plate IIIb). The strong, white mortar had been used throughout.
The nave was then cleared of in-filling down to floor level, when the objects found included many fragments of early window-glass. unpainted, one of which was part of a diamond-shaped pane, scraps of window lead, a piece of ornamental bronze, possibly part of a reliquary (Fig. 3), and sherds of pottery of all periods from late thirteenth-century to Tiger-ware of the seventeenth-century. In the north-west corner of the nave (E10) was uncovered a small, oval deposit of mortar, some fourteen; inches at its widest and eighteen inches deep, surrounding a small, earth-filled hollow. This may have held a support for a ladder to a western hell-turret, but the mortar was of a bullish, sandy type, resembling that used in the construction of Building 2 (see p. 52). Three squared stones (F18), laid cast and west and roughly central to the nave, were also uncovered. These proved, later, to he the uppermost remaining course of a fine, stone-built tomb (Plate IV) and the fact that the filling contained a high proportion of white mortar, a carved stone from an earlier building and some pieces of fourteenth-century glass (Fig. 4) suggested that alterations to the church were in progress at the time of the burial, which was probably contemporary with the erection of Building 1. The tomb contained a human skeleton, apparently that of a. woman of some importance, who may have been its second occupant, the bones of an earlier interment having been piled at the feet of the later one; it was constructed of re-used, squared. bluets of Purbeck limestone, set in white mortar, and narrowed slightly from wee to cast. In the vicinity in the earth in-filling above: the floor, wore found two fragments of a tablet or tablets of Purbeck marble. those had finelysmoothed upper surfaces. each of which bore a small cross, consisting of five minute indentations. inserted upon faint scratches, made previously to mark the position of the cross; the lower surfaces had grooved tooling which suggested a binding surface and the fragments may represent the slab of an altar or altar tomb. Of the chancel arch, two stones, of the plinth, only, remained on the north side; these were of Purbeck limestone. On the south side, however, the base of the central shaft, and that of the western of the two supporting shafts of a compound pier, remained in position (D32, Plate lb). On both north and south, the sections of wall behind the remains of the arch (D19, D31) were set in a poor, Sandy mortar, bright yellow in colour when dampened.
1. From filling
of stone-built tomb.
The shaft bases, on the south side, were roughly tooled in yellow sandstone; the plinth, almost complete, consisted of one large, chamfered stone, of similar material and tooling, and two smaller, chamfered stones, of Purbeck limestone, showing superior workmanship. The whole group had been splintered and reddened by exposure to intense heat. obviously while standing in its, present position.
he removal of the caps of earth from the north and south walls disclosed the bases of two further compound piers (D20, D33, Plates Va and Vb). These consisted of central shaft and. in each case, one remaining base of an original arrangement of two supporting shafts, but.. in the northern group. a shaped Roman tile, used as a plinth, marked the position of the second. These two groups were built. one into each wall. adjoining the position of the chancel arch bases; and were also deeply reddened and fractured by exposure to flame. The northern group (Plate Va) consisted of a main shaft, crudely tooled in yellow sandstone and one surviving. supporting shaft. on the north side, neatly carved from Purbeck limestone in a manner which suggested early Norman workmanship. The course of Roman tiles on which this group had been set, including the shaped tile mentioned above, remained in position. and these were laid in turn upon a massive plinth of material and workmanship identical with that of the central shaft base. In the southern group (Plate Vb), the central shaft base resembled its counterpart. described above, but was of larger dimensions. The surviving supporting shaft, again, was neatly tooled in Purbeck limestone. The group was set upon a plinth comprising one large, roughly tooled stone of yellow sandstone and two smaller well-tooled stones. of Purbeck limestone, which clearly had been re-used. since the chamfered edges were not in harmony. Eleven fee-" westward of these features, in each wall, were found part of the plinths of the responds (D18, D50) made up again of roughly tooled stones of yellow sandstone and neatly tooled stones of Purbeck limestone. Yellow mortar had been used in the construction of each of these features and there could be no doubt that the,, were the remnant of transept arches of an earlier building (Building 3, see p. 53) of which the transepts, at some time after the fire and, possibly, because of it, had been abandoned; whereupon the arches had bean walled-in to complete the nave of this little church (shown black on plan). Finally, cuttings were made, parallel with and exterior to, the walls of the building. These resulted in the discovery of pieces of fourteenth-century painted glass (Fig. 4) and a section of mullion, both from a position immediately below where an eastern window would have been placed; quantities of Horsham slab; a cache of oyster shells, about two feet south of the priest's doorway and six inches above the level of the doorstep, and of the facts that the north and south walls of the nave, west of the doorways (F5, F12), but not the west wall (F4) rested upon chalk footings and that the north transept of the previous building (Building 3, see page 53) had terminated at its eastern end in an apse (D17a), constructed with the use of yellow mortar. The uniform height of the remaining walls and the comparatively small quantity of tumble suggested that their stones had been removed systematically for re-use elsewhere: and it is significant that many faced stones, of Purbeck limestone, are still visible in the walls of the manor farmhouse and of the great barn adjacent to it. At a later stage in the excavation, a much-worn silver penny of the reign of Edward I was found in the mortar from the dismantled south wail of the nave, which put the earliest possible date for its construction in the period 1272-1307. All other evidence, from building materials and architectural detail, suggested a fourteenthcentury date for this building. Later, also, the positions were identified of many graves, within and without the building, with which they appeared to be contemporary (see Appendix 1). The initial work having been completed, of establishing the ground-plan, approximate date and type of construction of Building 1, the last upon the site, attention was given to its predecessor (Building 2).
Building 2 (Plan Reference E) The discovery during the work on Building 1, referred to above, that an earlier building had had a north transept with an eastern apse, led to the supposition that the eastern end of that earlier building had been triapsidal. The removal of the earth floor of the chancel of Building 1, which exposed the yellow-mortar footings of the apsidal chancel of the earlier building, indicated that this had been the case. At the same time, the walls of the chancel of Building 1 were found to rest upon substantial footings (El-E8) in the construction of which, use had been made mainly of a buffish sandy mortar, though some white mortar was in evidence; these were 48in. in width and 29in. in depth. Since the chancel arch of Building 1 had clearly rested upon a base (D32) which had suffered damage from fire while in its present position and since its present position indicated a rectangular rather than an apsidal chancel, it followed that the apsidal chancel of Building 3 had given way to a rectangular chancel before the fire which had, caused the fourteenth-century re-building. The difference in the type of mortar used in footings E1-E8 tended to confirm such a building sequence; as did the later discovery of footing E9, in similar mortar, representing the addition of a porch or large buttress to the south transept of Building 3 and providing evidence that the buffish mortar was in use before the latter's destruction. For convenience, the series of footings of Period E have been styled ` Building 2,' though they represent mere modifications to Building 3.
Building 3 (Plan Reference D) Chancel As shown above, the existence of this building and the possiblity of it having had a tri-apsidal east end, had been established during the course of work on Building 1 ; and on removal of the earth floor of the latter, some four inches in depth. the remains of the footing of the apsidal chancel were exposed (D25-D27, Plates VIa and VIb). This footing was constructed of flints, set in a yellow, sandy mortar, was laid on natural clay and was complete except where it had been damaged by graves 1, 2, 3 and 13; it was massive, having an average width and depth, respectively. of 40in. and 30in. on the north side, as compared with those of 44in. and 32in. on the south side. The apse appeared to have been supported by buttresses, but the footings of these (D26, D28, D29) had been largely destroyed during the digging of graves 2, 3, and 11. Tower The chancel footing sprang from two massive bases on the west (D23, D30), of similar construction and measuring 54in. NS by 96in. EW by 20in. deep, north base and 57in. NS by 96in. EW by 32in. deep, south base. These bases appeared to represent the two eastern piers of a central tower; the footings of the corresponding western piers (D21, D22) being uncovered when the earth floor was removed from the nave of Building 1. The remains of the eastern wall of the tower (D19. 1331) had been built into the chancel of the later Building 1. Between the eastern and western piers were found two series of footings, one of white mortar containing pounded Roman brick (AI-A5) and the other of rammed chalk (B4, B5, B6) ; reference to these, under the heading of the building with which they are associated, is made below. The western pier bases terminated on their eastern side in curves which, if produced to meet, formed a concave arc and abutted the Roman-brick mortar footings AI and A4, the corresponding convex arc of which suggested an early, western apse; the western faces of the pier bases were flush with a chalk footing (B2-B7), running north and south.
Nave The subsequent uncovering of the north and south transepts proved the tri-apsidal plan and showed that, while yellow mortar had been used in the construction of the tower, transepts and chancel it had not been used west of the line of the tower and transept footings (D3-D35). Further, as described above, an examination of the walls of the nave of Building 1, west of this line, showed that the north and south walls were laid upon chalk footings (B1-B2, B8-B7), but that the west wall (F4) rested only upon a shallow plinth of re-used stones with which it was clearly contemporary. It appeared, therefore, that the nave of Building 3 must have extended westwards of the west wall of Building 1 and that, probably, it had been laid upon chalk footings throughout. Accordingly, the top-soil was removed from this area and such was found to be the case. The footings (Bl-B2-B7-B8-B1) were of a uniform width and depth of 42in. and 18in. respectively, the internal measurement of the nave being approximately 42ft. by 15ft. The floor of the portion of the nave which had been abandoned (X) when Building 1 was erected was covered with ash to a depth of more than an inch and the remains of its cement surface had been reddened by fire. At a later stage of the excavation, evidence was forthcoming that the chalk footings were older than those of flints-in-yellow-mortar and represented an earlier building of which the nave had probably been incorporated into Building 3.
North Transept The north transept was next uncovered (Plates VIIa and VIIb) when it was found that the lowest courses of the walls (D16, D17, D17a) remained; it had an odd NE/SW inclination from its roughly north-south axis, with the exception of the apse, which had the same orientation as that of the chancel. The apse terminated on the west, internally, in squared stones of Purbeck limestone; externally, the eastern wall of the tower (D19, D31) was also faced with this stone and, from a later study of the construction of the earlier buildings, it appeared that this material was first introduced at the erection of Building 3. The walls, other than those of the apse, rested upon enormous footings of flints in yellow mortar (D1, D13, D14, D15), which followed the same odd orientation; the apse and north walls were 30in. thick. but the west wail had a minimum thickness of 54in. There was evidence of an angle buttress (D5) at the junction of the apse with the north wall and the latter had been supported at the centre, also, by a shallow rectangular buttress (D4). The vast sleeper footing (D14) below the chord of the apse entrance could have served little purpose and. it was concluded that, originally, it had supported the eastern wall of a rectangular porticus, the apse being a later addition. The rebuilt appearance of the transept arch bases lent support to this conclusion. The angular external projection D2-D3 at the north end of the west wall probably indicates buttressing. At the south end of the west wall, the remains of successive courses of flints (Dl) in peculiar alignments, possibly marked the position of the lowest stairs of a turret staircase, the stone treads having been removed. The great width of the west wall also gave support for this possibility, as did the discovery of a further Roman-brick mortar footing (Cl, Plate VIII), abutting the wall on the west, which, while of earlier date, had traces of flints in yellow mortar adhering to its surface (D49) and may well have been used to support a staircase in Building 3. The transept floor was of earth, covered by the remains of a layer of ash, much disturbed, which, again, confirmed the destruction by fire of Building 3/2. There were traces of a yellow cement upon the floor of the apse. A section of the sleeper footing (D15), which carried the transept arch, had been removed when Grave 4 had been dug. Above the filling of this burial was a thick. white mortar base, upon which had probably rested the large grave slab of Petworth marble, ornamented with a foliated cross and of thirteenth- or fourteenth-century date, which had been broken into sections and used as building material in the adjacent wall of Building 1, during the filling of the transept arch. Set into the floor at Y was found a large, earthenware storagevessel, with sagging base, green-glazed internally and with appliedstrip ornament (Plate IX). The rim of the pot was, approximately, at floor level and, since it showed no signs of carbon deposit and contained nothing except earth in-filling, it appears possible that it was placed there, as a water container, by the builders of the last church, in the fourteenth century. The footings of the porticus (D1, D13, D14, D15) were found to rest upon, and slightly overlap, several inches of flints in a white mortar containing pounded Roman brick (C2-C9).
South Transept Finally, the south transept was uncovered, when the main features of the north transept, other than those which suggested a turret staircase, were found to be duplicated, the footings only remained however (Plate Xa), and these had a corresponding, though less pronounced. NW/SE inclination. The footings were of identical construction with their counterparts, those of the apse and south wall being broken at D39, D38 and D48, probably by burials, while there was evidence of buttresses (D37 and D35), respectively at the east and west angles of the south wall. Instead of a shallow external buttress central to the south wall, there was a larger footing in a different mortar (E9) resembling that of the footings of Building 2 and probably representing a small porch added at some time after the construction of the yellow-mortar building. The massive footings of the porticus (D41-D44), remained complete, with the exception of a section of the south wall (Grave 14). There were considerable traces of ash at floor level, but this had been disturbed and was largely covered, as were the footings, by a thin layer of rammed chalk which appeared to have formed the floor of a later farm building (Building 4); from the chalk level were recovered animal bones and one half of an ox shoe. In the vicinity of the porch were found part of a barrel lock and a number of iron nails with large heads. Above the floor, in the powdered mortar at the base of the infilling resulting from the collapse of the south wall of Building 1, was found a silver penny of the reign of Edward I; upon the floor were found small pieces of early, plain glass. The footings of the south porticus, like those of the north, were set upon a few inches of flints in white mortar containing pounded Roman brick; these were slightly overlapped by the yellow-mortar footings and showed an even more pronounced NW/SE inclination. Faced stones from Building 3, used externally in the adjacent wall of Building I (F1 l), bore traces of ochre painting.
Building 5 (Plan Reference C) North Porticus The discovery of the Roman-brick mortar footing CI (Plate VIII) has been mentioned above. On completion of the excavation of Building 3, attention was turned to this footing, which seemed to represent yet another early building. It was found to abut the chalk footing B1-B2, but to pass under the yellow-mortar footing D1-D3 of the eleventh-century Building 3. A section of the latter was therefore removed, with the result that the remainder of the Roman-brick mortar footing Cl-probably that of a turret staircase was exposed; this footing was found to be joined on the east by a series of others, of similar construction (C2-C5, C6-C9) which, by means of further cuttings, internal and external to the north porticus footings of Building 3, were shown to lie almost exactly beneath the latter. South Porticus An examination of the south porticus of Building 3, by similar means, showed that here, too, the yellow-mortar footings almost exactly overlaid others of Roman-brick mortar construction. The removal of sections of the yellow-mortar footings D21, D22 and D30 suggested that this might also be true of the tower foundations, although the evidence was slight and inconclusive. There was no trace, beneath the chancel apse of Building 3, of Roman-brick mortar, but a disturbed mass of this material (C18, Plate Xb) was found to lie, just below the earth floor, within the apse, and may mark the original eastern limit of Building 5. The curious thing about this series of Roman-brick mortar footings was that, with the exception of the turret staircase, which remained to a depth, in places, of up to eighteen inches, they consisted generally of one layer only of flints in mortar. Their presence, in that position, could be explained by one of three possibilities: 1. That a building had existed prior to the erection of the yellow-mortar Building 3, with which it was identical in plan with the probable exception of the tri-apsidal east end and that, 'hen it had been pulled down, the lowest course of the footings had been left as a guide for the erection of the subsequent building. 2. That the erection of Building 3 had been commenced at its lowest course in Roman-brick mortar but that, subsequently, use had been made of yellow mortar. 3. That the material for the construction of the footings of Building 3 had been made available by the destruction of an earlier building in which Roman-brick mortar had bean utilised (it was particularly noticeable that many of the flints in the yellow-mortar footings of the south porticus had Roman-brick mortar adhering to them beneath the yellow mortar); and that the method of construction utilised which, clearly had been to place layers of large flints in the trenches and to pour the yellow mortar upon them, had resulted in the lowest layer retaining its original characteristics. In view of the facts
the available evidence was in favour of the first possibility and the existence of Building 5. of Saxon origin, constructed of flints in Roman-brick mortar and comprising nave, central tower and rectangular north and south portici, with chancel of unknown plan, has been assumed.
Building 6 (Plan Reference B) The chalk footings which lay below, and extended westward of, the north and south walls of Building I (Plate XIa) and abutted the tower footings of Building 3 on the west, have been mentioned above. When this series (B1-B8) had been exposed completely, it was found to represent one more early building on the site, in this case a tiny, two-cell structure, and to be complete except for the north and south walls and part of the cast wall, of the chancel. The internal measurements of the nave were approximately 20ft. x 14ft., and of the chancel 8ft. 4in. x 14ft., and the footings, which were laid upon natural clay, had an almost uniform width of 42in. and depth of 18in., the internal angles being neatly rounded. The footings of the nave were complete, except for some slight damage to that which had carried the chancel arch, those of the north and south wall of the chancel had been removed to make way for the massive tower foundations of Buildings 5 (?) and 3, with the exception of a fragment at B3; and these of the cast wall (B4-B6) had been laid across some vet earlier footings in Roman-brick mortar (described below under building 1) and had been breached by later graves (7 and 5) otherwise remaining to their original depth of about four inches. Since the Roman-brick mortar/yellow mortar footings of Buildings 3 and 5 had not extended west of the tower/transept line D3-D35 (except for the turret staircase C1), and since the chalk footings of the north and south walls of the chancel of Building 6 had been removed before the former had been constructed, it followed that Building 6 was of earlier date than Buildings 3 and 5. Conclusive dating evidence for the chalk footings was lacking, though a sherd of Saxon pottery was recovered from the remains of an ash-layer below the floor of the abandoned portion of the nave of Building 3 (X). However, as the nave that had originally stood upon them probably had been incorporated into an eleventh-century building which, in any case. the chalk footings had preceded, they were assigned to the Anglo-Saxon period. The large quantity of Roman tiles found in the walls of Building 1 (the last to be built upon the site) west of the doorways F15 and F16 and the construction of these walls with large, unbroken flints, some with traces of Roman-brick mortar, suggested that the nave of Building 6 had survived until the final rebuilding after the fire of c. 1300, when, it was clear, the walls were constructed of the materials readiest to hand from the destroyed building. The use of Roman materials in the construction of Building 6, its small dimensions and its two-cell arrangement are features in common with the Chichester group of early churches, and it is possible that the plan reflects a Celtic influence derived from St. Wilfrid's Northumbrian mission of the late seventh century.
Building 7 (Plan Reference A) It has been shown, above, that Building 6 was of earlier construction than Buildings 1, 2, 3 and 5 and that the footing of the eastern wall of its chancel was laid across yet an earlier series of footings (Al-A5), representing the earliest structure upon the site; the curved western end of these, where they abutted the later yellowmortar footings, has also been described. This series, A1-A5, a mutilated remnant, comprised part of north and south walls, terminating at the eastern end in two detached rectangular footings (A2. A5) and joined at their western extremities by a curved end which, when due allowance had been made for the damage to it by Graves 5 and 6 and by the stone-built tomb, still resembled a shallow, western apse. It was constructed of unbroken flints and small pieces of broken, re-used Roman building materials, including tegellae and imbreces; and faced stones of grey sandstone and a solitary one of granite were found at the junction of the walls with the curved end. The mortar was white and contained pounded Roman brick and plaster and nodules of a pink mortar which had, presumably, fallen from the materials re-used in its manufacture. The removal of the yellow-mortar footing D21 and part of footing D22 permitted the foundations of Building 7 to be studied independently (Plate XIb). The curved fragment of chalk footing (B3), mentioned above, suggested by its position that the Roman-brick mortar footing A1-A4 had terminated in a crumbling curve at the time that the chalk footing had been laid against it. Footing A3, below chalk footing B5, though stratified with chalk and indeterminate by reason of the intrusion of Graves 5 and 7, might possibly have indicated the position of an altar base within a western apse. Beneath the yellow-mortar footings D21 and D22 were found traces of Roman-brick mortar, but these were insufficient to indicate whether their presence was due
Since the tower footings were otherwise angular at all points, the third possibility seemed highly improbable; nor did the possibility that the curved footing represented a ceremonial western apse in any of the other buildings seem likely.. in view of its position relative to each. On the evidence, therefore, it is possible that Building 7 represents a very early western-apse building; it is also probable that it represents the first of a series of Saxon churches. Unfortunately, no close dating evidence was forthcoming in respect of the three earliest buildings on the site, probably because the earth had been disturbed continually and systematically, for burials, through many centuries, as indicated by the bone fragments which were found at all levels. Therefore, since the earliest South Saxon churches could have reflected the plans and methods introduced to England by Roman Christian missions and since these plans and methods are likely to have resembled those in use in Roman Britain immediately prior to the Anglo-Saxon invasion, tile possibility cannot be excluded that Building 7 was of pre-Saxon. perhaps pre-Christian. origin. There is abundant evidence of Romano-British occupation of the vicinity and the rare choice of a hill-top site for a Saxon Downland village could mean that at Bargham a pre-Saxon village site had been perpetuated. The re-used Roman building materials, which first occur in Building 7, may have been brought to the site from the extensive villa at New Place, two miles to the south, which was excavated in recent years.
APPENDIX I In accordance with the conditions of the Faculty for excavation, issued by the Diocesan authorities. interference with burials was avoided as far as possible. Two burials only, Grave 1 and Tomb F18, were examined by intention; the first, early in the excavation, to establish whether the shallow, mortar rectangles at floor level did., in fact, represent graves from which slabs had been removed and the second because its stone-built tomb indicated an important burial; a third, Grave 5 was removed in order that the ground-plan of Building 7 could be determined. Five other burials, Graves 8, 9. 10, 12 and 13, were disturbed when soil was removed during work to establish the ground; plans of Buildings 1 and 3; all were very shallow, the first three being only inches below the surface. Grave 2 had been disturbed previous to the excavation, probably by the Angmering treasure-hunters who are reputed to have dug below the adjacent altar site, and yielded part of a skull of great thickness. Grave 5 was that of a tall, broad, young man. Tomb F18 contained the skeleton of an elderly female. Graves 1, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13 all contained skeletons of children those of 12 and 13 being infants. From the grave positions, the type of mortar, where present, and from the filling material, all burials encountered appeared to be contemporary with the last phase of the building's existence as a parish church in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Local tradition associates the disappearance of Bargham village with the advent of the Black Death in 1348 and the preponderance of child graves, their general shallowness and the closeness of those forming the group 8, 9, 10 are not out of keeping with epidemic conditions in a small community.
APPENDIX II In general, the presence of pottery was not essential to the approximate dating of the successive buildings upon the site, since it was possible to assign a period to each on architectural and constructional evidence. This circumstance was fortunate, as continual disturbance of the ground for burials and rebuilding, over a period of some centuries, had resulted in much of the pottery being found in levels other than those of its original deposition. The three earliest buildings could be generalised, only, as " Saxon." but it is doubtful whether the presence of undisturbed Saxon pottery, in association with them, would have permitted closer dating. The range of the recovered pottery confirmed, generally, the period of the continuous use of the site that had been deduced from the study of surviving fabric and furniture. A solitary sherd of Roman pottery, from the rim of a small bowl or jug. commenced the sequence; it had probably arrived on the site with the broken quern and the rest of the used Roman material, wrought thence for the construction of the earliest building. Several sherds of Saxon date, and of the eleventh-century " overlap " period, occurred in the less disturbed area of the west end of the chalk footings; one, part of the rim of a small cup, or pot, was found among traces of a shallow ash layer which probably marked the original floor level of the chalkfooting building, considered to be the second in the Saxon series. Twelfth-, thirteenth-, fourteenth- and fifteenth-century pottery was well exemplified. and the sequence was extended into the postReformation period, terminating in the seventeenth century, as represented by the rim of a Bellarmine jug. Sherds found on the floor of the south transept and its chalk successor indicated that the tire which destroyed the last cruciform church occurred during or before the fourteenth century. The writer is greatly indebted to Dr. Wilson and Mr. A. E. Smith for the following observations on a representative selection of rims, bases and some odd sherds submitted to them for examination.
ROMAN Reference
SAXON
12th Century (with possible overlap into 13th century) (a) Thumbed rites
(h) Walls of dishes
(c) Cooking pots.
13th Century (or possibly early 14th Century)
14th Century
Late 14th or 15th Century
Post-Reformation
APPENDIX III MISCELLANEOUS OBJECTS UNCOVERED 1. Metal Coin.
Bronze.
Lead.
Iron.
2. Animal Bones Small bird bones.
Teeth.
Purbeck limestone.
Purbeck marble.
Granite.
Mayen Lava.
3. Glass Unpainted.
Painted.
4. Geological Material Flint.
Upper White Chalk.
Lower White Chalk.
'Sarsen' (smooth-worn).
Yellow sandstone.
Grey sandstone.
Upper Greensand.
Petworth marble.
From Sussex
Archaeological Collections 99,
1961 |
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