Reading the Stones: archaeological recording at Gloucester cathedral (original) (raw)

The ridicule which formerly attached to the pursuits of Antiquaries, no longer exists …a proper view of their importance is entertained, and their connexion with history forms now the pri-mary…object of their application. 1 The British Archaeological Association congress at Gloucester in 1846 was significant because it promoted interest in the history and archaeology of the cathedral at a moment when the building was in dire need of sympathetic repair and restoration. 2 The chairman's opening address recognised the importance of studying buildings. Nevertheless, it was to be another 140 years before the Cathedrals Measure established as a legal principle that the fabric of any cathedral should be recorded before being altered or replaced. Yet the building is a document, and like a medieval document needs to be copied and preserved. For Gloucester cathedral these documents in stone are all the more important because the medieval building accounts do not survive. All we have is a few chance mentions in chronicles, 3 and Abbot Frocester's Historia. Written c.1400, this is a sparse summary of the events of the reign of each abbot including the building which each achieved 4an account which has been described as 'suspiciously tidy'. 5 Gloucester cathedral most commendably appointed a consultant archaeologist in 1983-some years before such appointments became mandatory. However, the assumption then was that archaeology involved holes in the ground: buildings were the province of the architect alone. Nowadays the cathedral archaeologist is concerned with the whole of the precinct and its buildings 1. T.J. Pettigrew, opening address, in Transactions of the British Archaeological Association at its 3rd Annual Congress held at Gloucester 1846 (London, 1848). In the following notes references to the Gloucester Cathedral Archaeological Archive are designated GCAR: titles with an asterix are available on the website of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society (bgas.org.uk). 2. Evidenced by the survey of the fabric a few years later: see C. Heighway, 'Gloucester Cathedral in 1855: the First Ever Quinquennial', in Archives & Local History in Bristol & Gloucestershire: Essays in Honour of David Smith, ed. J. Bettey (BGAS, 2007), 198-221. I am grateful to Arthur Price for pointing out the significance of the visit to Gloucester of the British Archaeological Association, whose delegates included influential antiquaries and architects. 3. See M. Hare's summary in C. Heighway, 'Gloucester Cathedral and Precinct: an archaeological assessment' (3rd edition, 2003)*, 27. 4. Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae, ed. W.H. Hart (Rolls Series 1863-87): referred to in this article using the translation by W. Barber published as appendix XV of D. Welander,