I am fortunate that my work as an archaeologist takes me to many churches: a typical day might see me driving down narrow lanes to a secluded Cotswold village, or scaling scaffolding high up on Gloucester Cathedral – all a long way from the noise and intensity of major urban excavations that I have worked on previously, like the investigations at Spitalfields in London (CA 270 and CA 310). It should come as no surprise that archaeologists often encounter religious structures: for well over 1,000 years, the Church has been at the heart of nearly every urban and rural landscape in Britain, representing an institution at the centre of communities and a building that often bears physical witness to the passage of centuries. Churches come in all shapes and sizes, from tiny chapels to huge cathedrals, Saxon minsters to Victorian red-bricks; most are still in use, some stand empty and redundant, and others lie in ruins or buried beneath the ground. So, what does it mean to work on sites like these?
Other denominations have their own historic and significant places of worship, but here we will concentrate on active Church of England (CoE) parish churches – which are usually the oldest standing buildings in an area – and will use recent work in Gloucester diocese to explore some of the more distinctive elements of current church archaeology. While development-led archaeology in other areas has evolved over the last 35 years, church archaeology has, in some ways, stayed in its own lane, preserving many of its own particular features and challenges. Most parish churches are important archaeological sites of great historical and community significance: their graveyards hold our past populations and genetic information; their buildings, fixtures, and fittings are testament to changing liturgy and belief; and their stratigraphy can be extremely complex.
Ecclesiastical encounters
What type of work happens in CoE parish churches and churchyards, and how might it affect archaeological and historical remains? As you would expect, any large and potentially ancient building needs ongoing maintenance, and where this affects historic fabric such as timbers or walls archaeologists should be involved. Intervention may also be needed to address structural problems, or to repair or replace failing masonry or timber. In addition, many churches are striving to improve the facilities they offer so that they can be better used by their communities. The addition of toilets and kitchens may require recording and excavation inside and outside the building; meanwhile, where there is no water or power supply, trenches must be dug to accommodate them, and French drains (to reduce internal damp) also need excavation.
