Norfolk’s earliest stone churches: Constructing a timeline of ancient religious buildings

When industrial-scale production of ceramics came to an end in Britain in the 5th century, people quickly and readily reverted to the use of organic materials for their domestic needs. (Indeed, the almost overnight abandonment of Roman metal and pottery suggests that use of wood, leather, and vegetable fibres had never ceased, and must have continued side by side with the use of Roman materials.) Timber was also the material of choice for buildings, including the earliest churches. Wood was used for the construction of all three pre-Conquest churches in Norwich – under the north-east bailey of the castle, under the main bailey, and beneath St Martin-at-Palace church. The same is true of