Excavation in the North Nave Transept

Dr. C. A. Ralegh Radford reports on an excavation in the North Nave Transept. Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1969.

The early history of Rochester Cathedral is well recorded in the pages of Bede's Ecclesiastical History. The church of St. Andrew was built by Aethelbert, King of Kent (ob. 616) and Justus was consecrated Bishop in 604. In 633 Paulinus, who had been driven from York after the death of King Edwin, became Bishop of Rochester and in 644 he was buried in the secretarium of the church of St. Andrew. In 676 Rochester, like the rest of Kent, was devastated by King Aethelred of Mercia. The bishops for a time appear to have been non-resident, but Bishop Tobias, who died in 726, was buried in the porticus of St. Paul, which he had made within the church as a place of burial for himself.

The last record must refer to an aisle, like those flanking the church of St. Peter and St. Paul (St. Augustine's) at Canterbury, where the north chapel formed the burial place of the Archbishops and that to the south of the Kings of Kent. In the Canterbury church these were designed from the beginning as aisles extending the full length of the nave; at Rochester the part used by Bishop Tobias was clearly an addition, like the western part of the aisles at Reculver. The secretarium in which Bishop Paulinus was buried cannot be the aisle used by Bishop Tobias. At this date one would expect the word to refer to the sanctuary or east end of the church and to imply a small chamber opening out of the apse, rather similar to that in which the shrine of St. Paulinus was later erected.

The foregoing records make it clear that the Cathedral of Rochester was already in 726 a building of some size and distinction. It can hardly be the little church found at the northwest corner of the nave in 1889. This must be compared with St. Pancras at Canterbury, the subsidiary church within the monas. tery of St. Peter and St. Paul. The early church on the south side of the nave at Rochester is badly recorded and its extent is uncertain, but even this seems hardly large enough to have formed the Cathedral.

It remains to ask whether the pre-Conquest Cathedral may not have lain under the present building. A close analysis of the plan shows that the nave and quire of the 12th century were of the same width, but about four feet narrower than the central crossing. This form of plan is typical of the later pre-Conquest age, but does not occur in Norman buildings where the site was unencumbered by earlier structures. On this basis the late Sir Alfred Clapham was able to demonstrate that the present nave and crossing of Sherborne Abbey Church, though rebuilt and recased at various dates after 1066, retain the layout of the Cathedral as rebuilt about A.D. 1000. It seemed possible that a similar development might explain the anomalies of the plan at Rochester.

Recently the removal of the ledger stone of was undertaken as a part of the installation of a nave altar on a raised platform under the crossing. The new position chosen for the stone was under the north arch.

By the courtesy of the Dean and Chapter and at the suggestion of the Architect, Mr. Emil Godfrey, I was enabled to examine the area under the paving stones, which had to be removed to make room for the ledger stone.

Drawings by Carden & Godfrey Architects of the excavation in the North Nave Transept.

The existing pavement of the north transept lies at approximately the same level as that of the 13th century. The ground immediately below the pavement had been much disturbed by burials. The sleeper wall of chalk blocks was found running east and west under the arch of the crossing. Observations made during the 19th century examination of the foundations of the cathedral showed that this type of foundation belongs to the oldest Norman work dating from the late 11th and early 12th century. Embedded in, and therefore earlier than, the sleeper wall was an earlier wall with an offset, marking the contemporary floor level, some 15-16 in. below the modern pavement. This older wall is rubble built of flint and Kentish rag set in a hard brown mortar. The part of the wall first discovered ran north and south and was set at an angle, not parallel to, the west wall of the transept. It was traced for 4 ft. 8 in.; the inner face lay I ft. to in. east of the face of the north-west pier of the crossing. At the south end the wall turned east and was traced for 4 ft. parallel to the main axis of the church. The east end was broken away.

Only the north and east faces of the wall were examined; its thickness is unknown. Near the angle it stood nearly 1 ft. high above the offset. This offset, 4⅓ in. wide, marked the top of the foundation, which was over I ft. in depth; its bottom was not reached.

'The pre-Conquest date of this wall is not in doubt; it was embedded in a chalk foundation of c. 1100. The position of the east-west wall under the north arch of the crossing implies that it formed the north side of an earlier crossing and if this was of the same size as at present, it may be assumed that the nave, as in the medieval cathedral, was narrower than the crossing.

The north transept, of which the west wall has now been discovered, was also narrower than the crossing and was irregularly set out. These are both pre-Conquest features. They may be seen, for example in the late roth or early I Ith century church at Hadstock in Essex. This gives an approximate date for the wall discovered at Rochester.

On the basis of the data already noted, the later pre-Conquest Cathedral of Rochester should be seen as a cruciform building, probably with an aisled nave. This may have been as long as the seven bays of the existing nave, which mark the extent of the earliest Norman building, as planned in the late Ith century. Small transepts may be restored on either side of the crossing.

The position of the newly discovered wall gives a probable width of 16 ft. for that on the north side and an approximately square plan may be assumed. The eastern arm is likely to have been of about the same size. A church of this form would hardly be older than the roth century. But it may well have incorporated remains of earlier Saxon date. In particular the nave is so it would suggest that the oldest Cathedral followed the model of St. Augustine's Cathedral at Canterbury, but on a rather smaller scale.

Dr. C. A. Ralegh Radford
Featured in The Friends of Rochester Cathedral Annual Report for 1969