Newsletter
April 2015
S
pring is sprung, and that means that
we’re entering the busy period for
CRSBI. The first main event is the
annual lecture, coming up on the 28th,
and we’re making it a social event as well,
both a reception afterwards as usual, and
a gathering beforehand for fieldworkers
so I do hope to see you there.
This year’s lecture is by Prof. Tessa Garton
who has recently returned to Europe after
a university career largely spent in the US,
and I had the good fortune to visit some of
the churches she’s discussing with her a
couple of years ago. One, Piasca, is a
fascinating site, set in a farmyard high up
in the Spanish mountains and remote
from everywhere, but covered in the most
spectacular Romanesque sculpture. The
same sculptors also worked on sites many
kilometres away and the trip through the
mountain roads conveyed a very real
sense of how difficult it must have been
for these 12th-century artists to move
materials and equipment around.
Recording the sculpture is much easier
than making it, which applies equally in
the UK as in Spain.
Two items of a formal nature can be found
in the Newsletter this time, essential items
on making sure we’re up to date with
matters of copyright and safety. Sorting
these out means that we’ve got the robust
systems we need in place, should we ever
have to use them, and I’ll be sending out
more info soon.
Meanwhile, the sunshine beckons and the
lure of fieldwork is proving hard to resist,
I hope you have a great season.
Dr Jenny Alexander FSA
CONTENTS
Becoming a Fieldworker
p1
Finding Woodstock Palace
p3
Teamwork in Canterbury
p4
CRSBI in Wales
p5
Volunteering to help
p6
Becoming a fieldworker
I
cannot believe the amazing good
fortune of finding myself doing
something practical in an area of
personal interest that was first kindled
some 30 years ago with the English
Romanesque 1066-1200 exhibition at the
Hayward Gallery.
Being taught Romanesque and Gothic by
John McNeill and Nora Courtney at
Birkbeck Extra-Mural in the 1990s
sustained my curiosity; while family and
career took up all available hours between
then and now. A chance meeting with
Nora at the Westminster BAA in 2013,
where she was recruiting for CRSBI
volunteers, led to my finding myself in
May 2014 in a rain-soaked churchyard at
St Andrew's in Cobham, Surrey.
Measuring; photographing by co-team
member, Peter Hayes (your newsletter
editor); and describing the reset and
whitewashed Romanesque doorway, with
three-orders of arcading; being tutored
on-site by Nora; dodging church cleaners
and flower ladies; it was pure bliss! Two
more churches on that day in Merton and
Another 15 churches visited in three days
in North-west Kent seemed to make
ample writing-up work for the winter
break. And then came the call - Mary Berg
and Toby Huitson (East Kent) wanted
extra help recording the Romanesque
sculpture in Canterbury Cathedral.
'WOW!! Ron Baxter came and joined our
small team, providing expert analysis and
guidance, as well as massive torches and
an extra camera. The staff at the Cathedral
could not have provided more help. Four
days of intensive work and we realised
there were still massive gaps in the
photographic record we had created.
My personal highlight was seeing the
perfection of the Corona chapel from the
triforium level. Then having edged my
way through the narrowest of medieval
passages into the wide southern triforium
of the Trinity Chapel, imagine my surprise
to see the two sculptures which had made
such an impression on me 30 years ago at
the Hayward!
Thames Ditton were followed by another
two visited in Cobham and Stoke
d'Abernon on the May Bank Holiday rain-soaked yet again - but this intensive
introduction set Peter and me on our way.
So I’m looking forward to writing-up all
that we have seen this season and visiting
and recording more Romanesque
sculpture in 2015.
Susan Nettle
2
Finding Woodstock Palace
M
any of the stones on the interior
of the Grand Bridge of
Blenheim Palace at Woodstock
(Oxfordshire) share a previous history.
Started in 1708, work on the bridge
stopped in 1712. Vanbrugh, the architect
of the bridge, had envisioned a much
grander crossing, with the nearby
Woodstock Palace consolidated and
preserved. Work on the bridge resumed
in 1716. But in 1721/2 William Townsend
and Bartholmew Peisley were contracted
to complete the bridge. Soon it was
decided that the old royal palace would be
torn down and stonework from it reused
in its construction. In the end, the bridge,
with its charming garden rooms, was
never fully completed and the lakes
designed by Capability Brown in the
1760s made access to the rooms much
more difficult.
Watching a TV documentary about
Blenheim Palace some years ago, I became
aware that there were still stones to be
seen on the interior of the bridge which
must have come from the palace. So
recently, boosted by the need to discover
what survives of Romanesque sculpture
for the Corpus, I asked Blenheim Palace if
they would allow me access to the
interiors; to my delight they did. Thus, on
a sunny August day in 2014, I and my
companion from the estates office,
ventured down the narrow shaft which
leads to the southern part of the bridge.
This meant first the removal of a rather
heavy slab which covered the shaft
entrance (carried out by still other estate
staff). Once down the hole, one quickly
discovered the reason for this strange
entrance. The entire original staircase had
collapsed and become home to a flock of
birds, nesting in the crevices of the walls.
Beautifully preserved here and elsewhere
were also the mummified carcasses of
hundreds of butterflies, still holding tight
against the wall, wings folded as if asleep.
The interior of the bridge was a delightful
surprise, with long corridors leading to a
series of rooms, some gracefully domed.
Unlike the exterior, the interior walls are
rubble built, with many stones clearly reused. Which, if any, were from the
palace? On this side of the bridge, the
only evidence I saw came from numerous
diagonally-tooled ashlars. Now it was
time to visit the other side of the bridge
and this meant retracing our steps
upwards through the shaft and a short
walk over the top to the other side.
Luckily, we thought, we could gain
entrance from below through a gated
doorway which led to a still-intact
staircase. What we had overlooked,
however, was that between dry land and
the doorway was a lot of mud. My
ingenious companion soon noticed a short
wooden ladder nearby and this became
our own pontoon to the entrance. The
massive ironwork, once unlocked, fell
heavily down to create a somewhat dryer
entry; and then we were inside. Like the
3
southern half of the bridge, there were
long corridors, unfinished floorings,
numerous rooms and, of course, more
diagonally-tooled ashlars. Finally, in the
last room, with the light shining onto it,
was what I had longed to find: a section of
stone with roll moulding and flanking
hollow chamfer of Norman design. At
last, I had found something tangible from
the palace. My
guide ventured off
to see what else he
could find and
eventually settled
down into one of
the openings with
the sun shining
down on him, as I
measured and
photographed
what had become
the great discovery of the day. A hole
behind the stone suggested that I might
not have been the first to discover this
carved stone, but for the moment it was
mine to enjoy.
Only one thing prevented us from
reaching dry land: the iron gate and
wooden ladder, both now firmly fixed
into the mud. It was impossible for one
person to lift the iron gate back into
position and my terror of dropping my
camera into the mud meant a rethink. I
managed to make shore and set my
equipment down, but once I returned to
the rather flimsy
ladder it shifted,
and the mud
soon began to
rise. Just short
of injuring
ourselves after
several attempts
to lift the gate,
we pulled all our
strength
together and just
managed to release the gate from the
mud, get it closed and locked. It was
certainly an eventful day, but it was worth
it. There are still a few lower rooms to
visit - and the ONLY way to see these is
by boat. But I’ve left this for another day.
It was now time to leave. Having gathered
up camera equipment and tripod it
seemed our adventure was nearly over.
James King
Teamwork in Canterbury
O
n a damp Monday in October last
year the Kent team (Peter, Susan,
Toby and me) were joined by Ron
to begin four days of recording
Canterbury Cathedral. It all sounded so
straightforward when applying for the
special funding for the project and we
were thrilled when the application was
successful (our thanks to all those
concerned in making it). Toby and I felt
we knew the Cathedral but systematically
recording it was a different prospect and
all except Ron were initially daunted by
the scale of the exercise.
We divided the upper choir – or quire, as
Canterbury calls it – into zones and
allocated teams to those zones. Toby and I
took the south-east triforium which we
knew housed the works of the organ.
What we didn’t know and cannot be seen
from below is that there is immovable
thick black netting along the whole length
to prevent birds damaging the organ (see
picture 1). There is also extensive
scaffolding outside on the north side.
4
Apart from the netting, the task was fairly
straightforward. The earlier Romanesque
sculpture was most fun to record, interiors
and exteriors. The East End beyond the
actual choir area is transitional Gothic and
the sculpture does not show variety from
bay to bay. Ron was heard to mutter,
‘Why couldn’t they have started
rebuilding this part after 1200?’ The
Romanesque crypt will be part of Stage 2.
cathedral staff could not have been more
supportive from the most senior lay
employee, Brig. John Meardon, to the
volunteers everyone went out of their way
to be helpful. It was not hard to avoid
clashing with services or the large number
of visitors but the Dean’s guinea fowl
made every effort to get under feet when
we were recording outside.
It was fun to work together, share ideas
and find solutions to problems. We took
breaks to warm up and I don’t think it
was because of us that the Cathedral Café
closed at Christmas – we did our best!
Sadly, it seems that we were all so focused
on the task in hand that we took no jolly
pictures of the team.
Mary Berg
We were not only able to record anywhere
in the cathedral that we wished but we
were positively encouraged to do so. The
CRSBI IN WALES
I
n Wales, CRSBI progress is behind
that in England, Ireland and Scotland
and it has been difficult to recruit
fieldworkers in Wales. David Robinson
has provided a sound basis for future
fieldwork in his recent report (The Corpus
of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and
Ireland: The Status of Sites in Wales, May-
June 2014, Updated October 2014)
featuring 280 sites.
It is now proposed to re-launched CRSBI
in Wales; firstly to raise the profile of the
Corpus across the sector, both in terms of
organisations and interested individuals,
and secondly to create interest in
fieldwork. A Project Coordinator is
5
currently being recruited to coordinate
this work over a period of six months,
which will include organising two
seminars in North and South Wales, (see
the website for the Job Description).
Anyone interested in carrying out
fieldwork in Wales is invited to register an
interest via info-crsbi@kcl.ac.uk,
Nigel Clubb
Blind arcade at Chepstow Castle
HEALTH AND SAFETY
CRSBI volunteers are, of course, experienced in visiting and recording historic buildings and will be
aware that there can be hazards in moving around inside historic buildings and structures and working
within and outside them. CRSBI hopes that everyone working in the field will have as safe an experience
as possible, by being able to identify, manage and mitigate any potential risks. For this reason, the Chair
and Executive Board of CRSBI are adopting a Health and Safety Policy (which they expect to see adopted
by the CRSBI team at all levels). A key element of the Policy will be a Health and Safety Guidance Note
to Fieldworkers.
Our Policy is developed on the basis that any action should be proportionate to the risk and in the vast
majority of cases, fieldwork is no more risky than a visit by any member of the public. Nevertheless,
accidents can happen and we all need to be aware of the types of risk which may arise.
REVISED COPYRIGHT ARRANGEMENTS
The essence of CRSBI as a project has is that volunteer fieldworkers provide their expertise and time in
order to contribute their images and text as part of a Corpus of knowledge about Romanesque Sculpture
to be maintained for the benefit of current and future generations. We are reviewing our copyright
arrangements to enhance and protect the copyright and moral rights of fieldworkers and to give CRSBI
and the ability to sustain and manage the Corpus into the future by ensuring that the CRSBI is itself
licensed to publish the material.
As a result of the review, we are hoping that current and past fieldworkers will be willing to sign a
Copyright Agreement to cover the work they carry out for the Corpus from now on. We will also be
inviting fieldworkers to agree to extend this agreement to cover work they have carried out in the past.
Jenny Alexander, Chair of CRSBI, is in the process of writing to fieldworkers with more details.
Nigel Clubb
6
Volunteering to help CRSBI
I
f you are reading this the chances are
that you know the truth of the saying,
”If you want something done, ask a
busy person!” Everyone who is helping us
to complete this project has other
commitments, academic, commercial,
domestic or in the community. This as
true for everyone on the Project Board and
on the Sub Committee as it is for
fieldworkers.
Everyone who works for CRSBI is a
volunteer. The small grant from the British
Academy, which is our only certain
funding every year, along with other
contributions only allow enough for us to
pay travel expenses and to give the
editors, who give us the benefit of their
expert knowledge of Romanesque
sculpture, a small fee.
The new database means that we no
longer have to pay to have reports and
photos uploaded, as all fieldworkers can
access it directly. However to complete
our survey of Romanesque sculpture we
do still need more fieldworkers. As well
as for Wales we need more people able to
record in South Gloucestershire, Devon,
Hampshire, Lancashire and Cumbria. If
you think you could do even a few sites
please contact me, at
nora.romanesque@gmail.com.
Nora Courtney
The Annual Lecture
will be given on Tuesday 28th April 2015 at 5.30 p.m. at the Courtauld Institute of Art
Professor Tessa Garton will speak on
Evidence set in stone? Twelfth-century sculptors and workshop
practices in northern Palencia, Spain.
Self-portrait of the sculptor Micaelis from the church of
Revilla de Santullan
7