The building stones of St Mary’s church, Deerhurst


by Steve Bagshaw (Deerhurst Lecture 2003)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 5 0

In this lecture Steve Bagshaw considers the wide range of building stones used in the construction of St Mary’s church. The various stone types are discussed in turn, and the way in which several different stone types are deployed indicates that the stone was procured from the ruins of Roman buildings. The large blocks of limestone used for many early features were probably salvaged from Glevum, Roman Gloucester, while other materials are likely to come from Roman villas. This study has important implications for the study of the evolution of the building. It is richly illustrated by stone-by-stone elevation drawings, colour-coded to show the types of stone used.

The Quality of Life

by David Hill (Deerhurst Lecture 2005)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 2 9
In this lecture David Hill takes issue with the view that life in Anglo-Saxon England was ‘nasty, brutish and short’. Drawing on a range of sources he concludes ‘So here we have a people highly skilled, with a culture that deeply penetrated the whole of society; where nature, particularly songbirds, were prized; poetry and song were appreciated and widely disseminated; where there was a genuine folk culture. The bulk of our people were healthier, at least in comparison with other ages, and one must assume better fed’.

Conquest and Controversy: The Early Career of Odda of Deerhurst


by Timothy Bolton (Deerhurst Lecture 2006)

ISBN 0 9549484 1 6
Tim Bolton focuses on one aspect of Cnut’s career, his involvement in the events of 1015–18 which saw the overthrow of the English dynasty represented by Æthelræd the Unready and his son Edmund Ironside and the accession to power of the Danish King Cnut. Bolton argues that Odda was a prominent member of a faction of Englishmen who ‘at a crucial moment during Cnut’s invasion, withdrew their support from the English candidate for the throne (for whatever reason) and transferred it to the invader’.

The discovery of an Anglo-Saxon painted figure at St Mary’s Church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire


by Steve Bagshaw, Richard Bryant and Michael Hare

(Reprinted by permission from The Antiquaries Journal vol. 86, 2006) Not available as a pdf from the Friends.

In 2002 a triangular-headed stone panel at high-level in the east wall of the church was discovered to retain the remains of an early painted figure. The painting shows a standing nimbed figure, holding a book in his shrouded left hand and with the right hand raised in blessing. The panel is considered to be a 10th-century insertion in a 9th-century wall. This publication provides a detailed account, placing the painted panel in its art-historical, structural and liturgical context.

Deerhurst and Rome: Æthelric’s Pilgrimage c.804 and the Oratory of St Mary Mediana


by Richard Gem (Deerhurst Lecture 2007)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 0 5

Richard Gem takes as his starting-point the pilgrimage of Deerhurst’s patron Æthelric to Rome c. 804. He discusses what Æthelric would have experienced at Rome, focusing on St Peter’s with the oratory of St Mary Mediana at the entrance to the atrium which stood in front of the basilica. He then turns to the west porch of Deerhurst with its representation of the Virgin holding a panel with an image of the Christ Child. At Deerhurst the Virgin who is the ‘Portal of Heaven’ presides over the portal of the church building, which is in turn itself an image of heaven. He tentatively suggests that Æthelric’s pilgrimage may provide the context for this image of the Virgin, but stresses that this is a step beyond the existing evidence.

The Ninth-Century Polychrome Decoration at St Mary’s Church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire


by Richard Gem and Emily Howe, with contributions from Richard Bryant

(Reprinted by permission from The Antiquaries Journal vol. 88, 2008) Not available as a pdf from the Friends.

This paper presents the results of a detailed analysis of surviving paintwork on the chancel-arch, the carved animal heads and the panel of the Virgin. The detailed results of the technical analysis are presented. The original scheme of painted decoration is described, including the newly discovered plant scroll painted on the arch. The results of the examination are evaluated, setting the polychrome decoration of the 9th-century church into its contemporary context in England and on the Continent, with special regard to both the technical and the artistic aspects.

Deerhurst, St Werstan and Monastic Mythmaking in Late Medieval England

By Heather Gilderdale Scott (Deerhurst lecture 2008)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 8 1

In her lecture Heather Gilderdale Scott focusses on the legend of St Werstan, whose cult is found in the late medieval period at Great Malvern Priory. He is represented in the lights of a 15th-century stained glass window there as ‘St Werstan the martyr’. A link to Deerhurst is provided by the 16th-century scholar, John Leland who recounts that Deerhurst ‘was destroyed by the Danes. Werstanus fledde thens, as it is seyde, to Malverne’. The legend of St Werstan is argued to represent an impressively skilful and sophisticated exercise in late medieval monastic mythmaking. Mixing verifiable history with wishful thinking and established models of foundation and saintly behaviour, it creates an image of the past as the priory at Great Malvern imaginatively remembered it to be.

The architecture and sculpture of Deerhurst Priory: the later 11th-, 12th- and early 13th-century work


by Malcolm Thurlby (Deerhurst Lecture 2009)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 6 7

In his lecture Malcolm Thurlby considers the architecture and sculpture from Deerhurst during the Romanesque period. The extensive remains at Wightfield Manor (a mile to the south of Deerhurst) are described and published for the first time and are considered to derive from a cloister built at Deerhurst c. 1160. Also considered in detail are the north and south arcades of the church with attractive foliate carving; this work is considered to date from the late 12th and early 13th centuries. The lecture also discusses minor alterations of 11th- to 13th-century date. The text is lavishly illustrated.
NB For Romanesque sculpture at Deerhurst, see also the online Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture at https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/.

The 9th-century west porch of St Mary’s Church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire: Form and Function

by Michael Hare

(Reprinted by permission from Medieval Archaeology vol. 53, 2009)

Not available as a pdf from the Friends.

In this paper Michael Hare describes the west porch in detail. Particular attention is paid to the evidence for a wooden walkway surrounding the exterior of the porch on the north, west and south sides at the level of the elaborate upper chapel. It is suggested that the function of this walkway is likely to have been ceremonial, most probably to stage displays of reliquaries with remains of saints on feast days; caution is, however, urged as displays of relics from high level are only attested in historical sources in the late medieval period. Projecting wooden walkways were features derived from the classical past and adapted for the Christian present.

Painted Anglo-Saxon sculpture in St Mary’s, Deerhurst: materials, technique and context


by Emily Howe (Deerhurst Lecture 2010)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 3 6

Emily Howe’s lecture is concerned with the technological study which she undertook into the painted remains on early medieval sculpture at Deerhurst. She identifies the range of pigments used and draws attention to some unusual features; for instance the northernmost beast head on the chancel-arch had detail laid in red before the application of an overall wash of ‘golden’ yellow, perhaps in an attempt to imitate precious metal. She has also identified that the paint layer on both the chancel-arch and on the west door beast heads was bound in an egg medium. Emily has also studied the paint on the recently discovered Lichfield angel; she sees close parallels between Deerhurst and Lichfield.

Deerhurst Priory in the Later Middle Ages

by Martin Heale  (Deerhurst Lecture 2011)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 0 3

A small cell of Benedictine monks from the major French monastery of Saint-Denis was established at Deerhurst at an unknown date not long after the Norman Conquest of 1066. Martin Heale’s study is concerned with the fate of the alien priory in the late medieval period. Like all alien priories Deerhurst had a turbulent history after the beginning of the Hundred Years War. The twists and turns of this period are carefully outlined. Inevitably Saint-Denis eventually lost control, with Deerhurst granted first to Eton College in 1446 and then to Tewkesbury Abbey in 1467. Despite the travails of the cell, it is argued that Deerhurst was perceived as a place traditionally dedicated to Benedictine monasticism, and that although this principle was sorely tested, it was ‘nevertheless upheld, with the result that the priory at Deerhurst survived down to 1540 and the very end of medieval monasticism in England’.

St Ælfheah (St Alphege) from Deerhurst to Martyrdom (1012): some Millennial Reflections on Religious Ideals


by Nicholas Brooks with Alan Thacker (Deerhurst Lecture 2012)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 4 3

In 1012 the archbishop of Canterbury, St Ælfheah (St Alphege) was martyred at Greenwich. According to an account of his life written at Canterbury in the late 11th century, Ælfheah began his monastic career at Deerhurst. Nicholas Brooks gave the 2012 lecture as part of the commemorations of the millennium of Ælfheah’s martyrdom; his published text also draws on the unpublished lecture about Ælfheah given by Alan Thacker at Deerhurst in 1994. Nicholas Brooks outlines what is known of Ælfheah’s life, stressing the limitations of the sources. Particular attention is drawn to the different accounts of the martyrdom, and the text is illustrated by the four late 12th-century roundels which depict the event in a stained glass window at Canterbury Cathedral.

The Place of Baptism in Anglo-Saxon and Norman Churches


by P. S. Barnwell (Deerhurst Lecture 2013)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 7 4

Paul Barnwell’s lecture considers the place of baptism in Anglo-Saxon and Norman churches. The evidence for the Anglo-Saxon period is slender, and a diversity of location is suggested for the 7th and 8th centuries. By the 10th century baptism in some minster churches may have been performed in a porticus. When smaller local churches with baptismal rights were established, baptism is likely to have taken place in the main body of the building. In the 12th century, when a new form of sacramental theology was developed, the font was further elaborated and came to be placed at the west end of an expanded nave. Paul Barnwell concludes by suggesting that the Deerhurst font was not originally made as a font, but that it was adapted to serve as such in the 11th century.

Making much of what remains: reconstructing Deerhurst’s Anglo-Saxon paint and sculpture


by Richard Bryant (Deerhurst Lecture 2014)

ISBN 978 0 9549484 9 8

Richard Bryant’s lecture discusses the remains of early sculpture and paint at Deerhurst and attempts to restore and reinterpret them so as to provide an idea of the full extent of the original polychromy. He considers in turn the chancel-arch and the beast head on its north side, the painted figure on a panel in the east wall, the font, the angel, and the Virgin and Child carving. The text is illustrated with numerous illustrations to indicate the present state of these items together with the suggested original appearance; various parallels from other media are also illustrated.

The Post-Reformation Communion Furnishings at St Mary’s, Deerhurst and their Context


by Trevor Cooper (Deerhurst Lecture 2015)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 5 8

Although St Mary’s, Deerhurst is most famous as an Anglo-Saxon church, it is also renowned for the stalls of early 17th-century date in the chancel. These stalls retain seats against the wall at the east end and represent a unique survival of an arrangement once common, but much disliked by most later generations from Archbishop Laud onwards. Trevor Cooper’s lecture describes this seating in the context of post-Reformation communion practice, with an imagined account of the communion service taken by Robert Huntington, the new minister of the church, on 29 September 1633. The effects of the attack on east-end seating by Archbishop Laud are described, with examples of non-compliance in Gloucestershire given. The history of Deerhurst church in the aftermath of the Civil War is also considered, when the church was served by Congregationalist ministers. An appendix discusses the ejection of the font in 1653.

The Road to Deerhurst: 1016 in English and Norse Sources


by Matthew Townend (Deerhurst Lecture 2016)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 1 0

In 1016 King Edmund Ironside of England and the Danish King Cnut met at the island of Olanig near Deerhurst and agreed to make peace and to divide the kingdom of England between them. The meeting followed years of raiding and of invasion, and the year 1016 had seen a number of desperate battles. Matthew Townend’s 2016 lecture was given to commemorate the millennium of this event. His lecture compares and contrasts the English and Norse sources: on the one hand the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (as represented by the D-text) and on the other hand the Knútsdrápa, a poem in skaldic verse in praise of Cnut by Óttarr svarti. In an appendix Michael Hare considers the location of Olanig and concludes that it is to be identified with the former island close to Deerhurst later called The Naight.

Deerhurst, Pershore and Westminster Abbey: do we know what we think we know?

by Richard Mortimer (Deerhurst Lecture 2018)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 2 7

Richard Mortimer’s lecture is a detailed investigation of the events which took place in the middle of the 11th century when Edward the Confessor gave part of the lands of Deerhurst to Westminster abbey and the remainder to his physician Baldwin; Baldwin’s share was subsequently given to the French monastery of Saint-Denis in 1069. Edward also gave a large part of the lands of Pershore abbey to Westminster abbey. Richard Mortimer then considers how these lands came into Edward’s hands; he sees the background to these developments as lying in the complex events of the late 10th and early 11th centuries.

Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians and his Deerhurst Connections


by Barbara Yorke (Deerhurst Lecture 2019)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 3 4

In her lecture Barbara Yorke considers the career of Æthelræd, who ruled the western part of Mercia (which remained free from Ving control) from the 880s until his death in 911; he was married to the daughter of King Alfred, Æthelflæd, who continued to rule Mercia until her death in 918. She considers three aspects in particular: the family background of Æthelræd, his status, and the nature of his relationship with the West Saxon kings Alfred and Edward.

Odda of Deerhurst, Worcester and Lay Participation in the Written Culture of pre-Conquest England 


by Francesca Tinti  (Deerhurst Lecture 2022)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 4 1

In her lecture Francesca Tinti considers lay participation in the written culture of the period. Deerhurst. Our knowledge of Deerhurst’s most famous late Anglo-Saxon inhabitant – Odda together with his circle – provides an especially informative window on the ways in which laypeople could be part of textual communities. Through Odda and his connections it is possible to observe 11th-century English lay aristocrats interacting with different typologies of texts, written in Latin, Old English or a combination of the two, and produced in different media, parchment and stone.

The Post-Reformation Communion Furnishings at St Mary’s, Deerhurst and their Context


by Trevor Cooper (Deerhurst Lecture 2015)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 5 8

Although St Mary’s, Deerhurst is most famous as an Anglo-Saxon church, it is also renowned for the stalls of early 17th-century date in the chancel. These stalls retain seats against the wall at the east end and represent a unique survival of an arrangement once common, but much disliked by most later generations from Archbishop Laud onwards. Trevor Cooper’s lecture describes this seating in the context of post-Reformation communion practice, with an imagined account of the communion service taken by Robert Huntington, the new minister of the church, on 29 September 1633. The effects of the attack on east-end seating by Archbishop Laud are described, with examples of non-compliance in Gloucestershire given. The history of Deerhurst church in the aftermath of the Civil War is also considered, when the church was served by Congregationalist ministers. An appendix discusses the ejection of the font in 1653.

 The Road to Deerhurst: 1016 in English and Norse Sources

by Matthew Townend (Deerhurst Lecture 2016)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 1 0

In 1016 King Edmund Ironside of England and the Danish King Cnut met at the island of Olanig near Deerhurst and agreed to make peace and to divide the kingdom of England between them. The meeting followed years of raiding and of invasion, and the year 1016 had seen a number of desperate battles. Matthew Townend’s 2016 lecture was given to commemorate the millennium of this event. His lecture compares and contrasts the English and Norse sources: on the one hand the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (as represented by the D-text) and on the other hand the Knútsdrápa, a poem in skaldic verse in praise of Cnut by Óttarr svarti. In an appendix Michael Hare considers the location of Olanig and concludes that it is to be identified with the former island close to Deerhurst later called The Naight.

Deerhurst, Pershore and Westminster Abbey: do we know what we think we know?


by Richard Mortimer (Deerhurst Lecture 2018)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 2 7

Richard Mortimer’s lecture is a detailed investigation of the events which took place in the middle of the 11th century when Edward the Confessor gave part of the lands of Deerhurst to Westminster abbey and the remainder to his physician Baldwin; Baldwin’s share was subsequently given to the French monastery of Saint-Denis in 1069. Edward also gave a large part of the lands of Pershore abbey to Westminster abbey. Richard Mortimer then considers how these lands came into Edward’s hands; he sees the background to these developments as lying in the complex events of the late 10th and early 11th centuries.

Æthelred, Lord of the Mercians and his Deerhurst Connections


by Barbara Yorke (Deerhurst Lecture 2019)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 3 4

In her lecture Barbara Yorke considers the career of Æthelræd, who ruled the western part of Mercia (which remained free from Ving control) from the 880s until his death in 911; he was married to the daughter of King Alfred, Æthelflæd, who continued to rule Mercia until her death in 918. She considers three aspects in particular: the family background of Æthelræd, his status, and the nature of his relationship with the West Saxon kings Alfred and Edward.


Odda of Deerhurst, Worcester and Lay Participation in the Written Culture of pre-Conquest England

by Francesca Tinti  (Deerhurst Lecture 2022)

ISBN 978 0 9932721 4 1

In her lecture Francesca Tinti considers lay participation in the written culture of the period. Deerhurst. Our knowledge of Deerhurst’s most famous late Anglo-Saxon inhabitant – Odda together with his circle – provides an especially informative window on the ways in which laypeople could be part of textual communities. Through Odda and his connections it is possible to observe 11th-century English lay aristocrats interacting with different typologies of texts, written in Latin, Old English or a combination of the two, and produced in different media, parchment and stone.

OTHER

PUBLICATIONS

Deerhurst Studies 1: The Anglo-Saxon fabric 1971–76

by Harold Taylor (1977)

The Discovery of an Anglo-Saxon painted figure at St Mary’s church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire

by Steve Bagshaw, Richard Bryant and Michael Hare,

The Antiquaries Journal, Vol. 86, 2006 £4.00

Printed copy available from the Friends,
by permission from the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Available online through an institution only.

The Ninth-Century Polychrome Decoration at St Mary’s Church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire

by Richard Gem and Emily Howe, with contributions from Richard Bryant,
The Antiquaries Journal, Vol. 88, 2008 £6.00
Printed copy available from the Friends,
by permission from the Society of Antiquaries of London.

Available online through an institution only.

The 9th-century west porch of St Mary’s church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire: form and function

by Michael Hare, Medieval Archaeology 53, 2009 £4.00

Printed copy available from the Friends,
by permission from Medieval Archaeology and Taylor and Francis.
Available online through an institution only.

 

Deerhurst’s earliest patrons: Æthelmund and Æthelric

by Michael Hare,
Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 130, 2012

 

The Deerhurst Pots

by Michael Hare with Alan Vince,
Church Archaeology, Volume 18, 2014.

 

Some Observations on Odda’s Chapel, Deerhurst

by Michael Hare with Richard Bryant, 2020.

This was published in A medieval legacy: The ongoing life of forms in the built environment. Essays in honour of Malcolm Thurlby, ed. Jessica Mace (Éditions Patrimonium, Montreal, 2020). There is also open access to this at 15-Hare-with-Bryant-Thurlby-2020.pdf

The Church House at Deerhurst

by Michael Hare,
Glevensis, Volume 52, 2019

NOT CURRENTLY

AVAILABLE

A Possible Commemorative Stone for Æthelmund, Father of Æthelric

by Michael Hare, Intersections: The Archaeology and History of Christianity in England, 400–1200. Papers in Honour of Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle, ed. M. Henig and N. Ramsay, BAR British Series 505 (Oxford, 2010), 135–48.
Free online access is not available except via an institution.

An Anglo-Saxon Wall Painting at St Mary’s Church, Deerhurst, and its Context

by Michael Hare, Anglo-Saxon England and the Continent, ed. H. Sauer and J. Story with G. Waxenberger, Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies 394, Essays in Anglo-Saxon Studies 3 (Tempe, AZ, 2011).
Free online access is not available except via an institution.

St Mary’s Church, Deerhurst: Excavations in 2012 and the Recording of the South Aisle 2015–19

by Richard Bryant, Michael Hare and Carolyn Heighway, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 139, 2021
Not yet available online, can be made available April 2027

The Fairs of Deerhurst

by Michael Hare, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 139, 2021
Not yet available online, can be made available April 2027

The Survival of the 17th-Century Chancel Fittings of St Mary’s Church, Deerhurst during the 19th and 20th Centuries

by Michael Hare, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 140, 2022
Not yet available online, can be made available April 2028

The Roman Coins Discovered at Deerhurst c.1861

by Michael Hare, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 140, 2022
Not yet available online, can be made available April 2028

The Anchor Church at Deerhurst and its Landscape Context

by Michael Hare, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 141, 2023.
Not yet available online, can be made available April 2029

A Pre-Conquest Market Place at Deerhurst?

by Stephen Basset and Michael Hare, Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 141, 2023.
Not yet available online, can be made available April 2029

The Early Career of St Ælfheah (St Alphege) and the Community of Deerhurst in the Second Half of the Tenth Century

by Michael Hare,
Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 142, 2024
Not yet available online, can be made available April 2030

The Fonts of Deerhurst, Longdon and Castlemorton

by Michael Hare,
Glevensis, Volume 57, 2024

Not yet available online

The Role of Fire Damage in the Evolution of St Mary’s Church, Deerhurst

by Michael Hare,
Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Volume 142, 2025

Not yet available online, can be made available April 2031