Early Abingdon in Context: Monasticism, Wealth and Urban Growth in Late Anglo-Saxon England

On Thursday I went to the annual Lambrick held by the AAAHS (Abingdon Area Archaeological and Historical Society).

This year’s speaker was Professor John Blair speaking on “Early Abingdon in Context: Monasticism, Wealth and Urban Growth in Late Anglo-Saxon England”.

It was an interesting lecture as the origins of Anglo-Saxon monasteries are often tinged with a healthy dose of legend and it was refreshing to see someone concentrating their research on this area. 

He began by introducing seventh century Britain, reminding the audience of the period of change England was going through at this time i.e. the conversion to Christianity. From the fifth century onwards, after the Roman’s left, across Europe areas which maintained Roman styles of government easily transitioned to bishoprics. Areas where Roman influence quickly dissipated, reverted back to societies based on familial bonds for whom monasteries were a more acceptable form of Christianity, as a monastery is essentially a great big family. 

Staffordshire hoard

Accompanying this change, was a move towards ostentatious displays of wealth by the elite; the building of great halls and barrows for example as well as well as owning elaborate metalwork.

What Blair was arguing was that the ceremonial use of these halls for oath swearing, feasts and so on was actually the continuation of practices already established on these sites. The great halls were simply new arenas.

Sutton Hoo

Many of these great halls were in fact rebuilt many times, sometimes over a very short period of time such as Yeavering which was rebuilt three times within fifty years. Perhaps a great hall was tied to a particular leader and you destroyed it as you left, or perhaps the hall wasn’t what was important. It was the site of the hall, so you just built a brand spanking new one when you next wanted to use the site.

Many of these sites were home to Bronze Age barrows and then Anglo-Saxon halls before finally becoming the sites of monasteries. Blair argued that the ceremonial and ritual function that the barrows and halls exercised was continued with more permanence with the construction of a monastery. The monastery became the custodian almost of the site’s importance.

He then focussed his discussion back on Abingdon, beginning with Sutton Courtenay which lies a little to the south. Sutton Courtenay (Suð-tun) essentially means “south of something”, the something being Abingdon. Blair extrapolated from this that the great hall near Sutton and its significance as a place eventually moved to Abingdon.

Excavation on a large scale across Abingdon would reveal far more concerning its Anglo-Saxon phase and he made some comparisons with other minsters (Anglo-Saxon churches) to support his argument that they are built on what were already important ritual sites.

He then digressed to discussing the monastery itself, suggesting that Abingdon may have been amongst other monasteries at the time in having both male and female members with a female head. He argued that the great endowment of monasteries in the 7^th century was pretty much reversed by the 9^th century when the lords of England were feeling pinched financially and basically took back what they had given the monasteries. Yes, the Vikings were soon to come raid these monasteries and destroy them but Blair argued that they had already been substantially weakened already by their own benefactors!

His talk finished with an argument for the organised planning of buildings and streets using a grid system. The basic gist of his argument (I’ve put the citation for his article in the notes if you want to read more) was that the Roman had a fantastic method for plotting out grids over a large area. This was undertaken by agrimensores across the empire who wrote their techniques down in what sounded like the Roman version of “Land surveying for Dummies”. 

Much later, the Corby scriptorium in France starts making copies of these handbooks and the dissemination of Roman techniques across a non-Roman world began. This knowledge was disseminated through the church, and therefore, the monasteries. Where you get monasteries, you get grid planning, and vice versa. 

What was the overall point of grid planning? Well, good question. He made a convincing argument that Sutton Courtenay and Abingdon were planned on the same grid pattern but what was the point. The point, he suggested, was that it:

a) Helped layout monasteries which liked to be laid out in a specific way.
b) Allowed literate lords to essentially show off and use the latest and most up to date ways of planning their estates and measuring their land.

Overall a highly enjoyable lecture and has given me much to think about (and to read).


Notes
Sutton Hoo image - http://csis.pace.edu/grendel/projs4a/sutton.htm
John Blair image - http://www.history.ox.ac.uk/faculty/staff/profile/blair.html
Staffordshire hoard - http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/
Great Hall image - http://gallery.nen.gov.uk/assets/0608/0000/0314/100_4168.jpg
Agrimensores - http://lapulpera.blogspot.com/2013/03/k-el-protagonista-de-el-castillo.html

Abingdon Area Archaeological and Historical Society - http://aaahs.org.uk/

Blair, J., "Grid-planning in Anglo-Saxon Settlements: the Short Perch and the Four-Perch Module" in Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 18 (2013) pp. 18-61