Exploring the changing face of architecture across the long 12th century

Abstract

Romanesque Cambridge has largely disappeared. Among the town’s medieval glories was Barnwell, its only house of regular canons and one of England’s earliest and most successful Augustinian priories. Nothing remains of the original complex. The sequence of churches occupied by the canons between 1092 and 1190 has vanished, but as it is now possible to generalise with confidence about the form of the early churches served by English Augustinians, it seems reasonable to speculate about their appearance. In the first part of this study, the character of Barnwell’s lost Romanesque churches is reconstructed from evidence of other examples. This exercise is set within the narrative framework of the late-13th-century Liber Memorandorum, effectively Barnwell’s cartulary, and ends with an account of the priory’s demolition. Underpinning this in the second part is a brief account of the nature of English Augustinians in the 12th century, inasmuch as this informs our understanding of their lost buildings. By mid-century, the canons’ shifting identity had resulted in alterations to the architecture of their churches, a phenomenon that has not been fully considered before. The recently detected transformation of the Romanesque churches at Augustinian Worksop and Benedictine St Albans lends support to the view that extensive remodelling of major buildings was not uncommon during the long 12th century. The chapter concludes by summarising the visible remains of Romanesque Cambridge, including a keystone from Barnwell whose significance has not previously been noted, and a newly observed detail at Jesus College Chapel.