The Anglo-Saxon Rood and other Features in the South Porch of St. Mary's Church, Breamore, Hampshire

Abstract

SummaryConservation in 1980 of the wall-paintings in the upper chamber of the south porch at Breamore church, where the notable Anglo-Saxon stone rood is sited, led to an archaeological study of the associated parts of the building. It was established that the rood is not in its primary location over the south door, but was only erected there in the fifteenth century. It is argued that the rood originally occupied a position over the western arch into the nave of the Saxon church, being enclosed within a chamber, now demolished. The Norman south doorway and added porch appear to be a refurbishment of an original entrance to the nave, although probably not the principal one, which, it is argued, lay at the west end. In the fifteenth century the church was repaired piecemeal, and this involved the demolition of the Saxon north porticus and western chamber, the partial reconstruction of the south porch and a lowering of its roof pitch, and the resiting of the displaced rood sculptures in the south wall of the nave above the porch. In the early sixteenth century the walls of the porch were raised, creating an upper storey which functioned as a chapel, probably dedicated in honour of St. Mary the Virgin. The rood then became a devotional object within the porch chapel, and an elaborate scheme of landscape painting was applied as a background, and was continued on the west wall of the chapel. The remaining areas of wall plaster in the chapel were painted with guttée-de-sang and sacred monograms. Later in the sixteenth century the Anglo-Saxon sculptures were deliberately defaced and their remains hidden by a layer of plaster. The re-exposure of the rood and paintings took place at an unrecorded date in the nineteenth century; the upper floor of the porch was removed in 1897, revealing the chapel to view from below.