XVIII.—An Account of Excavations made on the site of the Chapter-house of Durham Cathedral in 1874

Abstract

The sad story of the demolition of the Chapter-house at Durham has been so often told that it need not be repeated here. The eastern portion of that fine Norman building having been levelled to the ground at the end of the last century, its site came to form a portion of the Deanery garden, formerly the centry-garth or cemetery of the Abbey. In the summer of 1874, while a party of friends staying at the Deanery were surveying the spot, some curiosity was expressed as to whether the floor remained buried under the soil, and whether any part of the stone chair, the sedes episcopalis, in which the bishops were placed at their enthronement, was still in existence. An iron rod forced into the ground in several places was found to be stopped by something hard, at a greater depth westward than eastward, the difference being caused by the steps of the apse. A small excavation a little to the east of the present east wall revealed the inscribed slab of Ralph Flambard, and another on the site of the chair brought to light the lower courses of the semicircular eastern wall; no trace however of the chair itself could be found. It was now determined by the Dean that the removal of the earth should be proceeded with until at least all the central portion of the floor should be exposed, in order that the grave-covers indicated in Browne Willis's plan, of which one had been already found, might again be seen.