Reasons for Designation
A medieval chapel is a building, usually rectangular, containing a range of
furnishings and fittings appropriate for Christian worship in the pre-
Reformation period. Chapels were designed for congregational worship and were
generally divided into two main parts: the nave, which provided accommodation
for the laity, and the chancel, which was the main domain of the priest and
contained the principal altar. Around 4000 parochial chapels were built
between the 12th and 17th centuries as subsidiary places of worship built for
the convenience of parishioners who lived at a distance from the main parish
church. Other chapels were built as private places of worship by manorial
lords and lie near or within manor houses, castles or other high-status
residences. Chantry chapels were built and maintained by endowment and were
established for the singing of masses for the soul of the founder. Some
chapels possessed burial grounds. Unlike parish churches, the majority of
which remain in ecclesiastical use, chapels were often abandoned as their
communities and supporting finances declined or disappeared. Many chantry
chapels disappeared after the dissolution of their supporting communities in
the 1540s.
Chapels, like parish churches, have always been major features of the
landscape. A significant number of surviving examples are identified as being
nationally important. The sites of abandoned chapels, where positively
identified, are particularly worthy of statutory protection as they were often
left largely undisturbed and thus retain important information about the
nature and date of their use up to their abandonment.
South Elmham Minster is an early medieval chapel of a form which at this date
is very rare in England; the distinctive feature of a massive western tower
with an external stair turret is thought to be one of only three examples in
the country, one of the other two being at North Elmham in Norfolk, and all
three are associated with episcopal manors. The ruined building is thus of
particular interest, and the monument as a whole will retain archaeological
information concerning its construction and use, in addition to that obtained
from the limited excavations carried out on the site. It will also contain
valuable information relating to the construction and function of the
surrounding enclosure. The recorded evidence for both pagan and Christian
Saxon cemeteries on or adjacent to the site gives it further interest.
Details
The monument, which is situated 2.6km south east of the River Waveney, on
the north east facing slope of a small valley, includes a rectangular
earthwork enclosure containing the standing and buried remains of a church
known since at least the 14th century as the Minster. The moated site of a
medieval bishop's palace lies 450m to the north and is the subject of a
separate scheduling. The site of Greshaw Green, enclosed in 1853, but a focus
of settlement between the 13th and 16th centuries, is 250m to the west.
The ruined church, which is Listed Grade II and is dated to the 11th
century, is aligned north east-south west and stands slightly south west of
the centre of the surrounding enclosure. Limited excavations around the walls,
carried out in 1964 and 1965 by staff of Ipswich Museum, revealed various
details of the structure and its buried foundations. The building above ground
has overall dimensions of approximately 30.7m by 10.8m and includes a nave
11.6m in length internally, with a slightly narrower apsidal chancel to the
east and, at the western end, a rectangular vestibule (narthex) which
originally formed the base of a tower. A semi circular foundation abutting the
external face of the south wall of the tower and thought to be the base of a
stair turret was recorded during excavation, but is not visible above ground.
The walls stand in places to a height of more than 4m, although at the eastern
end only the footings survive. Those of the nave are about 1m in thickness,
offset above foundations up to 1m wider; that of the eastern apse is slightly
thinner, and those of the western compartment are about 1.4m thick to support
the weight of the tower above. They are constructed of mortared flint rubble,
coursed on the outer face where this survives, and display evidence of various
architectural features, including internally splayed window openings in the
north and south walls, the sill of a doorway in the north wall towards the
western end of the nave, and remains of a round headed arched doorway in the
west wall at the base of the tower. The angles of the walls were originally
dressed with stone quoins which remain in place below the ground surface but
not above, although the regular scars where the stone has been removed from
the rubble matrix are visible in places. Between the nave and the eastern apse
is a masonry sill which probably supported a triple arcade, and a part of the
respond of the arch on the south side still projects from the internal face of
the south wall. The wall between the nave and the western compartment is
pierced by two openings. Putlog holes (sockets to support the horizontal
members of scaffolding) of unusual, triangular form, are also visible in the
walls.
The earthwork enclosure may pre-date the church within it. It has maximum
overall dimensions of about 130m square and the alignment of the axes is
similar but not identical to that of the church. It is defined by a ditch up
to 10m wide and with a visible depth of up to 2m, with an internal bank
constructed of earth quarried from the ditch. At the south western end of the
enclosure, where the ground level of the interior is similar to or slightly
lower than that outside the ditch, the bank stands to a height of about 1.5m.
On the opposite side, the level of the interior is about 1m above the external
ground level immediately beyond the adjoining ditch, probably as a result of
soil movement down slope caused by natural erosion or by cultivation within
the enclosure, and here the visible height of the bank is about 1m or less.
Causeways across the ditch and bank on the north west, north east and south
east sides provide access to the interior, although it is possible that none
of them is an original feature.
There is documented evidence for late Roman and Saxon occupation on or near
the site. Several sherds of Roman pottery were found in 1964-65 in trenches
dug across the enclosure ditch, on the surface of the adjacent field to the
south, and in small-scale excavations conducted in 1984 to the south of the
church. There are also early 19th century records of urns filled with burnt
bone and ash, probably from a pagan Saxon cemetery, being turned up when the
enclosure was ploughed, and when the buried footings of the south east corner
of the nave were exposed during the excavations of 1964-65, a weathered
fragment of late Saxon grave slab was found built into the wall, perhaps
obtained from a Christian cemetery nearby.
At the date of the Domesday survey in 1096, the manor of South Elmham was held
by the bishop of Thetford, it was purchased shortly afterwards by Herbert de
Losinga, first Bishop of Norwich. It is likely that the Minster was built
by de Losinga, who is thought to have been responsible also for the
construction of a similar church at his manor of North Elmham, and that it
served as an episcopal chapel, although there is also documentary evidence
that the site of the bishop's palace nearby may, for a time, have been
occupied by a small monastic foundation.
MAP EXTRACT
The site of the monument is shown on the attached map extract.
It includes a 2 metre boundary around the archaeological features,
considered to be essential for the monument's support and preservation.
