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The Congresbury Carvings – An Eleventh-century Saint's Shrine?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2011

Catherine M Oakes  and
Michael Costen
Catherine M Oakes
Affiliation:
Oxford University Department for Continuing Education, Rewley House, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1 2JA, UK. E-mail: .
Michael Costen
Affiliation:
Centre for the Historic Environment, Department of Archaeology, 43 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UU, UK. E-mail: .
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Abstract

The discovery of a small group of sculpted fragments at Congresbury in Somerset seven years ago set in motion a period of research, reflection and analysis that has given rise to this paper. It opens with an account of the circumstances of their discovery and a description of their appearance. Then follows a proposed date and provenance. It is suggested that the quality of the sculptures and the evident scale of the monument to which they once belonged indicate a structure and a site of high status, possibly the shrine of the Welsh missionary saint Cyngar, whose cult enjoyed some popularity in the high and late Middle Ages. A review of the history of the site and evidence from its placename and from archaeological investigations corroborate this thesis.

The style of the sculptures when compared with dated manuscript illuminations and with sculptural fragments surviving from Anglo-Saxon Wessex is in line with a late tenth- to mid-eleventh-century dating. The historical circumstances of Congresbury at this time further suggest that this date may be narrowed down to the period between 1033 and 1060. The original structure of the shrine to which the fragments may have belonged is considered in the light of contemporary documentary evidence and research carried out on the remains of comparable shrine structures.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 83 , September 2003 , pp. 281 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 2003

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