Sculptured stones from Old Sarum emerge in Salisbury

The BBC News website recently reported the discovery during repair work on the medieval walls of the Close at Salisbury Cathedral of carved stones which had been reused from the previous cathedral at Old Sarum. The proposal is to display these in the cathedral stonemason’s yard. 

The article can be read at Workers at Salisbury Cathedral find stones from Old Sarum site

It is long been known that the previous cathedral was dismantled and its masonry reused to create its successor on the new site on the banks of the Avon. English Heritage

list individual items in the collection at the present cathedral and also indicates which parts of it are believed to have been built with masonry brought down from Old Sarum on their website at Sources for Old Sarum

Such reuse of masonry was not unique to Salisbury.  At York the eastern crypt built in the fourteenth century reused material from the twelfth century choir of Archbishop Roger on the same site. In Winchester garden walls in the cathedral close have yielded a substantial number of pieces of sculpture from the late mediaeval High Altar screen. At some point in the middle of the sixteenth century these high-quality sculptures were removed from their niches, sawn up, and reused as blocks for mundane walling. These surviving portions of the figures can now be seen in the gallery of cathedral treasures displayed in the South Transept. I have linked to information about this in my 2020 post Our Lady of Winchester

The most recent archaeological investigation of parts of the Close at Salisbury by Wessex Archaeology can be seen in their report here

This helps provide the context for the reused stonework and for other lost features. It  concentrates on investigative work on the site of the fifteenth century chantry chapel of Bishop Beauchamp and of the thirteenth century freestanding bell tower. These were both very regrettably demolished at the end of the eighteenth century by the architect Wyatt. The Wessex Archaeology report quotes Pugin’s scathing judgment on Wyatt -‘ the Destroyer…. this monster of architectural depravity…. this pest of cathedral architecture .. ‘  I wrote about his catalogue of destruction at the cathedral between 1788 and 1792 in a piece in 2011 entitled Vandalism at Salisbury Cathedral - I still, by the way, think the belfry tower and its wooden superstructure should be recreated.

Quite by chance, or by the sensitivity of the algorithm, as I finished this blog I saw an article from today in The Independent about fundraising to purchase a thirteenth century Bible written and illuminated in his Salisbury workshop by a recognised artist, the Sarum Master, and to house it ib the cathedral library. The volume is one of just six identified works by the artist. The illustrated article, which includes a donation link, can be seen at Sarum Master Bible campaign receives £10,000 donation