Archaeological Recording at St. Stephen’s Church, West Putford, Devon
1. Introduction
This document has been produced by South West Archaeology (SWARCH) at the request of Mr Graham Edwards, Jonathan Rhind Architects, on behalf of the West Putford PCC (the Client).Consolidation work on the roof structures at St Stephen’s had been deemed necessary, and the intervention of conservation building specialists allowed opportunity for archaeological recording of built structures and investigation of accumulated debris deposits known to exist between the ceilings and the roofs of nave and transepts.
This report is the final phase in a programme of work that was set out in a Written Scheme of Investigation (WSI) produced by SWARCH and set out the methodology for archaeological recording to be undertaken prior to and during the proposed repair works.
2. Background
St. Stephen’s is a rural parish church with what has been described by Pevsner as “an early plan” comprising a west tower, Nave, Chancel, North and South Transepts and a south Porch. (Cherry & Pevsner 1989, 902) Pevsner suggests that the building dates largely from the 14th century with the tower and the transepts being of a later date. Restoration in the 19th century gave the chancel a new roof structure (English Heritage file reference no: 04/001/091971).
3. Summary
Monitoring and recording work at St. Stephen’s Church, West Putford, Devon, revealed a number of interesting details shedding further light on the development of a relatively little-studied rural parish church.
The nave and north transept roof were revealed to have rather finely constructed double arch-braced trusses, whilst the south transept was of poorer quality with the lower arch braces’ function replaced with a vertical ashlar piece, and evidence of this roof either having been altered during its construction or to have been a re-used structure brought in from elsewhere. Other details recorded.The existing lath-and plaster barrel ceilings were demonstrated not to have been original features but have been later insertions in what was formerly an exposed roof.
The east window recorded in the south transept had been subject to alteration but was likely to have been of late 13th century origin. This was an earlier date than had been previously suggested for much of the fabric within St Stephen’s.
4. Methodology
The work carried out consisted of three principal elements.
The first was the archaeological investigation and recording of the deposits accumulated between the roof and ceilings that earlier structural investigation had identified. Where the deposits warranted such treatment they were to be excavated archaeologically utilising the same principles and methods as would be applied to below-ground excavation.
The second elementinvolved the recording of the roof structures of the nave and transepts, with the aim of understanding the phasing of each structure, and identifying any repairs. The first part of the work carried out after the slates had been removed entailed a visual survey of the entire roof structure in order to identify those parts requiring more detailed recording. At that stage it was decided to undertake the following recording: a written record of each truss in nave and transepts, including notes and a entry for each joint and member on pro-forma sheets; a measured elevation drawing at a scale of 1:20 of a sample truss from nave and each transept (Figs 3, 4 & 5); and a photographic record of specific details as necessary to supplement the information in written and drawn records. The chancel roof, was outside the scope of the present programme of recording. In this report for the sake of consistency the same numbering scheme and abbreviations for roof trusses as adopted by Jonathan Rhind Architects has been used throughout, (NR= Nave Roof, STR = South Transept Roof, NTR = North Transept Roof) (see Fig 2)
The third element involvedthe archaeological recording of thesouth transept window to allow its construction and subsequent repair to be understood. For both the interior and exterior of this window an annotated measured drawing at a scale of 1:10 was made,and a photographic record of the interior and exterior elevations were made. Recording took place before the removal of glass and dismantling of the ferramenta.
5.0 Results
5.1 Debris Deposits
Removal of the roof slates enabled the examination of the debris identified in the earlier Opening up Report. The accumulated debris between the ceilings and roof of nave and the southtransept was revealed to be of three sorts. The first and upper layer, as much as 0.5m thick in places was the result of bird-nesting activity. It was very dry and consisted primarily of twigs, a high proportion of which were of ash (fraxinus excelsior) indicating that the nests were likely to be of a corvid species which, given the location, made Jackdaws the most likely culprit. Also included in these deposits were fine dry soil, small stones and grit, hair, animal fur and skin, feathers, bones of avian spp rat and mouse, and small diameter tunnels which indicated rodent nesting. A certain amount of modern rubbish including food wrappers and cigarette ends were also present, presumably scavenged by the birds and rodents. The bulk of this material was revealed in the narrowing space between ceilings and roofs immediately above the wall tops. Relatively little was found in the larger spaces above the centre of the ceilings or in the valleys formed between transept and nave roofs. This material was checked for artefacts (not an uncommon occurrence in Corvid nests) and was then removed being of no archaeological significance.
The second layer was of building/demolition debris, in resting on top of the wall tops, filling the spaces between the rafters of the trusses, between the roof slates/boards and above the barrel of the lath and plaster ceilings. This material included small and medium fragments of roofing slate some with mortar adhering to one face, fragments of much decayed timber boarding, corroded iron nails, a few partial tapering oak pegs of approximately 2cm diameter and one fragment of ceramic crested ridge tile, (gravel tempered fabric, green glazed exterior, mid 15th century, ) with lime mortar adhering to its underside.Some of the roofing slate fragments also had traces of thin mortar adhering to on face.The depth of this deposit was quite variable; averaging 0.25m but in places as much as 0.5m thick.
The third and lower layer of material consisted of a loose build of stone and a loose lime mortar matrix. The lower part of this material waspredominantly a mixture of uncoursed stone rubbleof small and medium sizes in a loose crumbling lime mortar. It also contained fragments of roof slate, wood and ferrous objects. In places this build included localised use of coarse cob (see Plate 1).In order to allow access to the lower parts of the trusses this build was removed from between the trusses of alternate bays.
In the north transept, there was no loose build of mortar and demolition material on the wall top between the rafters. Some bird nest accumulation, similar to that described above was present.
In several places in the nave and both of the transepts internal plaster was seen to survive adhering to the inner facework of this loose build, above the level of the existing barrel ceiling (see Plate 2), in the case of the second nave truss (NR 2, see Fig 3)as high as the point where the lower arched braces sprang from the principal rafter. In the south transept internal plaster on the inside face end (south) wall was also seen to rise above the level of the lath-and-plaster barrel ceiling.
Once the loose build from between the rafters was removedit was apparent that it had been in large part responsible for accelerating the deterioration of the bases of the truss rafters, and wall plates. Many of these timbers bore a distinct line of rot that corresponded with the upper level of the infill build debris deposit prior to its removal.
5.2Roof Structures
The roof structure was revealed to be in a much poorer condition than had been understood prior to the stripping of the slates. Many of the timbers were in places, especially at the wall tops, badly decayed.
The Nave Roof: Structure
The Nave roof was constructed on 26 trusses. For the purposes of identification these were numbered from west to east. Truss 1, therefore, stood against the east wall of the tower, and truss 26 formed the western end of the chancel roof.
The roof was of a double arch-braced construction in oak, with a wagon/barrel lath and plaster ceiling directly below and following the line described by the lower and upper arched braces.An example truss (NR 2, western elevation) is illustrated in Fig 3
The principal rafters were an average of 4.9m in length, and the apexes of the trusses were an average height of 3.6m above the level of the wall tops. The base of each truss was formed by a sole plate 0.8m long lying across the thickness of the wall tops. This sole plate was notched to lie over two wall plates, one running along the centre and one along the inner face of the wall. The lower end of each rafter was tenoned into a mortice in the outer end of each sole plate. The inner end of each sole plate was tenoned into a mortice cut into the lower end of each lower arch-brace.
The two rafters in each truss were joined at the apex by a halved joint fixed with a single peg 2cm in diameter. In addition they were joined by a horizontal collar located 3.5m up the rafter or 2.3m above the wall tops. Each end of the collars were tenoned into mortices extending through approximately half the thickness of the rafters, and fixed with pegs.Describing an arc between each collar and rafter were a pair of upper arched braces. Each was 1.7m long and the ends formed tenonsjointed into morticesin collar and rafter stopped with small right angled butts.All joints were pegged, although the number of pegs varied (see discussion below). The butts accommodating the lower ends of the upper arch braces were an average of 2.15m up the undersides of the rafters from the wall top.
The upper end of each lower arch-brace was butt-stopped in a similar way to the upper arch braces, springing from an average of 0.45m below each upper arch-brace, or 1.7m up the rafters from wall top. The bottom of each lower arch-brace was tenoned into a mortice in the inner wall plate and itself morticed to receive the tenon at the inner end of each sole plate. These lower joints were fixed with 1 peg. In combination the inner faces of the lower arch-braces, rafters, upper arch-braces formed a smooth arc and the centre underside of the collars were cut in a very shallow V to continue this in a single curve spanning the full width of the nave.
The lower members and joints of most trusses were particularly badly affected by rot, especially where in contact with the loose rubble build that filled the voids between rafters and lower arch-braces. In some cases those joints between lower arch-braces and wall plate and sole plate, and between rafter and sole plate were partly or completely absent. To the east of the truss drawn (NR 2) the loose rubble build infilled between the trusses was seen to have plaster adhering to its vertical inner face, above and behind the level of the barrel/wagon ceiling of lath and plaster (see Fig 3, Plate 2). This observation was also made elsewhere, for example on the gable wall of the south transept.
Nave Roof: Other Observations
Various deviations from the standard form in the nave roof were observed
The easternmost seven trusses (NR 19-25) of the nave roof were of a slightly different form. These trusses lay at the crossing of the north and south transepts. Here the lack of side wall to the nave necessitated a different arrangement to support the base of the principal rafters. Thus for these trusses there was no sole plate, or wall plates. Instead, the void formed by the openings of the transept was spanned by a bressummer, a beam with moulding on the inner face, into the top of which the base of the rafters and lower arch-braces were tenoned.
In trusses NR 23-25 the trusses had slipped down and to the south due to decay in the south bressummer. Here the principal rafters on the north side were overlain by additional softwood rafters, clearly added as a repair to preserve the roofline.
One area of difference between trusses was that of the number of pegs utilised in fixing the joints of the arched braces. The joint between lower arched brace and rafter, upper arch-brace and rafter, and upper arch brace and collar was in some cases fixed with two and in other cases three pegs. No pattern could be observed in this: some timbers had the same number of pegs used at each end, whilst in other cases the numbers were different, in some cases the upper and lower arch-brace used similar numbers of pegs, in others they were different.
One anomalous feature observed in the majority of nave trusses were a series of pegholes that bore no obvious relationship to any existing part of the roof structure. These holes were found in the eastern face of the principal rafters 1.2m from the bottom of the member, just above the top of the loose rubble build on wall topson both north and south sides of the nave in all trusses apart from NR 5, 6 and 14. There was one hole in each timber, and each was horizontal and penetrated approximately half the rafter’s thickness. There was no evidence for these holes having formed a part of any joint with other extant timbers. They were of 2cm diameter, similar to other pegholes used for the truss joints (see Plate 2). These seem to be typical examples of those somewhat mysterious features identified by Brunskill as “problem holes” or “rafter holes” believed to either be concerned with the rigging and aligning of the two rafters in a truss, or as the fixing point for sprockets (Brunskill, 172).
The North Transept: Structure
The roof of the north transept was constructed on 9 main trusses. For the purposes of identification these were numbered from north to south. Truss 1, therefore, stood against the north wall of the transept whilst 9 was the one closest to the nave. These equated to NTR 4-12 in the numbering schema used in the records of Jonathan Rhind Architects.
The roof was of a double arch-braced construction in oak, with a wagon/barrel lath and plaster ceiling directly below and following the line described by the lower and upper arched braces. An example truss (NTR 11, south elevation) is illustrated in Fig 4
The principal rafters were an average of 3.4m in length, and the apexes of the trusses were an average height of 2.3m above the level of the wall tops. The base of each truss was formed by a wall plate lying along the inner face of the wall top, and a course of pad-stones lying along the top of the outer face of the wall. These pad stones were moulded and overhung to form a cornice. The lower end of each rafter rested directly on the pad-stones. The full width of the lower end of each lower arch-brace was fitted into a mortice cut into the top of the wall plateUnlike the nave roof where the base of rafter and lower arch-brace were joined by a sole-plate, in the north transept there were no sole-plates. Instead there was a horizontal tie beam 0.3m above the wall top, one end of which was tenoned into a mortice in the underside of the rafter, the other end tenoned into a mortice in the lower arch-brace (see Plate 3). Both these joints were fixed with a single oak peg.
The two rafters in each truss were joined at the apex by a bridle joint fixed with a single oak peg. In addition they were joined by a horizontal collar 1.15m in length, located 2.5m up the rafter or 1.7m above the wall tops. Each end of the collars were tenoned into mortices extending through approximately half the thickness of the rafters, and fixed with single pegs. Describing an arc between each collar and rafter were a pair of upper arched braces. Each was 1.25m long and the ends formed tenons jointed into mortices in collar and rafter. All joints were pegged, although the number of pegs varied (see discussion below). Unlike in the nave trusses the joints at the ends of the arch braces were not stopped with right angled butts. Instead at theirupper ends both arch-braces in each truss butted up against a small timber filet inserted between the two under the collar. At their lower ends each upper arch-brace butted against the upper ends of the lower arch-braces. At this point the lower arch-braces were tenoned into a mortice in the underside of each rafter 1.1m above the wall tops. Each lower arch-brace was 1.25m long and the lower ends were tenoned into the wall plate. In combination the inner faces of the lower arch-braces and upper arch-braces formed a smooth arc, this single curve spanning the full width of the transept. Attached to the lower face of the arch formed by each truss, was a lath-and-plaster barrel / wagon ceiling