The organisation of the early church in the East Riding of Yorkshire, c. 700 to€“ 1100: the churches of 1086 and their origins

Abstract

This study explores aspects of the organisation of the church in the eleventh century, and where possible its development in earlier centuries. It does this by means of a case study of the East Riding of Yorkshire, as defined by Domesday Book. Selecting a small area enabled the inclusion of all potentially identifiable church sites, and differs from some other local studies in broadening the perspective from a focus on minster sites to a consideration of all discoverable religious institutions. The inevitable predominance of Domesday Book as a source makes a focus on the end of the eleventh century inevitable. However, Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture has also been utilised in compiling an initial database of potential church sites, and allows some churches not recorded in Domesday Book to be identified. This database of potential religious sites, 62 in total within eighteen hundreds, has then been examined in more detail. Other evidence that relates to these sites such as excavation, place-names, other documentary evidence, small find assemblages and local topographical analysis has been incorporated. Models of ecclesiastical organisation and settlement structure are first examined to provide a context for this research. The methodology for this study and the limitations of the available evidence are then considered. Chapter four presents the data for East Riding church sites and begins to analyse it by proposing hypothetical ways the evidence could reveal religious institutions and hypothetical trajectories of development at individual sites. Chapter five is a series of case studies of the three main landholders, the Archbishop, the King and Drogo de la Beuvrière. This study’s main conclusions are that a range of religious institutions may be identifiable, that the archbishops may be organising their churches to facilitate their perambulation around the East Riding and that some churches were situated to play a role beyond their own vill within a multiple estate.