1,000-Year-Old Norman Cathedral Ruins Unearthed Beneath Church in England

Ancient Origins

The foundations of a Norman cathedral have been found under just 3ft (90cm) of soil during excavations at St Albans Abbey, the oldest place of continuous Christian worship in England. They are dated to 1077AD, making it one of the earliest Norman cathedrals in the country.

 The BBC reports that the exciting discovery was made during excavation work being carried out by the Canterbury Archaeological Trust to prepare the site for the construction of a new visitor center.

"We've only gone about a metre down but everything's happened there - there's 1,000 years of history in a metre of earth," site director Ross Lane told the BBC.

During excavations, archaeologists found the remains of two massive apse-ended chapels, which are intrinsic to the Norman cathedral design. The apse is a large semi-circular recess, usually at one or both ends of a church, with an arched or domed roof.

St Albans Abbey – A Site of Martyrdom
St Albans Abbey, which is now officially a cathedral, is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain. It sits on the site where Alban was buried and made into a martyr after he was tortured and beheaded sometime during the 3rd or 4th century by Romans for sheltering a Christian priest at a time when Christians were facing heavy persecution.

St Albans Cathedral viewed from the west in Hertfordshire, England (CC by SA 3.0)

It is believed that the cathedral was built on the site of his execution, and a well at the bottom of the hill, Holywell Hill, is said to be the place where Alban’s head landed after rolling downhill.

The martyrdom of St Alban, from a 13th-century manuscript, now in the Trinity College Library, Dublin. Note the executioner's eyes falling out of his head. (public domain)

Symbols of Power: The Norman Cathedrals of England
The newly discovered cathedral beneath St Albans Abbey is one of only fifteen cathedrals built across Britain, and is one of the oldest, its construction completed just 11 years after the Normans invaded England in 1066 AD. After William the Conqueror began stamping his authority across his newly conquered kingdom, the ecclesiastical soon followed suit, eager to establish the superiority of Norman French culture and sophistication.

“Norman England was soon experiencing a building boom never before seen across the land,” writes Almost History. “Construction commenced on at least fifteen great cathedrals and all but two survive to this day.”

The cathedrals were built in the Romanesque style developed by the Normans in the 11th century, characterized by massive proportions, rounded arches over windows and doorways, a raised nave and a western façade completed by two towers.

The nave of Durham Cathedral (CC by SA 3.0)

Ancient Burials
The archaeological dig also yielded 20 burials, some of which were substantial tombs, dating to the 11th and 12th centuries. The graves would have belonged to some of the original inhabitants and benefactors of the Abbey. Research is now being conducted to try to identify who they were.

 Top image: Remains of the original apse built in 1077 was unearthed during excavation work at St Albans Cathedral. Credit: St Albans Cathedral

By April Holloway

Priceless Medieval Sacred Text Reveals Its True Origins

Ancient Origins

Arguably the world’s most famous medieval manuscript, the wonderfully illustrated Book of Kells, was “created in 2 parts over 50 years,” Dr Bernard Meehan of Trinity College, Dublin, told reporters at The Independent.

 Around 561 AD, Colum Cille (also known as Columba and Columbus) sailed from Ireland with 13 followers and landed on Iona, an isolated Scottish island off the south-western tip of Mull. There, he established a scriptorium and a monastic confederation which would become an intellectual powerhouse of the medieval world. The Book of Kells was created around 800 AD and contains the four gospels written in Latin calligraphy on calfskin leaves, decorated with elaborate and colorful illustrations. Glorifying life of Christ, this book is regarded as shadowing all other artistic and cultural achievements of the early Middle Ages.

Facsimile copy of the Book of Kells (CC BY NC-ND 2.0)

 Until now, it was believed that a group of 9th century Irish monks at Iona composed this world-renowned copy of the gospel, in one go, but Meehan claims the “last part of the book was written first.” Talking to reporters at The Independent, Meehan said, “St John’s Gospel and the first few pages of St Mark, was written and illustrated by a monk at the monastery of St Colum Cille on the Scottish island of Iona, during the last quarter of the eighth century AD and the Gospels of St Mark, St Luke and St Matthew were produced 50 years later at a new monastery at Kells, in County Meath, Ireland.”

The Book of Kells, (folio 292r), circa 800, showing the lavishly decorated text that opens the Gospel of John. (Public Domain)

Meehan first identified that the monk who prepared the Book of John “had a very particular style which made it stand out from other parts of the text.” Having completed St John's Gospel “this particular monk's work suddenly stops at the end of chapter four, verse 26, of St Mark’s Gospel,” Meehan added. He speculated that this may have been “intended as the start of another separate, standalone work” or that monk may have been killed during Viking raids on the island of Iona, which began at the turn of the ninth century. It was also possible the monk had fallen victim to an “outbreak of disease, possibly smallpox, that hit the monastery in the early part of the ninth century” added Meehan. In 806 AD Vikings raided the island killing 68 of the monastic community, and the surviving monks fled to a new monastery at Kells, County Meath, Ireland with the Book of Kells. It eventually came to Trinity College, Dublin, in 1661 AD, and is still on display there today.

Gospel of Matthew from the Book of Kells is now thought to be the work of a different scribe (Public Domain)

Although Dr Meeham’s new observations are grabbing today’s headlines, the Book of Kells was but one publication in the literary tradition of Iona, which itself was far greater and more expansive than any one book. When Columbus established his Celtic church and scriptorium in the 6th century the island was called Innis nam Druidneach, The Isle of Druids (priests of the pre-Christian Celtic religion). Written histories and folklore alike tell of Columbus doing battle with local Druid elders, who fled here the 5th century escaping persecution from Imperial Rome. A 2006 Scotsman article reveals that in the century before Columbus arrived the “Druids founded a library on Iona” and because they never wrote their traditions down, as far as we know, “the impact that finding this library would have on our interpretation of history would be explosive.”

Another literary legend on Iona speaks of another priceless cache of books, this time originating in “the greatest library in Europe.” Scottish History is murky for the first half of the first millennium, yet several chroniclers recorded King Fergus II uniting with Alaric the Goth to fight the Roman Empire during its fall. According to historian and author Dr E Mairi MacArthur, in the Scotsman article, King Fergus was said to have “recovered many books from the plundered Roman libraries, including rare religious manuscripts from ancient Greek and Persian philosophers and scientists.” These priceless volumes of ancient knowledge and lost wisdom are said to have been taken to Iona for safekeeping in “the secret druid library.”

Trinity College in Dublin is the current home of the original Book of Kells. (CC BY 2.0)

The Book of Kells survived, but it is generally held by historians that all the other books associated with Iona were destroyed in the 9th century Viking raids, but Dr E Mairi MacArthur is not so sure. She told the Scotsman “it is much more likely that the books travelled between Iona and Ireland, or perhaps even further afield. Or there is the possibility that they were hidden for safekeeping."

What with all this talk of secret Druid libraries, priceless ancient books from Rome and now the possibility that further manuscripts, maybe even finer than the Book of Kells, are hidden on this remote Scottish Island, in 2012 I took a documentary film crew to Iona and we surveyed the sacred island from a helicopter. We aimed to establish any overlooked architectural features hidden in the fields surrounding the Abbey which may point towards the presence of a subterranean chamber. Our project on Iona was featured in a somewhat sensational article in The Scottish Sun , and if you think my treasure hunting endeavors are a flight of fancy, then so too were the efforts of a 1950’s team of archaeologists from the University of St Andrews.

Book of Kells, Arrest of Christ. (Scanned from Treasures of Irish Art 1500 BC to 1500 AD) (Public Domain)

Having pieced together clues from written and oral records, as did I, they conducted a series of digs on the Treshnish Islands, near to Iona, specifically in search of the lost books. Claiming that if they found the books “it would undoubtedly be the single most important historical find of our time,” they ultimately failed. Since this 1950’s archeological project I am the only historian who has systematically set out to locate this potentially history changing treasure, and I return to Iona every few years chanting “Today’s the Day” in the tradition of treasure hunter Mel Fisher who in 1998 discovered the 1622 wreck of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, with its half-billion dollar treasure hoard.

Dr Meehan's findings are being published this week in a new guide to the Book of Kells.

Top image: Book of Kells, Folio 32v, Christ Enthroned. Scanned from Treasures of Irish Art, 1500 BC to 1500 AD, From the Collections of the National Museum of Ireland. (Public Domain)

By Ashley Cowie

900-Year-Old German Monastery Forced to Shut Down Because of Monk Shortage

Ancient Origins

Himmerod Abbey, a Cistercian monastery that's existed for almost 900 years in what is now western Germany is closing down for good, due to running expenses and also a shortage of monks. Notably, the monastery was used during the 1950’s in a distinctly non-monastic capacity, as a secret meeting point of former Wehrmacht high-ranking officers discussing West Germany's rearmament.

 Closure After 883 Years of Operation
Himmerod Abbey is a Cistercian monastery in western Germany that was founded in 1134 by French Abbot Bernhard of Clairvaux. After coming back from the brink of bankruptcy six years ago, the monastery now has to shut its doors permanently as DW reports. There are only six monks currently living in the abbey compared to the thirty residing there almost forty years ago.

Himmerod Monastery Church (CC BY 2.0)

In 1922 the monastery was re-founded by the settlement of German Cistercian monks from the former monastery of Mariastern in modern-day Bosnia. The church building was reconstructed under Abbot Vitus Recke (Abbot from 1937 to 1959), and completed in 1962. The abbey today has a museum, a book - and art shop, a café, a guesthouse and retreat-house, as well as a fishery. Its highlight, however, is its own publishing house, the Himmerod Drucke, which has published over 50 works by a number of authors, especially Father Stephan Reimund Senge, a monk at Himmerod. The journal Unsere Liebe Frau von Himmerod ("Our Lady of Himmerod") appears three times a year, and the newsletter Himmeroder Rundbrief edited by Father Stephan, about ten times a year.

Himmerod Abbey by Fritz von Wille, pre-1941, church ruins before reconstruction (Public Domain)

The Infamous Himmerod Memorandum
 The Himmerod memorandum was a 40-page document produced following a 1950 secret meeting of former Wehrmacht high-ranking officers invited by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer to the Himmerod Abbey to discuss West Germany's rearmament. The resulting document laid foundation for the establishment of the new army – Bundeswehr – of the Federal Republic.

The memorandum, along with the public declaration of Wehrmacht's "honor" by the Allied military commanders and West Germany's politicians, contributed to the creation of the myth of the "clean Wehrmacht.”

From 5 to 9 October 1950, a group of former senior officers, at the behest of Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, met in secret at the Himmerod Abbey, from where the memorandum took its name, to discuss West Germany's rearmament. The participants were divided in several subcommittees that focused on the political, ethical, operational and logistical aspects of the future armed forces.

The resulting memorandum included a summary of the discussions at the conference and bore the name "Memorandum on the Formation of a German Contingent for the Defense of Western Europe within the framework of an International Fighting Force". It was intended as both a planning document and as a basis of negotiations with the Western Allies. The participants of the conference were convinced that no future German army would be possible without the historical rehabilitation of the Wehrmacht.

Himmerod Church interior (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Uncertain Future
The monastery’s property, near the village of Grosslittgen, will be transferred to the Catholic diocese of Trier, while the six monks will move to other monasteries. The Catholic diocese of Trier has yet to announce what it plans to do with the site. Additionally, it is not yet clear what will happen to the monastery's other staff. "Himmerod will remain a spiritual site,” head of the monastery, Abbot Johannes, said as DW reports. “The walls have retained this history. I am telling you: There is no way to destroy this spiritual place, which has attracted people for centuries. I am certain people will continue to come here," he added.

The Cistercian order was founded in 1098 in response to a perceived abandonment of humility by the leading order of the time. Cistercian monasteries are divided into those that follow the Common Observance, the Middle Observance and the Strict Observance also known as Trappists. Despite the latest closure, there are still more than 160 Trappist monasteries in the world, with over 2,000 Trappist monks and roughly 1800 Trappist nuns.

Himmerod Abbey church (CC BY-SA 3.0)

Top image: Himmerod Abbey and Church building (Public Domain)

By Theodoros Karasavvas

7 of England’s best medieval buildings

History Extra

Aerial view of Westminster Abbey at night. (Pawel Libera/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Westminster Abbey 

London’s iconic Westminster Abbey has since the medieval period held a significant place in royal history. It has been the setting of every royal coronation since 1066, seen 16 royal weddings and is the final resting place of 17 English monarchs.

 

The stunning Gothic structure that stands today was constructed by Henry III between 1245 and 1272, and his motivations for undertaking the mammoth building project are intriguing. Writing for History Extra in 2011, historian David Carpenter has argued that Henry built the spectacular abbey to win the favour of the dead Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, who had established a church on the site almost 200 years earlier, in 1065. 

 

According to Carpenter, Henry was “passionately devoted to Edward”, who had been canonised in 1161, adopting him as his patron saint. He says Henry believed that “if he won the dead king’s saintly favour by building the magnificent abbey as an offering to him, Edward would support him in this life and shepherd him into the next. The Abbey was a very clear statement that Henry was backed by his saintly predecessor”. 

 

Westminster Abbey is home to some remarkable medieval art, including England’s oldest altarpiece, the 13th-century Westminster Retable [a panel painted with religious imagery, including an image of Westminster Abbey’s patron saint St Peter]. After surviving the dissolution of the monasteries, the Reformation and the Civil War, this precious altarpiece was rediscovered 1725, covered in paint and being used as a cupboard door in the Abbey’s storage.

 

Another of Westminster Abbey’s outstanding medieval artefacts is the coronation chair, in which every monarch since Edward II (apart from Edward V and Edward VIII) has been crowned. During the Second World War the coronation chair was evacuated to Gloucester Cathedral, however, like the Westminster Retable, it has not always received such good care. Its back is marked with graffiti, carved by mischievous Westminster schoolboys in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

 

Dover Castle 

Known as ‘the key to England’, the defensive fortress of Dover Castle has a long and turbulent history. Standing at the site of the shortest sea crossing between England and the continent, Dover has always been a key strategic spot in the defence of the kingdom, and over the centuries its castle has witnessed several bloody conflicts. 

 

The medieval structure that remains at Dover today was mostly constructed by King Henry II in the 1180s. Henry spent a vast fortune on the castle, which was not only intended to defend the British coast but also to entertain and impress distinguished guests. Between 1179 and his death in 1189, Henry spent £5,991 on Dover Castle – the greatest concentration of money spent on a single castle in English history. 

 

Writing for History Extra, John Gillingham has argued that Henry poured such vast sums into the impressive structure in order to “save face” following the brutal killing of Thomas Becket in 1170. The archbishop had been murdered in Henry’s name, significantly damaging Henry’s reputation. According to Gillingham, constructing the imposing castle was “a visible assertion of Henry’s power in the face of a developing anti-monarchical cult.” It served as stopping point a for high-status pilgrims visiting Beckets’s tomb at Canterbury Cathedral and Henry dedicated its chapel to the canonised Archbishop. 

 

During the reign of King John (r1199–1216), the castle defences were put to the test when it came under siege by French troops led by Prince Louis in 1216–17. It withstood 10 months of bombardment as the invasion forces targeted it with siege engines, tunneling and face-to-face combat. 

 

^{Dover Castle. (Photo by Olaf Protze/LightRocket via Getty Images)}

 

Rievaulx Abbey 

A dramatic ruin set in the beautiful surroundings of rural North Yorkshire, Rievaulx Abbey was once a template for medieval monastic architecture across Europe. The Abbey underwent many stages of architectural development from the 12th to 15th centuries, reflecting the social and economic changes monastic communities underwent during the period. 

 

Rievaulx was first established as a Cistercian monastery in 1132. The Cisterian order (founded by St Bernard of Clairvaux in 1098 in an attempt to reform monastic life in Europe) aimed to return holy communities to an austere life, abiding to strict religious guidelines set down by St Benedict in the sixth century. After the foundation of Britain’s first Cistercian abbey in 1128 (Waverley Abbey in Surrey) the waves of reform quickly spread, and other Cistercian communities such as Rievaulx were established across the country. 

 

By the middle of the 12th century Rievaulx was a large and thriving self-sufficient community. In 1167 the Abbey’s community numbered around 140 monks and around 500 lay brothers. A larger site was needed to accommodate this growing community, leading to the building of a new chapter house and a dramatic, imposing church.  

 

The Abbey site was designed to facilitate both religious and practical aspects of life. In addition to a great cloister where the monks could study and read, the Abbey also contained private quarters for more senior monks, as well as a parlour, dormitory and kitchen. Rievaulx also holds the earliest surviving infirmary complex on any British Cistercian site, built in the 1150s to care for sick and elderly members of the monastic community. 

 

Like many abbeys, Rievaulx was targeted by Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s. However, the Abbey’s religious population had dwindled over the centuries and by the time it was shut down and dismantled in 1538 only 23 monks remained there.

 

^{The ruins of Rievaulx Abbey, North Yorkshire. (English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)}

 

York Minster

From humble beginnings as a small wooden church, York Minster underwent several transformations during the medieval period before evolving into the spectacular Gothic cathedral that stands today. 

 

The first Christian church on the site was a modest wooden structure dating back to AD 627. By AD 640 King Oswald had replaced this with a small stone church. After surviving the Viking invasion in AD 866, York’s Anglo-Saxon church was ransacked by William the Conqueror’s forces in the Harrying of the North in 1069. After destroying the Anglo-Saxon church, William appointed his own Norman archbishop of York, who went about constructing a grand Norman Cathedral on the site. 

 

In the 13th century Walter De Gray (archbishop of York between 1215 and 1255) decided to rebuild the cathedral for the final time. He embarked on a mammoth project to redesign it in a dramatic Gothic style, with a monumental arching roof, intended to convey a sense of soaring upwards towards the sky. Constructed between 1220 and 1472, the magnificent Gothic-style minster took more than 250 years to complete. Its Great East Window, glazed by John Thornton of Coventry between 1405 and 1408, is now the largest expanse of medieval glass to have survived in Europe. 

 

York Minster has suffered many misfortunes over the centuries. In 1407 the central tower collapsed due to soft soil, and four fires [in 1753, 1829, 1840 and 1984] have wreaked significant damage. York Minster is now one of only seven cathedrals in the world to boast its own police force [a small, specialized cathedral constabulary who continue to operate independently of the rest of the city’s police force]. 

 

^{York Minster at night. (Rod Lawton/Digital Camera Magazine via Getty Images)}

 

The White Tower

The imposing White Tower at the heart of the Tower of London complex dates back to the late 11th century. Built by William the Conqueror to secure his hold on London, it was designed to awe and subdue the local population.

 

The exact construction dates of the White Tower are unclear, but building was certainly underway in the 1070s and was completed by 1100. A key example of Norman architecture, the White Tower was the first building of its kind in England. William employed Norman masons and even had stone imported from Normandy for its construction. At 27.5m tall the Tower would have been visible for miles around. 

 

Intended as a fortress and stronghold rather than a royal palace, the White Tower’s design favoured defence over hospitality. Its fortifications were updated throughout the medieval period and during the reign of Richard the Lionheart they doubled in size. This proved to be a wise move, as in Richard’s absence his brother John besieged the White Tower in an attempt to seize the throne. The Tower’s defences held fast but the forces defending it [led by Richard’s Chancellor William Longchamp] were compelled to surrender owing to a lack of supplies. 


For those who fell from royal favour, the White Tower was a place of imprisonment and execution. From its foundation it was used as a prison – the first recorded prisoner held in the White Tower was Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham, in 1100. Under Edward III, the captured kings of Scotland and France were kept at the White Tower and it is believed that, centuries later, Guy Fawkes was tortured and interrogated in the White Tower’s basement. 

 

Even monarchs were not immune to imprisonment at the White Tower: in 1399 Richard II was imprisoned there after being forced to renounce his throne by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke.

 

^{The White Tower at the Tower of London. (Arcaid/UIG via Getty)}
 

Westminster Hall, Houses of Parliament 

As the oldest building on the parliamentary estate, Westminster Hall has been central to the government of England since the 11th century. Built in 1097 by the Norman king William II (the son of William the Conqueror and known as Rufus), the Hall was a symbol of Norman majesty intended to impress the king’s new subjects. 

 

Rufus’s construction project was remarkably ambitious. Covering a floor space of 1,547 square metres (with walls two metres thick), Westminster Hall was by far the largest hall in England at the time. It was so large that when surveying the vast hall just after its construction, one of Rufus’s attendants reportedly remarked it was far bigger than it needed to be. However, Rufus himself was less than impressed – he replied it was not half large enough, a mere bedchamber compared to what he had in mind. 

 

Recent archaeological explorations at Westminster Hall have prompted some fascinating theories about the groundbreaking nature of its original construction. No evidence of columns used to support the vast roof has been uncovered, suggesting that it may have been self-supporting. This engineering would have been remarkably ahead of its time, as self-supporting roofs of this size were not seen elsewhere until the 13th and 14th centuries.

 

Writing for History Extra, Paul Binski suggests that the “miracle” of Westminster Hall “is not just its survival, but its courage. The builders of these great structures had brilliant know-how, but also guts”.

 

^{A royal event at Westminster Hall in 2012. (Ben Stansall/WPA Pool/Getty)}
 

Norwich Guildhall 

Situated in the centre of the medieval city, the Norwich Guildhall is a remarkable example of late medieval secular architecture. Built primarily between 1407 and 1412, its grandeur reflects the growing power and wealth of a new elite of merchants, traders and government agents during the period. 

 

By the 15th century Norwich had become one of the wealthiest and most important towns in England. Following a 1404 charter granting the city greater self–governing powers it was decided that a Guildhall should be built in order to administer the powers more effectively.

 

The Guildhall fulfilled a role similar to that of a modern town hall, performing all the administrative functions the city required to govern the everyday lives of the city’s residents. The Guildhall served multiple purposes as a court, a tax collection hub and administrative centre. The Guildhall also contained an assembly chamber for council meetings, was equipped to hold prisoners and had a large ‘sword room’ used for storing weapons. 

 

Today the Guildhall is the largest surviving medieval building intended for a civic purpose outside of London.

History Trivia - Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne

June 8

793 Vikings raid the abbey at Lindisfarne in Northumbria, and is commonly accepted as the beginning of the Scandinavian invasion of England.

7 of England’s best medieval buildings

History Extra

Aerial view of Westminster Abbey at night. (Pawel Libera/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Westminster Abbey 

London’s iconic Westminster Abbey has since the medieval period held a significant place in royal history. It has been the setting of every royal coronation since 1066, seen 16 royal weddings and is the final resting place of 17 English monarchs.

 

The stunning Gothic structure that stands today was constructed by Henry III between 1245 and 1272, and his motivations for undertaking the mammoth building project are intriguing. Writing for History Extra in 2011, historian David Carpenter has argued that Henry built the spectacular abbey to win the favour of the dead Anglo-Saxon king, Edward the Confessor, who had established a church on the site almost 200 years earlier, in 1065. 

 

According to Carpenter, Henry was “passionately devoted to Edward”, who had been canonised in 1161, adopting him as his patron saint. He says Henry believed that “if he won the dead king’s saintly favour by building the magnificent abbey as an offering to him, Edward would support him in this life and shepherd him into the next. The Abbey was a very clear statement that Henry was backed by his saintly predecessor”. 

 

Westminster Abbey is home to some remarkable medieval art, including England’s oldest altarpiece, the 13th-century Westminster Retable [a panel painted with religious imagery, including an image of Westminster Abbey’s patron saint St Peter]. After surviving the dissolution of the monasteries, the Reformation and the Civil War, this precious altarpiece was rediscovered 1725, covered in paint and being used as a cupboard door in the Abbey’s storage.

 

Another of Westminster Abbey’s outstanding medieval artefacts is the coronation chair, in which every monarch since Edward II (apart from Edward V and Edward VIII) has been crowned. During the Second World War the coronation chair was evacuated to Gloucester Cathedral, however, like the Westminster Retable, it has not always received such good care. Its back is marked with graffiti, carved by mischievous Westminster schoolboys in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

 

Dover Castle 

Known as ‘the key to England’, the defensive fortress of Dover Castle has a long and turbulent history. Standing at the site of the shortest sea crossing between England and the continent, Dover has always been a key strategic spot in the defence of the kingdom, and over the centuries its castle has witnessed several bloody conflicts. 

 

The medieval structure that remains at Dover today was mostly constructed by King Henry II in the 1180s. Henry spent a vast fortune on the castle, which was not only intended to defend the British coast but also to entertain and impress distinguished guests. Between 1179 and his death in 1189, Henry spent £5,991 on Dover Castle – the greatest concentration of money spent on a single castle in English history. 

 

Writing for History Extra, John Gillingham has argued that Henry poured such vast sums into the impressive structure in order to “save face” following the brutal killing of Thomas Becket in 1170. The archbishop had been murdered in Henry’s name, significantly damaging Henry’s reputation. According to Gillingham, constructing the imposing castle was “a visible assertion of Henry’s power in the face of a developing anti-monarchical cult.” It served as stopping point a for high-status pilgrims visiting Beckets’s tomb at Canterbury Cathedral and Henry dedicated its chapel to the canonised Archbishop. 

 

During the reign of King John (r1199–1216), the castle defences were put to the test when it came under siege by French troops led by Prince Louis in 1216–17. It withstood 10 months of bombardment as the invasion forces targeted it with siege engines, tunneling and face-to-face combat. 

 

^{Dover Castle. (Photo by Olaf Protze/LightRocket via Getty Images)}

 

Rievaulx Abbey 

A dramatic ruin set in the beautiful surroundings of rural North Yorkshire, Rievaulx Abbey was once a template for medieval monastic architecture across Europe. The Abbey underwent many stages of architectural development from the 12th to 15th centuries, reflecting the social and economic changes monastic communities underwent during the period. 

 

Rievaulx was first established as a Cistercian monastery in 1132. The Cisterian order (founded by St Bernard of Clairvaux in 1098 in an attempt to reform monastic life in Europe) aimed to return holy communities to an austere life, abiding to strict religious guidelines set down by St Benedict in the sixth century. After the foundation of Britain’s first Cistercian abbey in 1128 (Waverley Abbey in Surrey) the waves of reform quickly spread, and other Cistercian communities such as Rievaulx were established across the country. 

 

By the middle of the 12th century Rievaulx was a large and thriving self-sufficient community. In 1167 the Abbey’s community numbered around 140 monks and around 500 lay brothers. A larger site was needed to accommodate this growing community, leading to the building of a new chapter house and a dramatic, imposing church.  

 

The Abbey site was designed to facilitate both religious and practical aspects of life. In addition to a great cloister where the monks could study and read, the Abbey also contained private quarters for more senior monks, as well as a parlour, dormitory and kitchen. Rievaulx also holds the earliest surviving infirmary complex on any British Cistercian site, built in the 1150s to care for sick and elderly members of the monastic community. 

 

Like many abbeys, Rievaulx was targeted by Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s. However, the Abbey’s religious population had dwindled over the centuries and by the time it was shut down and dismantled in 1538 only 23 monks remained there.

 

^{The ruins of Rievaulx Abbey, North Yorkshire. (English Heritage/Heritage Images/Getty Images)}

 

York Minster

From humble beginnings as a small wooden church, York Minster underwent several transformations during the medieval period before evolving into the spectacular Gothic cathedral that stands today. 

 

The first Christian church on the site was a modest wooden structure dating back to AD 627. By AD 640 King Oswald had replaced this with a small stone church. After surviving the Viking invasion in AD 866, York’s Anglo-Saxon church was ransacked by William the Conqueror’s forces in the Harrying of the North in 1069. After destroying the Anglo-Saxon church, William appointed his own Norman archbishop of York, who went about constructing a grand Norman Cathedral on the site. 

 

In the 13th century Walter De Gray (archbishop of York between 1215 and 1255) decided to rebuild the cathedral for the final time. He embarked on a mammoth project to redesign it in a dramatic Gothic style, with a monumental arching roof, intended to convey a sense of soaring upwards towards the sky. Constructed between 1220 and 1472, the magnificent Gothic-style minster took more than 250 years to complete. Its Great East Window, glazed by John Thornton of Coventry between 1405 and 1408, is now the largest expanse of medieval glass to have survived in Europe. 

 

York Minster has suffered many misfortunes over the centuries. In 1407 the central tower collapsed due to soft soil, and four fires [in 1753, 1829, 1840 and 1984] have wreaked significant damage. York Minster is now one of only seven cathedrals in the world to boast its own police force [a small, specialized cathedral constabulary who continue to operate independently of the rest of the city’s police force]. 

 

^{York Minster at night. (Rod Lawton/Digital Camera Magazine via Getty Images)}

 

The White Tower

The imposing White Tower at the heart of the Tower of London complex dates back to the late 11th century. Built by William the Conqueror to secure his hold on London, it was designed to awe and subdue the local population.

 

The exact construction dates of the White Tower are unclear, but building was certainly underway in the 1070s and was completed by 1100. A key example of Norman architecture, the White Tower was the first building of its kind in England. William employed Norman masons and even had stone imported from Normandy for its construction. At 27.5m tall the Tower would have been visible for miles around. 

 

Intended as a fortress and stronghold rather than a royal palace, the White Tower’s design favoured defence over hospitality. Its fortifications were updated throughout the medieval period and during the reign of Richard the Lionheart they doubled in size. This proved to be a wise move, as in Richard’s absence his brother John besieged the White Tower in an attempt to seize the throne. The Tower’s defences held fast but the forces defending it [led by Richard’s Chancellor William Longchamp] were compelled to surrender owing to a lack of supplies. 


For those who fell from royal favour, the White Tower was a place of imprisonment and execution. From its foundation it was used as a prison – the first recorded prisoner held in the White Tower was Ranulf Flambard, bishop of Durham, in 1100. Under Edward III, the captured kings of Scotland and France were kept at the White Tower and it is believed that, centuries later, Guy Fawkes was tortured and interrogated in the White Tower’s basement. 

 

Even monarchs were not immune to imprisonment at the White Tower: in 1399 Richard II was imprisoned there after being forced to renounce his throne by his cousin Henry Bolingbroke.

 

^{The White Tower at the Tower of London. (Arcaid/UIG via Getty)}
 

Westminster Hall, Houses of Parliament 

As the oldest building on the parliamentary estate, Westminster Hall has been central to the government of England since the 11th century. Built in 1097 by the Norman king William II (the son of William the Conqueror and known as Rufus), the Hall was a symbol of Norman majesty intended to impress the king’s new subjects. 

 

Rufus’s construction project was remarkably ambitious. Covering a floor space of 1,547 square metres (with walls two metres thick), Westminster Hall was by far the largest hall in England at the time. It was so large that when surveying the vast hall just after its construction, one of Rufus’s attendants reportedly remarked it was far bigger than it needed to be. However, Rufus himself was less than impressed – he replied it was not half large enough, a mere bedchamber compared to what he had in mind. 

 

Recent archaeological explorations at Westminster Hall have prompted some fascinating theories about the groundbreaking nature of its original construction. No evidence of columns used to support the vast roof has been uncovered, suggesting that it may have been self-supporting. This engineering would have been remarkably ahead of its time, as self-supporting roofs of this size were not seen elsewhere until the 13th and 14th centuries.

 

Writing for History Extra, Paul Binski suggests that the “miracle” of Westminster Hall “is not just its survival, but its courage. The builders of these great structures had brilliant know-how, but also guts”.

 

^{A royal event at Westminster Hall in 2012. (Ben Stansall/WPA Pool/Getty)}
 

Norwich Guildhall 

Situated in the centre of the medieval city, the Norwich Guildhall is a remarkable example of late medieval secular architecture. Built primarily between 1407 and 1412, its grandeur reflects the growing power and wealth of a new elite of merchants, traders and government agents during the period. 

 

By the 15th century Norwich had become one of the wealthiest and most important towns in England. Following a 1404 charter granting the city greater self–governing powers it was decided that a Guildhall should be built in order to administer the powers more effectively.

 

The Guildhall fulfilled a role similar to that of a modern town hall, performing all the administrative functions the city required to govern the everyday lives of the city’s residents. The Guildhall served multiple purposes as a court, a tax collection hub and administrative centre. The Guildhall also contained an assembly chamber for council meetings, was equipped to hold prisoners and had a large ‘sword room’ used for storing weapons. 

 

Today the Guildhall is the largest surviving medieval building intended for a civic purpose outside of London.

Britain’s 7 most amazing ruins

History Extra

Old Wardour Castle (photo by Derek Finch)

In Wild Ruins, the first ever guidebook to Britain’s ruins, writer Dave Hamilton details how to visit and gain access to more than 250 hidden historical spots. Featuring a vast number of images and 28 maps, the book reveals the whereabouts of long-forgotten castles, mills, cottages, quays, airfields, Victorian forts and intriguing derelicts.
Here, writing for History Extra, Hamilton shares seven of his favourite ruins, and explains their historical significance.
If history is written by the victors, as Winston Churchill allegedly said, then what of the losers; how is their tale told? Our nation’s ruins offer this alternative history. Ruins tell the story of a constantly shifting balance of power. They tell us how even mighty armies and steadfast institutions can topple in the shifting sands of time. Ruins tell us of the forces, often way beyond our control, that continue to shape our lives to this day. The history of the ruin is, after all, the history written by the losing side.

1) Skara Brae – Mainland, Orkney

One February night in 1850, a storm raged its way through Scotland and up to the Orkney Islands. It was so ferocious that many were killed, and in Mainland Orkney a large layer of sand and turf was ripped from the coastline.
The next morning, locals found a number of roofless circular dwellings where once stood a large irregular dune. This was to be one of the most significant finds of the period. At first it was thought to be a Pictish settlement dating back to the Iron Age, around 500 BC. Much later, radiocarbon dating proved this estimate to be out by at least 2,000 years. Although estimates vary, it is thought the settlement was inhabited somewhere between 3,200 and 2,200 BC.
Being under the cover of sand for so long has meant that the village at Skara Brae is perhaps the best-preserved collection of Neolithic buildings in Europe. Built-in stone furniture still survives, and such is the level of detail it is easy to make out where inhabitants had their beds, where they lit their fires, and where they stored their food.
Skara Brae, situated 19 miles north-west of the port of Kirkwall, Orkney, is today managed by Historic Scotland.

_{Skara Brae (Photo by Derreck Prescott)}

2) St Helen’s Oratory and Cape Cornwall Tin Mine, Cornwall

Until the Ordnance Survey mapped the area, Cape Cornwall was thought to be the most westerly point in Britain. Situated four miles from Land’s End, just off the South West Coast Path, it is a beautiful and wild place, where on a sunny day the blueness of the sky is surpassed only by the vast expanse of Cornish sea.
As the only cape in England, it marks the meeting place of the swirling tides of both the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel. The Cape is also a place where different tides of history meet. The ruined St Helen’s Oratory is an exquisite little ruin with grass and ferns growing from its crumbling walls, thought to date back to Romano-British times.
Much later, Cape Cornwall was home to a thriving tin mine big enough to need a large engine-house. Nearly all signs of the mine have vanished, and now all that remains is a single chimneystack at the end of a bracing walk at the peak of the Cape.
Cape Cornwall is today owned by the National Trust.

_{St Helen’s Oratory (Photo by Dave Hamilton)}

3) Old Wardour Castle, Wiltshire

One of the most striking yet often overlooked ruins in the country is that of 14th-century Old Wardour Castle. Serving as a testament to its splendour, Capability Brown used it as a landscape feature when he designed the gardens of the New Wardour House toward the end of the 18th century. But in 1643, the castle was put to the test as a stronghold when 1,300 parliamentary troops laid siege.
With her husband away, 61-year-old Lady Blanche Arundell was left to defend the castle with just 25 retained staff, including cooks and gardeners. Despite being massively outnumbered, the valiant Lady Arundell held out for five days before she eventually surrendered. The castle didn’t stay in the hands of the invading force for long: the following year Lady Arundell’s son, Henry Arundell, 3rd Baron Arundell of Wardour, returned to win back the family castle. During the siege, however, he blew up a substantial part of the castle and it was damaged beyond repair.

_{Old Wardour Castle (Photo by Dave Hamilton)}

4) Bromholm Priory, Norfolk

Much lesser-known than the East Anglian ruins of Thetford and Dunwich Priory, Bromholm Priory is still a magnificent ruin in its own right, standing abandoned among fields of corn not far from the Norfolk coast. Founded in 1113, this Cluniac priory was built as a subordinate house of Castle Acre.
During the following century it became one of the most religiously significant buildings in Norfolk, if not the country, largely due to the dubious claim that is contained part of the ‘true’ cross. The priory quickly became a pilgrimage route and is immortalised in Chaucer’s The Reeve’s Tale. Sadly, it has remained a ruin since the dissolution of the monasteries.
During the Second World War, the building briefly came back to life as a defensive structure rather than a building of worship. Somewhat unceremoniously, the basement of the building was modified to house a concrete pillbox in case of an enemy invasion. Thankfully, the pillbox is barely visible and it is possible (although perhaps not advisable!) to crawl into this underground chamber from a gap at ground level.

_{Bromholm Priory (Photo by Steve Cabellero)} 

5) Ardvreck Castle, Scottish Highlands

Jutting out into Loch Assynt, and surrounded by the Quinag peaks and the Inchnadamph forest, Ardvreck Castle is among the most breathtaking ruins in Scotland.
Ardvreck is a clan castle, built by the MacLeods of Assynt in the late 16th century. The story goes that a famous betrayal took place here: in 1650, the Royalist James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, was tricked into its dungeon and later sent to Edinburgh to be executed. If you believe in such things, his ghost is said to haunt the castle to this day.
A short drive – or a challenging but reasonable walk – from the ruins is the famous Bone Cave of Inchnadamph. Here the bones of reindeers, brown bears, arctic foxes, lynxes and polar bears were found, dating back over the past 45,000 years.

_{Ardvreck Castle (Photo by Dave Hamilton)}

6) Anglesey Barracks, North Wales

Despite its name, Anglesey Barracks are not on the Isle of Anglesey, and it has never been linked to the military or housed any military personnel. Instead, these twin rows of abandoned houses were home to quarrymen working at the nearby Dinorwic Quarry. The workers would have left their homes on Anglesey to lodge in the cottages, which consisted of just a bedroom and living room. These were far from luxurious dwellings, with no running water or electricity, and each cottage would have had to house four men within their cramped four walls.
Dramatically perched on a Welsh hillside, the houses overlook the romantic ruin of Dolbardarn Castle and the large expanse of water, Llyn Peris.

_{Anglesey Barracks (Photo by Dave Hamilton)}

7) Abbot's Cliff Sound Mirrors, Kent

During the First World War and interwar period, and before the invention of radar, a rather unusual detection device was devised to warn of incoming enemy planes, the ruins of which remain with us today.
Sets of large, concrete parabolic discs known as ‘sound mirrors’ were installed on the English coast, mainly in Kent and the North of England, and staffed by personnel with stethoscopes who would quite literally listen to what was flying in.
As planes became faster, however, these sound mirrors became obsolete, since once a plane was detected it was already over the head of the listener. Standing above the white cliffs between Dover and Folkestone, the Abbot’s Cliff Sound Mirror is one of the most accessible examples of this eccentric and short-lived British technology.

_{Abbot's Cliff Sound Mirrors (Photo by Sam Velghe)}

Wild Ruins: The Explorer's Guide to Britain's Lost Castles, Follies, Relics and Remains by Dave Hamilton (WildThingsPublishing.com, £16.99) is available now. To find out more, click here.