A medieval stone cresset (lamp) from Dulverton House, Gloucester

Medieval cresset lamp with burnt residue, from Gloucester: top and side view, with cross-section.

This cresset, or lamp, was found during archaeological work for The King's School at Dulverton House, Gloucester and probably dates from the medieval period when the site was part of the Abbey of St Peter, now Gloucester Cathedral. On this complete example the carved limestone had been scorched by the heat of the lamp with a thick black residue adhering around the inner walls. The cresset has been studied by expert Dr Ruth Shaffrey who has been looking at how these lamps were made and used; the discovery of a cresset with apparent combustion residue was too good an opportunity to be missed, and promised to tell us what was used as fuel. Dr Shaffrey commented 'this was a really exciting find. As one of only c100 stone cressets of simple block form currently recorded from Saxon and medieval England and one of only a handful with significant residue deposits, we are grateful that King's appreciated the significance of it and funded the residue analysis'.

Cresset lamp with burnt residue

 

Lipid analysis of this burnt residue by Dr Julie Dunne and colleagues at the Organic Geochemistry Unit, University of Bristol, showed that the residue derived from a mix of ruminant animal fats (probably tallow) with up to 50% non-ruminant (e.g. pork) fat. Different fats have different qualities when burnt: beeswwax being the best and cleanest (and often reserved for the church), whilst using pure tallow gave a putrid stench and offensive smoke, a point noted by Samuel Pepys in the 17th century. These characteristics would have been well understood by the lamp's users and the mix of fats suggests a blending, or different fuels at different times. Dr Dunne said 'These exciting results confirm the importance of future analysis of such vessels to better understand what types of fats were used in them'.

Although several clay lamps have undergone residue analysis, this is the first stone cresset to be subjected to this technique, which allows us to confirm that small stone vessels were used directly as lamps and that they did not always contain an inner ceramic vessel as was sometimes the case.

Chiz Harward, who led the dig by Urban Archaeology, said that whilst the cresset was found in a post-medieval context, its findspot by the arches of St Peter’s Infirmary strongly suggests that it is from the abbey:

'This crudely carved object, encrusted with its burnt residue, conjures up images of monks making their way to the church in the dead of night, casting a flickering light on the abbey’s past’ 

It is possible that the Dulverton House cresset was used to illuminate access to the church for the regular night-time offices. Lamps and lanterns were a feature of monastic buildings and are mentioned several times by Lanfranc in his 11th century 'Monastic Constitutions', and in the 16th century 'Rites of Durham' which describes a lantern 'filled with tallow and euerye night one of them was lighted when the day was gone, and did burne to giue light to the monkes at midnight when they came to mattens’. Stone lanterns survive at St Peter's Gloucester and Glastonbury Abbey, with cressets found in monastic sites such as Fountains Abbey.

Most medieval lamps would have been ceramic, with stone very much the exception. Many are crudely made, and appear to have been made on an ad hoc basis rather than as a workshop industry, perhaps using offcuts from the masons' yards.

A research note on the cresset has just been published in Medieval Archaeology https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00766097.2022.2129702

Urban Archaeology's work at Dulverton House has been nominated for Rescue Archaeology Project of the Year in the Current Archaeology awards https://archaeology.co.uk/awards/rescue-project-of-the-year-2023.htm

Award nomination!! Rescue Archaeology Project of the Year voting open

One of Urban Archaeology's projects has been nominated as Current Archaeology Rescue Archaeology Project of the Year!!! I am absolutely thrilled that the hard work of all the project team has been recognised in this celebration of the best of archaeology, well done everyone!

 

A 12th century chapel, a 14th century Infirmarer’s Lodging with its own chapel, a 15th century kitchen (complete with suckling pig), apotropeic graffiti, some lush 18th and 19th century wallpapers, and so much more... Dulverton House was a site and a half, in the shadow of Gloucester Cathedral and involving excavation, building recording, dendrochronology, documentary research and artefact and environmental archaeology. 

 

After the site work finished, the painstaking analysis work started, teasing out the fascinating story of the site as it developed through the centuries. I'm currently editing an academic paper focusing on the medieval phases, and there will be a short paper on a stone lamp in the next issue of Medieval archaeology. I've been privileged to work with some great teams on some great projects and this one is right up there.

 

There's a fantastic group of projects nominated this year, the vote is open to everyone, and voting is open now. Follow the link to read the nominations, have a read of our article in Current Archaeology Magazine, and vote!

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Dulverton House (left) with the arches of St Peter's Infirmary

Refurbishment for The King's School during Lockdown transformed this building into a new Sixth Form centre, but its origins lie many centuries ago.

 

Archaeological recording and excavation demonstrated that parts of the south wall of the 11th century chapel of St Bridget survived within the building, and that the primary phase of the Infirmarer's Lodging dates to the early 14th century, with dendrochronology dates by HLF funded Gloucester Dendrochronology Project. The Lodging consisted of a two storey building, with cross-wings housing a chapel, and a guest chamber. A late 15th century kitchen extension yielded important evidence of the use of fish, bird and small mammals in the monastic diet.

 

Plan of the primary early 14th century phase of the Infirmarer's Lodging showing the intimate relationship to St Bridget's chapel and the Infirmary Hall of St Peter's abbey

Early 14th century carved oak bracket in the main undercroft. It was mutilated in the Reformation or 17th century

 

Longitudinal cross-section of the early 14th century Lodging

After Dissolution the building, which had developed into a complex of wings and extensions, housed a Prebend (canon) of the new cathedral, before becoming part of King's school in the 1950s, with the fabric of the building providing much evidence for the changing use and interior decoration of the building.

Late 18th century silk-effect wallpaper preserved behind a later skirting board. A glimpse of internal decoration surviving later woodchip!

 

Archaeologist Kevin Wooldridge puzzling out the fireplace sequence in the kitchen: the original late 15th century stone fireplace was gradually made smaller and smaller over time as kitchen practices changed, eventually being completely closed up.