We use cookies to improve your experience, some are essential for the operation of this site.

Dover Castle, Kent

Location
(51°7′44″N, 1°19′27″E)
Dover Castle
TR 327 419
pre-1974 traditional (England and Wales) Kent
now Kent
  • Kathryn Morrison
22 June 1999

Please use this link to cite this page - https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/view-item?i=14328.

Find out how to cite the CRSBI website here.

Feature Sets
Description

Numerous carved stones were excavated at Battle Abbey by Sir Harold Brakspear in the 1930s and John Hare in 1978–80, including 20 fragments of Romanesque sculpture. These fragments are now distributed between the English Heritage stone stores at Fort Brockhurst and Dover Castle, and a display in Battle Abbey gatehouse, but only 12 could be located for the Corpus, including one chevron voussoir at Dover Castle. Inventory number: 725 (?) in white paint, partly erased.

See also: Battle Abbey, Fort Brockhurst, Fort Cumberland.

History

See Battle Abbey.

Features

Loose Sculpture

Comments/Opinions

In all, three chevron voussoirs are known to have been found at Battle Abbey although only two have been located in English Heritage collections, one at Dover and the other at Fort Brockhurst. It is not certain whether the Dover Castle voussoir was the one found by Brakspear in the 1930s, or one of the two discovered by Hare in the 1970s, but the number 725, if read correctly, suggests that it is the piece found by Brakspear (whose fragments were numbered in sequence CS700–746). Although the location from which this chevron voussoir was excavated is not recorded — and it had probably been reused like most of the excavated fragments - the evidence suggests that it came from a cloister arcade. The form and dimensions of the stone, and the estimated radius of the arch it came from, would all support this assertion. Moreover, one face is carved with a quadrant moulding while the other is plain, following the practice of carving the internal faces of cloister arcades but not the external faces. Many other fragments from the cloister have been discovered, most of them carved from Sussex or Purbeck marble. These include carved shafts, coupled shafts and quatrefoil shafts, double capitals in three different designs, and a double base. The chevron voussoir would sit rather unhappily in this ensemble, but it is difficult to suggest an alternative setting.

Bibliography
Unpublished (not illustrated in Hare's Battle Abbey report)