Above photo is of our friend John Cunningham restoring the very early (recently rediscovered) wall in our undercroft. John is the expert on early stone or brick walls in this area. He is invariable called in to repair church walls, and indeed any early stone/brick wall in need of attention (Highdale is full of these). He says he would date our below ground walls as being of 'dark ages' period, but says this would give a very fair amount of leeway. Anyway, he is making a very good job of ours, and not hurrying it. He is a man of very wide ranging interests, and I'm enjoying his company and conversation.
Sunday, 9 December 2018
Sunday.
Above photo is of our friend John Cunningham restoring the very early (recently rediscovered) wall in our undercroft. John is the expert on early stone or brick walls in this area. He is invariable called in to repair church walls, and indeed any early stone/brick wall in need of attention (Highdale is full of these). He says he would date our below ground walls as being of 'dark ages' period, but says this would give a very fair amount of leeway. Anyway, he is making a very good job of ours, and not hurrying it. He is a man of very wide ranging interests, and I'm enjoying his company and conversation.
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4 comments:
So the wall is post Roman work then! The Italian scholar and poet Petrarch used The term 'Dark Age' in the 1330s to describe the decline in later Latin literature following the collapse of the Western Roman empire. In the 20th century, scholars used the term more specifically in relation to the 5th-10th centuries, but the 21st Century largely sees it as a derogatory term, concerned with contrasting periods of perceived enlightenment with cultural ignorance. the term 'Middle Ages', used by Biondo and other early humanists after Petrarch, was in general use before the 18th century to denote the period before the Renaissance. The earliest recorded use of the English word "medieval" was in 1827.
Sorry, failed to capitalize the T starting the penultimate sentence. Finger-tips too far from the nearest functioning brain-cell....
Hello Crowbard. I think the term 'post Roman' immediately suggests the start of the Dark Ages, anyway. The tiles in the four tiled stringing courses are, to my mind, probably all Roman, possibly reused. Very early piece of walling, anyway. The chimney is undoubtedly mid Tudor, built in front of the 'early wall', and therefore earlier than mid Tudor. It's a very early piece of walling is all that be said with any real certainty.
Agreed, Mike. You were right and I was too hopeful that it might have been Romanish rather than re-cycled Roman.
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