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IN spite of extensive exploration in the past, it is
clear that there is still much to be learnt from the vast archives of
England's Mother Church. Mr. Blore's discoveries are a pleasant
surprise, but it is to be hoped that they are only a foretaste of even
better things to come, when the bulk of the documents, in hiding during
the years of war, are once again unpacked.
The information now forthcoming is of considerable interest
for several reasons. First, the extracts are valuable examples of a
special type of mediaeval record, of which all too few are in print;
second, they provide further detail for the dated history of the great
monastery; and thirdly, there is a wealth of names of craftsmen and
other individuals connected with the works. One point which may lead to
revision of the technical vocabularies is the use of the terms "carpentaria"
and "carpentarius" to mean not what we understand by carpentry
and carpenter at all, but rather the work of structural maintenance, and
the administrative officer responsible. The parallel usage of "carpentarius"
in the same accounts with the sense of "working carpenter"
gives a salutary warning to all |
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students of original records.
Another item from the accounts of 1254 is rather striking: ten shillings
were paid for boards from Ireland. Can this be a clue to the source of
the widespread tradition (almost as prevalent as that which transforms
English oak into "chestnut" when used in church roofs) that
many of our old buildings contain "Irish oak"? That timber was
imported from Ireland in the Middle Ages is known,1 but it is
surprising to find it in use so far off as Canterbury.
Simon the glazier was evidently a permanent official of the
convent, since he received a corn allowance; another glazier of his name
appears in an early 13th-century Rental of the Priory as residing in St.
George's parish.2 Other rentals and lists of rent-arrears3
show that many craftsmen resided in Canterbury: painters named John
(1266, c. 1278) and William (1261, 1292); glaziers, Thomas (1233), John
(dead by 1266), John (1277), and Richard (c. 1278, 1288); Walter plumber
(1275); Arnold, Robert, and Terricus, goldsmiths (mid-thirteenth
century), and Eustace and Michael (1290); John Ie Kervere, no doubt |