THE MATERIAL DIMENSIONS OF PAROCHIAL FORMATION IN NORTHERN ENGLAND, C. 950-1150 AD
Channel: European Association of Archaeologists
Date: 2021-02-24

In England, parochial rights and structures were undergoing a particularly intense process of negotiation and transformation in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, eventually resulting in the familiar parish framework of the later Middle Ages. This paper will argue that during this key period of transition between Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Scandinavian, and Anglo-Norman England, stone church buildings, fonts, and grave markers were not just products of the process of parochialization, but rather bore powerful agency within this emerging network. They were of course functional liturgical structures and objects, and tangible proof of religious rights, responsibilities, and status. But at the same time, they also served as tools through which patrons could simultaneously display individual wealth and contribute to the advancement of their parochial communities, providing them with an important means of navigating religious and political changes, and situating themselves and the churches they patronized in a rapidly shifting social hierarchy. Drawing on architectural and sculptural evidence from northern England, this paper will discuss when and how churches and their parochial territories came into being during the long eleventh century, as well as how patrons and parish communities strategically utilized material culture to lay claim to rights, status, and historical legacies, shaping the parochial system in the process. Given the ubiquity of the parish as an organizational unit in medieval European Christendom and the significance of stone to medieval religious art and architecture, but also the likelihood of chronological variability and highly contextually contingent patterns of development from region to region, it is hoped that this presentation will spark discussion about the comparability of parochial development and its material implications both within England and on the Continent.


Author(s): McClain, Aleksandra (University of York)