40
BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
19
th annual edition
documents, or lives. Nevertheless, it is clear
that much of the surviving evidence presents
anchoritism as highly esteemed by the
surrounding community, a community which,
after all, enabled the vocation to exist and
persist in both economic and practical terms.
Archaeological evidence
Archaeological evidence of the vocation
is scarcer for the earlier medieval period,
and tends to reveal the prevalence of small,
one-roomed cells, not multi-roomed
establishments.⁷ Recent work by Tom Licence
describes the makeshift nature of the earlier
medieval anchorhold: ‘the vast majority were
lean-to, timber structures rather than the solid
domiciles of stones which first came into view in
the 14th century’.⁸ Many cells were attached to
or close to churches, although some were part
of convents, monasteries and even castles and
Gilchrist concludes that the majority were built
on the inhospitable northern side of the chancel,
although the placement of some female-
inhabited cells may have been to the west.⁹
The smallest known cells are those
of Leatherhead and Compton in Surrey.
Leatherhead’s cell was 2.4 metres square, with a
window of 53cm square, while Compton’s was
2.0
x 1.3 metres, with a loft where the recluse
may have slept.�⁰ Warren’s plan of Compton in
the 12th century illustrates its tiny dimensions,
yet this cell was occupied by anchorites from
1185
to the early 14th century.�� Gilchrist
describes both sites, noting the existence of
two cells at Compton, one to the south of the
chancel and an upper chapel at its east end
which may have served as ‘the oratory for an
anchorite-priest’.�� Later medieval anchoritic
architectural remains imply that some cells
continued to be small one- or two-roomed
structures, although notable exceptions may
include the four-roomed anchorhouse at
Chester-le-Street and the 8.85 by 3.65 metre
cell of one 15th-century anchorite priest.��
Some later cells seem to have had gardens,
although this too appears to be exceptional.
Of the 15th-century anchorhold at the
Charterhouse of Sheen, Warren affirms: ‘The
anchorite paid an annual rent of eight pence for
a garden “newly walled”’, while Emma Scherman
of Pontefract was apparently given permission to
be rehoused because her garden was too noisy.�⁴
Written evidence
Surviving written evidence for the English
anchoritic vocation, more extensive for the
later medieval period, includes ceremonies
of enclosure, wills, court documents, bishop’s
registers, ecclesiastical documents, personal
correspondence and anchoritic guides.
The earliest ceremony of enclosure,
detailing the final liturgical moments of an
anchorite’s life in the world, is recorded in a
12
th-century pontifical (a liturgical book of
rites) and the latest in a printed 16th-century
manual. In theory, such ceremonies were
undertaken after permission for enclosure was
granted, satisfactory financial arrangements
located and an anchorhold built or chosen.
Not every recluse would have participated in
one; enclosure required only investigation into
the candidate’s spiritual reliability, financial
security, intended domicile and the granting
of an enclosure licence. Nonetheless, the
enclosure ceremonies that survive are rich in
the rhetoric of death, using it to signal an end
to the postulant’s earthly life, to demonstrate
The anchorhold on the south side of Compton’s chancel (above left) still survives as it contains the staircase to the chancel loft, but the one on the north side (above right)
has gone, leaving a recess surrounding a small square window.
The anchorite’s window on the south side of St Nicholas, Compton seen from the altar, and (right) the view of the
altar from the interior. The wooden cill on the inside is believed to be original, worn down by centuries of use.
