BCD Special Report on
Historic Churches
19
th annual edition
41
The recess in the wall on the exterior, as seen at Compton,
has been filled in, but the line of the earlier arch is clearly
visible, and on the inside the anchorite’s window onto the
altar remains, filled by a small wooden door. The position of
the door is indicated on this image by a dotted line.
permanent separation from the world and to
celebrate the recluse’s new fixity of abode.
The wills in which anchorites feature
usually document small individual bequests
and, sometimes, gifts made to the recluses
of one geographical area. Infrequently, they
detail lifetime endowments for individual
recluses. The percentage of wills that mention
anchorites is relatively small. Warren notes that
only ten per cent of the wills calendared at the
London Court of Husting between 1351 and
1360
make reference to them.�⁵ Nonetheless,
they demonstrate the visible support which
the (often lay) community gave to the vocation
and the esteem in which it was held.
Other indicators of esteem include
documented visits of those of high status to
various reclusoria for advice. Westminster
recluses were consulted by Richard II and
Henry V, while a female anchorite from
Winchester was brought to see Richard
Beauchamp, the Earl of Warwick, in London
because he was too busy to travel to her.
16
Emma Rawghton, of All Saint’s Church,
North Street, York, renowned for her visions
of Mary, was also linked to Beauchamp and
made predictions about his future.
17
Jones
acknowledges renowned later medieval recluses
like Julian of Norwich (c1342–c1416), Rawghton
and the Winchester anchorite as rare but
not unique examples of ‘a female anchorite
occupying a position of spiritual authority’.
18
Nonetheless, these medieval recluses were
evidently considered and consulted as
agents of the Lord and these visits suggest
the potential respect with which medieval
society treated at least some of its solitaries.
General ecclesiastical documentation,
including episcopal registers and court
documents, focuses on the vocation’s clerical
support and its operational issues. For example,
the episcopal registers of John Stratford, Bishop
of Winchester, record the case of Christine,
anchorite of St James’s Church in Shere in
Surrey, who sought enclosure in 1329 but had
fled her cell by 1332.
19
Others record alleged
sexual scandal, such as that at Whalley in
Lancashire, where an account of the supposed
sexual misconduct of the servants of the
anchorite Isolda de Heton (enclosed in 1436)
suggests that another anchorite absconded:
‘
dyvers that had been anchores and recluses
in the seyd plase aforetyme, contrary to
thyre own oth … have broken owte of the
seyd plase’.
20
Like Christine, Isolda seems to
have left her reclusorium. A widow with a
young child, she may have gone into hiding
with her son. The Cistercians of Whalley
Abbey petitioned Henry VI to allow them
to convert the anchorhold to other uses.
Usually, however, the operational
documents that surround the vocation are
The chancel of St John the Baptist, Ruyton XI Towns, Shropshire, displays typical archaeological evidence of an anchorage which stood against the north wall of the chancel,
just behind the war memorial.
