Cheddar Palace
Cheddar Palace in Somerset was probably built in the late 9th century. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle mentions a royal palace at Cheddar in 956. The chronicle also refers to a witan being held in Cheddar in 941, and it may have been at the palace.[1] The palace is a scheduled monument.[2]
The palace was excavated between 1960 and 1962 led by archaeologist Philip Rahtz; the results of the excavation were published in 1979. The excavations revealed that the earliest phase of the palace, thought to date to the late 9th century, consisted of a hall with four associated buildings. The palace was entirely rebuilt in around the 10th century, with two major structures (a hall and a chapel) and some other smaller buildings.[1][3] Cheddar was typical of Anglo-Saxon palaces of the 9th and 10th century in that the buildings were usually not inter-connected; this later changed so that by the 12th century the usual layout for palaces in England was to arrange buildings around a courtyard.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Richardson, Miranda (2003). English Heritage Extensive Urban Survey: An archaeological assessment of Cheddar. London: English Heritage. p. 4.
- ↑ Richardson, An archaeological assessment of Cheddar, p. 13.
- ↑ Blair, John (1996). “Palaces or minsters? Northampton and Cheddar reconsidered”, Anglo-Saxon England 25. pp. 108, 113–114. DOI:0.1017/S0263675100001964.
- ↑ Biddle, Martin (1969). "The 'domus quasi palatium' of Henry de Blois in Winchester", Chateau Gaillard: European Castle Studies III. London and Chichester: Phillimore. p. 36.