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Summary

Possible early medieval monastic site at South Kyme

Full description

60125
The settlement at Kyme has several features which are paralleled at Crowland and Bardney early monastic sites, which suggest that there was an early monastic site here too. These include a characteristic topographical setting, built on an island in the fen, and the same topographical relationship to Sleaford as Bardney does to Lincoln and Crowland does to Stamford. There are also indications that South Kyme was of pre-Christian ritual significance, with many finds of Bronze Age axes. South Kyme has a group of ancient churches, and six fragments of early medieval sculpture are built into the north wall of the present church, discovered during restoration work of 1888-90. The stones seem to have formed part of rectangular panels for a shrine-like casket, since each of them shows parts of the moulded framework which bounded a panel. It dates to the late eighth or ninth century, and an ecclesiastical object of this quality and function is most unlikely to be found outside a monastery of some status at this early date. This in itself has been taken as evidence for a pre-Viking monastery. The rights of the thirteenth century priory indicated that it had been a minster before the Conquest. {5}{8}{9}{10}

<1> OS CARD INDEX, TF 14 NE:1,1965, BAIRD J (Index). SLI2736.

<2> SMR FILE, TF 14 NE:E,1978, K.A.M. (Index). SLI3276.

<3> D. Knowles and R.N. Hadcock, 1971, Medieval Religious Houses: England and Wales - Second Edition, p475 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI1089.

<4> CLAPHAM A W, 1923, ANTIQUARIES JOURNAL, VOL 3 pp118-121 (Article in Serial). SLI228.

<5> Taylor, H.M. and Taylor, J., 1965, Anglo-Saxon Architecture, VOL 1 pp365-366 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI856.

<6> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 1994, SCHEDULING DOCUMENT 22622, MPP23 (Scheduling Record). SLI4356.

<7> Nikolaus Pevsner and John Harris, with Nicholas Antram, 1989, Buildings of England: Lincolnshire (Second Edition), 2nd Rev Edn p665 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI1062.

<8> STOCKER, D., 1993, ‘The early church in Lincolnshire’ in Pre-Viking Lindsey, pp.112-113 (Article in Monograph). SLI83.

<9> Paul Everson and David Stocker, 1999, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, pp.24,73,248-251, Illus 339-45 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI5526.

<10> David Stocker and Paul Everson, 2003, ‘The Straight and Narrow Way: Fenland Causeways and the Conversion of the Landscape in the Witham Valley, Lincolnshire’, in The Cross Goes North: Processes of Conversion in Northern Europe, AD300-1300, pp.271-88 (Article in Monograph). SLI8111.

Monument Types

• CARVED STONE (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 650 AD to 849 AD)
• RELIGIOUS HOUSE (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 650 AD to 849 AD)

Associated Finds

• Carved Stone (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 650 AD to 849 AD)

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument

Sources and further reading

Related records

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