From Mr Joe Hillaby
Sir: The discovery by the Guildford Museum Archaeological Unit, led by John Boas, of a partly
subterranean (2.6m by 2.5m) chamber on a burgage plot in Guildford has aroused international
speculation (`Early synagogue', March).
There is no direct evidence, archaeological or historical, that this was a private synagogue. Indeed,
Moyse's Hall at Bury and the Jew's Court at Lincoln are no longer accepted as such. However, there
is considerable circumstantial evidence in favour of such an hypothesis.
The stone work is of high quality; both east and west walls are embellished with two attached
columns, the bases dated c 1180. Similar decorative detail can be found in the adjacent royal
castle. A finely cut portal gave access from the main structure to the north. This was apparently also
of stone and of considerable size, as the chamber lies some 35ft back from the High Street. In
Southampton's 12th century merchant quarter such a stone house might not be remarkable. In the
small medieval borough of Guildford it is. Even in Worcester, Peter son of Edwin, the city's earliest
known reeve, was highly proud of `petrinum meum' (`my stone house') in its prime position in
the High Street close to la Gyldhalle, c 1190 (`Worcester Jewry, 1158-1290', Trans Worcs
Archaeol Soc, 1990, 73-122).
Documentary evidence shows that early English synagogues were established by local magnates behind
their dwellings on prime sites. Jacob of Canterbury in c 1190 built a large stone house on three
burgage plots along the High Street from the corner of Hethenmanne Lane (Stour Street).
Cathedral rentals reveal his synagogue flanked the rear wall. Records disclose similar backland sites at
Cambridge, Worcester, Norwich, Lincoln, and at Old Jewry and Catte (Gresham) Street in the City of
London - in this respect like the late 17th century dissenting chapel, and for the same reason (J
Eccles Hist 44, 2, 1993, 182-98).
In each case a magnate family can be identified. In 1272 Isaac of Southwark, who inherited his
business from his uncle of the same name, brought an action against Thomas Martin and William
Harrewe for breaking and entering his Guildford house. This county town, with the protection offered
by the royal castle, was a suitable halfway home for a business stretching from Southwark to
Winchester where he also had houses.
Lack of an eastern apse, for the Torah ark, is no argument against synagogue identification. There is
none at Rouen (c 1115), Toledo la Blanca (c 1200), Toledo el Transito (c
1357), Prague Altneuschul or Kazimierz (Krakow) Stara synagogue (both 15th century).
On its backland site the English medieval synagogue was unpretentious externally but often lavish
internally. Custom dictated it be higher than neighbouring buildings, but this ecclesiastical legislation
prohibited. Hence the floor below ground level (Psalms 130:1).
Yours faithfully,
From Mr Ian Meadows
Sir: I was surprised to read that I had identified a Roman vineyard in Northamptonshire on the basis
of grape pips (`Romans in London after conquest',
May).
Had pips been found (actually they were not) they could not be used to prove viticulture. Grapes could
be brought in as fresh or dried fruit, therefore pips alone do not indicate cultivation. Pollen is a much
better indicator since it has a limited distribution in the area around the plants.
Dr AG Brown of Exeter University identified pollen in soil samples we had taken from an unusual
trench-cultivation system near Wollaston, extending over at least 7.5 hectares. This pollen included
grape vine in sufficient quantities to indicate that vines had been cultivated. The weeds of open ground
also represented by pollen suggest that the area between the rows was possibly kept as bare earth.
The trenches produced evidence for the postholes of the vine supports and root balls of the individual
plants. This type of cultivation system is described in some detail by the 1st century AD writer
Columella in his agricultural treatise.
Yours sincerely,
From Mr Mark Taylor
Sir: Hedley Swain (`Here comes a national museums crisis',
March) correctly identifies that collection care in general, and archaeology in particular, are the
victims of a crisis in museums all over the country. One tremors to think of the consequences of an
80s-style property boom and the subsequent excavations.
But the problems of archaeology are symptomatic of a wider problem - museums in the UK are
increasingly under intolerable pressure.
The Museums Association has recently published its National Strategy for Museums, a
comprehensive range of measures required to achieve and sustain a modern and dynamic museum
community. So much needs to be done, and only the profound optimist would believe that the much
delayed DNH Museums Policy Review will significantly alleviate the situation.
All around the country in all types of museums, compromises and cuts are being made, and the
collections and service to the public are the first to suffer. Collection care is now desperately
underfunded and, outside the national museums, research is all but extinct. Facing central government
cuts, the nationals, pressured into generating more of their own income, find it increasingly difficult to
maintain the collection- based work for which they were founded.
As the Association has constantly pointed out, this is in marked contrast to the Lottery cash flowing in
- grand buildings are commissioned, but where are the people and revenue funding to sustain them?
The solutions are not easy but must be addressed if the museums structure in this country is not to
collapse - a recognition that investment in museums is not a subsidy; a statutory requirement for
local authorities to ensure adequate museum provision; recognition and help for nationally significant
collections; and Lottery funds to provide more support for the care and storage of significant
collections.
And more fundamental that all of this is the need for government, central and local, that recognises the
nature and importance of collections and museums in the fabric of society.
Yours faithfully,
The National Strategy can be obtained from the Museums Association by calling 0171 250
1789.
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© Council for British Archaeology, 1996
Early `synagogue'
JOE HILLABY
School of Education
University of Bristol
Bristol
8 June
Pollen not pips
IAN MEADOWS
Northamptonshire Archaeology
Northampton
21 May
Museums crisis
MARK TAYLOR
Director
Museums Association
London EC1
17 June