Anglo-Saxon Stone Chair in Progress!

This week we’ve been working in partnership with Bamburgh Castle and Channel 4’s Time Team to produce a reproduction of an Anglo-Saxon stone chair.  The reconstruction in based on a carved stone fragment that was found in the castle grounds in the nineteenth century, and is currently on display in the castle’s archaeology room. The stone fragment is thought to date from c. 800AD. BRP Archaeology Supervisor Jo Kirton, currently studying towards a PhD based on Anglo-Saxon stone sculpture, researched likely decoration and composed a design for the chair based on this rough 9th century date. You’ll be able to find out more about this design process, and about what we’ve learned from undertaking this project in an article that will be available later in the year – we’ll let you know when a publication date has been set! We’d also like to thank Professor Rosemary Cramp for her invaluable input in the last few weeks.

Kevin Lawson cuts the stone slabs into shape - this piece now forms one of the arm pieces of the chair.

The original stone fragment is a medium-grained yellow sandstone; the stone used in the reconstruction has been sourced locally and matched closely to the original. Our sincere thanks go out to Hutton Stone for their time and help in acquiring the stone in time for this project to take place!