V.—Enclosed Apses and Edward's Church at Westminster

Abstract

In the volume ofArchaeologiafor 1910 the Reverend J. A. Robinson published a detailed plan of the Confessor's church at Westminster, illustrating the excavations of 1866, 1909, and 1910 which uncovered three fragmentary bases and some 7 ft. of curved wall to the east of them (fig. 1). On these he based his reconstruction of the choir (fig. 2), giving it two bays, solid walls cutting off the side aisles, and a semicircular apse. The larger size of the eastern base combined with the piece of curved wall makes a length of two bays certain (ignoring the unlikely event that the Norman crossing did not line up with the eastern monastic range), and the evidence for solid walls as opposed to arcades is strong, as the existence of base mouldings only towards the choir suggests there never were independent piers, but only shafts attached to a wall.