Medieval Graffiti

Originally started by the Norfolk Medieval Graffiti Survey in 2010, the Medieval Graffiti project aims to find and record all the many hundreds of examples of medieval graffiti to be found in churches. Since 2013 the Lincolnshire Archaeology Group has been undertaking a complimentary survey of medieval graffiti in churches in Lincolnshire. Over 200 have been surveyed to date and Ancaster is of course included in their number.

The 2016 survey, by Cheryl and Jim Gallimore, revealed more than 30 examples of pre-modern graffiti. Unfortunately there was extensive restoration to the church in the 19th century which included scraping and whitewashing the walls and scraping the pillars. This means any graffiti in the main body of the church has been lost. However windows, including sills and mullions, were excluded from this restoration treatment and so it was here that traces of medieval graffiti were found.

The recording sheets for the Ancaster church is shown below followed by examples of the graffiti.

Both the ledges and uprights of Window 4 have an extensive range of different graffiti. These include inscriptions, symbols and pictures

Like Window 4, Window 5 has an extensive range of graffiti on its ledge and uprights.

Although the main body of the church was scoured clean of graffiti internally during the 19th century, the porch does retain a collection of markings and graffiti. Although the porch was reroofed in 1713, the main stonework dates to the 13th century and includes 2 tomb covers bearing effigies of robed priests which date to the 14th century.