Reformation of the English cathedral landscape: negotiating change in York Minster Close c. 1500–1642

Abstract

A recent surge of interest in archaeological approaches to the Reformation has moved away from long-established models of destruction and theological debate, focusing instead on the popular responses to religious change, which have highlighted both continuity and adaptation in material culture and practices. However, there are also considerable methodological challenges requiring an approach considering material culture and text. This article discusses these issues through the study of the landscape of York Minster between c. 1500 and 1642. The secular cathedral of York at the Reformation, despite iconoclasm and loss of liturgical communities, was not subjected to widespread destruction; the precincts were redeveloped through several decades for new lay communities that inhabited or frequented the Close. I interpret the complex changes to the interior of the cathedral and to its urban precincts as evidence of ongoing tension between continuity and change, in which individuals and communities were renegotiating their social and political identities.

Keywords:

• Archaeology and text
• gender
• landscape
• ontological security
• post-medieval archaeology
• sacred space

Acknowledgements

The PhD research on which this article is based was undertaken at the University of York and funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. I would like to thank my supervisors Dr Kate Giles and Dr Sarah Rees Jones for their support.