Historic graffiti research and engagement at Canterbury Cathedral
Towards the end of 2018, Canterbury Cathedral launched an Historic Graffiti Project and recruited a team of volunteers to record the wealth of historic graffiti across the building and engage visitors with it. The initial cohort of recruits was trained by the archaeologists Matt Champion and Nathalie Cohen, who was at that time Cathedral Archaeologist, and this training has been cascaded to newer recruits.
Seven years on, the project at Canterbury is now an embedded stream of volunteering activity within the Cathedral, working jointly with the Archives and Library and Visits teams. Whilst the aims of research and engagement have remained constant, the methodology used by the Historic Graffiti team, in particular around recording, has changed radically to improve practice and ensure data is available digitally.
The historic graffiti that covers the walls of Canterbury Cathedral and dates from the 11th to the 18th century helps inform our understanding of the construction and use of the building. However, more than this, it also reflects, as does all graffiti, the society, the beliefs and the values of the time in which it was created; in effect, what mattered to people. It is this story which the team at Canterbury tell during their Historic Graffiti tours.
THE MARKS ON THE WALLS OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL
The earliest marks thus far recorded by the team are large-scale figurative scenes, one of which has been dated by Tim Tatton-Brown, formerly of Canterbury Archaeological Trust, to the first half of the 12th century, part of Anselm’s Glorious Quire. Intriguingly, these figures are strikingly similar to ones found at St Albans and Rochester Cathedrals and at St Mary Newington and St Clement, Sandwich, suggesting possibly the same hand, but certainly a similar Romanesque style.[fn1]
[fg]jpg|Fig. 1 – Large-scale figurative scene in the Trinity Chapel at Canterbury Cathedral.|Image[/fg]
Canterbury’s largest figurative graffito, measuring 290cm × 240cm, is a Majestas Domini found in the Eastern Crypt. Text which is part of the scene has been dated by Dr David Rundle at the University of Kent to the late 12th century – when the crypt was built. The piece is unusual in that the placement of the Evangelists is a mirror image of the typical order shown in most English Majestas scenes.
Research by former Historic Graffiti Team member Ellen Meade provided a possible explanation for this and highlighted the potential of graffiti to contribute to our understanding of the construction of the building.[fn2] We know from Gervase’s account (c.1200) of the rebuilding of the Cathedral after the fire of 1174[fn3] that the chief mason hired by the monastery was William of Sens. Ellen’s research has shown that he may have brought a team of French masons to work under him, as the placement of the Evangelists in the Canterbury scene is typical of French Majestas scenes dating from the end of the 12th century.
Scholars are divided as to whether the figurative scenes at Canterbury are the basis of wall paintings. However, what is agreed is the difference in focus of these scenes and other medieval graffiti to modern graffiti, which, as Champion writes, is “largely territorial or memorial in nature; a simple ‘I was here’.”[fn4] The medieval pieces are not about the self or the here and now. Their focus is on the Christian community and the next life rather than the self and this world.
Other medieval graffiti in the Eastern Crypt highlight this devotional nature. The crypt was the initial resting place of Archbishop Thomas Becket after his murder in 1170. On the pillars which would have surrounded his tomb are four Christograms, monogram symbols of Jesus Christ. Their location suggests they acted as a protective force-field around the tomb and demonstrate the value and importance of Becket to medieval society.
[fg]jpg|Fig. 2 – The Majestas Domini in Canterbury’s Eastern Crypt. The scene was placed behind a glass frame in the 1960s. Drawing by David White, © Chapter of Canterbury Cathedral.|Image[/fg]
There are also numerous examples of the very common VV symbol, or Marian mark, here and across the Cathedral, which, like the Christograms, highlight the centrality of saints in medieval Christianity. The quality of many of these marks, and the obvious care taken in creating them, is something the team highlight to visitors, reminding them that, unlike modern graffiti, these marks were clearly not made in haste or illicitly. They evidence Matt Champion’s view that medieval graffiti was “accepted and acceptable.”[fn5]
Masons’ marks are also amongst the earliest graffiti at Canterbury. These marks were of an entirely practical nature, either to aid assembly or to identify the work of a mason, the latter being akin to an artist’s signature in a time when literacy and paper were extremely limited. Analysis of these marks has again provided supplementary evidence regarding the construction of the building after the 1174 fire, showing that the number of masons who built the Eastern Crypt and Trinity Chapel between 1175–85 was likely between 40 and 50.
Canterbury’s early modern graffiti reflects the change in faith and the increase in literacy after the Reformation, with masses of names or initials with dates. However, those from the 16th century to the mid-18th century still suggest a devotional motive. The Cathedral’s Great Cloister is covered with this type of graffiti, with names or initials typically framed within house or church structures. It has been argued that these are either memorials in stone for those who could not afford a memorial, or commemorations of a visit to the Cathedral.[fn6] Either way, the focus of the marks was still on faith, but they reflect a change whereby individual interaction with the building, in this life, mattered more than in the medieval period.
In contrast to most early modern graffiti at Canterbury is a far more detailed graffito of a church spire dated 1702. This has been researched by team member and Cathedral Guide Lucinda Allen, who noticed its marked similarity to the spire that once sat on the Norman north-west (Arundel) Tower of the Cathedral, depicted in several antiquarian prints. The spire was destroyed in a storm in 1703, leaving us to wonder whether the graffito was made shortly afterwards as an act of remembrance.
[fg]jpg|Fig. 3 – Alpha and Omega, cross and one of four Christograms surrounding the former location of Archbishop Thomas Becket’s tomb.|Image[/fg]
[fg]jpg|Fig. 4 – One of the 44 twelfth-century mason’s marks repeating across the Eastern Crypt and Trinity Chapel.|Image[/fg]
After the Dissolution of the monastery in 1538, part of the monastic complex was occupied by The King’s School. Its pupils have left their names across the Cathedral since then, and these have been researched by the School Archivist, Peter Henderson. The majority of these marks date from the mid-18th century and show that by then the motive for marking surfaces was typically no different from today — effectively selfies in stone.
All these marks, medieval, early modern and modern, are recorded by the Cathedral Historic Graffiti Research Team. When first established, the team digitally photographed marks but, with limited access to IT resources, had to describe and draw them on paper. Now the team use a laptop and have created an Excel database enabling researchers to find, sort and interrogate graffiti by type, location, orientation and more. This is supplemented by digital drawings of each surface and its graffiti.
The team’s recording processes are now overseen by Dr John Williams, long-time County Archaeologist and Head of Heritage Conservation at Kent County Council. Joint working with the Cathedral Visits team has resulted in monthly Historic Graffiti tours, alongside ad-hoc talks and tours for groups such as Canterbury Young Archaeologists Society and the Canterbury Arts Society.
If you would like to learn more about the historic graffiti at Canterbury Cathedral, please contact:
graffitiproject@canterbury-cathedral.org
Su Westerman studied Architectural History at Oxford and is a volunteer Historic Graffiti Researcher at Canterbury Cathedral. She is also a prolific photographer, drawn to the shapes, colours, textures and lesser-spotted details of architecture.
[fg]jpg|Fig. 5 – Church spire graffito in the South Quire aisle and 17th-century print showing the western façade and spire on the north-west tower.|Image[/fg]
[fg]jpg|Fig. 6 – King’s School pupil graffiti, including John Blaxland in the Great Cloister, late 18th century.|Image[/fg]
[fn]1|Scott, J.H. (2017). Rochester Cathedral Graffiti. Kent Archaeology, pp. 18–22.[/fn]
[fn]2|Meade, E. (2020). The Majestas Domini ‘Graffiti’ in the Eastern Crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. Unpublished MA dissertation, University of Kent.[/fn]
[fn]3|Gervase, translated by Willis, R. (1845). The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral. London: Longman.[/fn]
[fn]4|Champion, M. (2015). “Medieval graffiti: the lost voices of England’s churches.” History Extra, June 2015.[/fn]
[fn]5|Champion, M. (2015). Medieval Graffiti: The Lost Voices of England’s Churches. London: Ebury Press, p.5.[/fn]
[fn]6|Champion, M. (2015); Scott, J.H. (2018). “Pictorial and Symbolic Graffiti at Rochester Cathedral.” Archaeologia Cantiana, Vol. 139, p.68.[/fn]
All images courtesy of Su Westerman, permissions obtained, 2025.