- Building Information
Gournay-en-Bray
(Seine-Maritime, France)
Saint-Hildevert
Surveyed: 1980-83, 2004, 2015
- Locator Map
Gournay-en-Bray (Seine-Maritime, France) - Saint-Hildevert
- Disclaimer
The dating found here is based on the work of John James, and is meant on this site to serve as a starting point. James' dating is derived from a system that uses his interpretation of the development of capitals over time as the basis for chronology, among other factors. His goal is to refine the dating to within years rather than decades. I have not fully embraced James' methodology, and will be developing this page from its current state to one which is admittedly more conservative. The relative expenditure values found in the Timeline are also based on James' work, and I believe these to be reasonably reliable. They are intended only to give a sense of the amount of work involved in each decade.

I have added the idea of the "project" as a way of separating work in buildings. In my mind, a "project" is a discrete section of work in a building that resulted from the one-time acquisition of funding. "Projects" are generally separated by at least a decade where no work was being done. It is my view that it would have been unwise to start a "project" that could not be finished and protected from the elements, and as such a "project" usually involved a wing or multiple wings of a building, from floor to roof. Rural churches, which could only secure small amounts of funding at irregular intervals, often were the result of many small projects, while the great churches, which benefitted from relatively consistent funding, may have involved only a few large projects.
- Timeline with Relative Expenditure (if available, in building units)









- Project A - Earlier - Phase 1 -
Eastern wall and laterals, and lower aisle walls in the nave
- Project B - 1070s - Phase 2 - w crossing
West crossing piers and wall shafts to aisle capitals, start of arcade arches.
- Project B - 1070s - Phase 3 - nave (a)
- Project B - 1070s - Phase 4 - nave (a+)
Complete nave arcade with large shafts to articulate the clerestory; in the next phase the alternate shafts were omitted above the first course.
- Project B - 1080s - Phase 5 - east I (a)
East aisle partially built on southern side with some caps to E4, ES3, ES2e and some along south wall; I presume rest of church was in the way and work no further work was undertaken until phase 9.
- Project C - 1120s - Phase 6 - w crossing (c)
- Project C - 1120s - Phase 7 - nave (c)
Nave clerestory walls and four caps possibly over two campaigns with clerestory wall probably up to drip mould under windows; looks like there may have been additional openings where the intermediate shafts were added in phase 13.
- Project D - 1150s - Phase 8 - transepts (b)
Lower transept walls, where 5 bands of rubble show number of campaigns, and square chapels
- Project D - 1160s - Phase 9 - choir (a)
Completion of choir aisle piers, reusing old caps from the 1080s and providing new ones, and vaults; I would presume that the confusion evident in this area was because the earlier choir stood in the way.
- Project D - 1160s - Phase 10 - s chapel
- Project D - 1160s - Phase 11 - east (c,v)
Apse clerestory and high vaults.
- Project D - 1160s - Phase 12 - transepts (c)
North and south transept clerestories and high vaults.
- Project D - 1170s - Phase 13 - nave 2,4 (c)
Nave clerestory two eastern double bays with small caps set between the larger older capitals, and with them the start of the clerestory vaults.
- Project D - 1180s - Phase 14 - north chapel
Round chapel NE2-e set onto a square footing, inserted into NE2 bay.
- Project D - 1180s - Phase 15 - west (d)
Western bays of nave wall dado W6-7.
- Project D - 1190s - Phase 16 - west (a)
Western aisles caps over 2 piers.
- Project D - 1200s - Phase 17 - west (c)
West clerestory caps and vaults.