Contextualising and Interpreting Historic Church Graffiti in the Risbridge Hundred Suffolk

Abstract

Graffiti and their interpretations are valuable as artifacts when researching parish history. The presence of names, drawings, protective designs, and architectural designs offers insight into parish culture and how it has changed over time. This thesis seeks to explore historic graffiti in the Risbridge Hundred in west Suffolk. The study of historic graffiti has experienced increased interest in recent years. However, despite this interest there are no large-scale studies comparing different buildings and their graffiti to each other. There are also no studies looking at an aggregated body of graffiti data across multiple sites. This has resulted in a limited scope of study where historic graffiti are concerned. This study uses data from sixteen churches and takes their individual building histories into account to provide a more in-depth interpretation. Then all data is combined into an aggregate dataset so that comparisons can be drawn across all churches in the study in a systematic fashion. This large dataset (4918 graffiti) allows for more rigorous testing of graffiti interpretation as well as exploration of the use of graffiti in parishes. The result of this study demonstrates that no graffiti distribution is typical, and that each church seems to have its own unique collection of graffiti which varies in quantity. This study also shows that some previously accepted interpretations of graffiti, particularly those concerned with ritual and protection, may not always be applicable. Furthermore, other types of previously overlooked graffiti, such as initials and names, may yield more data and information about past communities than has been considered.