Medieval stone crown was found in a skip

A STONE crown belonging to a sculpture of a king at Exeter Cathedral, which went missing and was discovered in a skip, will be restored once more to its rightful place on his head.

The carved crown was taken, presumed stolen, in the early 1990s and a replacement fitted to the sculpture that overlooks a door on the cathedral’s ornate West Front.

However, the missing piece was later chanced upon in a builder’s skip and identified by an expert archaeologist. The segment, which has remained in storage for years, will now be reattached.

AN intricately carved crown taken from a 14th century sculpture of a king and chanced across in a builders’ skip, will be returned to its rightful place on the magnificent West Front of Exeter Cathedral.

The crown and top half of the head of one of cathedral’s royal figures, originally installed in the 1340s, went missing in 1993, and was presumed to have been stolen by someone climbing up the front of the building.

However, the stone segment was spotted in a skip in Great Torrington a couple of years later by a local resident who believed it might have come from a local church. He brought it into Exeter’s Royal Albert Memorial Museum where the then curator of antiquities John Allan was involved in a open event identifying items for members of the public.

Having helped draw up detailed records of Exeter Cathedral’s West Front in the 1980s, Mr Allan was familiar with the sculpture and instantly recognised it. “This was a fair sized piece of stone, an almost life-sized carving of the top of the head above the eyes and the crown,” he said. “It was a chance in a thousand that this person had seen it, realised it was worth rescuing and happened to bring it in to the museum to be identified at that time.”

The group of king sculptures is believed to have been installed between 1342 to 1348, and the damaged unidentified figure was originally carved from Beer stone. Most of the body is cut from a single block, but the two arms and the upper part of the head, with the crown, were carved separately and attached. It is believed this was because masons at the time were unable to find a large enough block of stone for the entire piece.

The segment including the crown and part of the head might have become loose over time as the adhesive fell victim to the elements over hundreds of years, with hard frosts in particular taking their toll on the cathedral’s exterior sculptures.

“We will never know exactly what happened,” said Mr Allan, who is now Cathedral Archaeologist. “It is possible someone climbed up and found it was loose and took it home as a trophy.”

He added: “With his dramatic asymmetrical pose, convoluted tubularfolded draperies and flowing locks, he is a particularly splendid example of the rich and mannered style of sculpture characteristic of the mid-14th century works on the front. Exeter’s sculptures in this style are of national importance as examples of a particularly dramatic moment in the history of English medieval figure sculpture.”

When the piece went missing, and with no apparent hope of recovering the segment, a replacement section was painstakingly carved and installed on the king’s head the following year.

In 1995 the original crown was then spotted in a skip, 35 miles from the cathedral in Great Torrington, by a local resident who recognised it was a medieval piece of interest, believing it may have originated from the town’s church.

Now, some 27 years later after it went missing, the approval of essential restoration to Exeter Cathedral’s West Front means that the replacement carving can be removed and the original crown finally restored to its king.

Cathedral spokesperson Richard Remington said: “It has been sitting in the cathedral archives for all these years and this is the first opportunity to reinstall it as part of a wider restoration project.”

Exeter Cathedral is currently closed due to Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, but hopes to welcome visitors and worshippers back from July 4, subject to government and Church of England guidance.

It was a chance in a thousand that this person had seen the piece and realised it was worth rescuing

JOHN ALLAN, CATHEDRAL ARCHAEOLOGIST

Exeter Cathedral The elaborate West Front of Exeter Cathedral. Top left: the complete original sculpture, showing a line beneath the eyes where the top piece was joined by medieval masons and (at centre) the section that went missing. Left, the royal sculpture after it was restored with a newly-carved crown in the mid1990s