Corrected entry: During the religious service we see noblemen and women sitting on benches - benches were not introduced in churches until the 19th century.
Rob Halliday
27th Aug 2001
27th Aug 2001
Corrected entry: During the religious service we see noblemen and women sitting on benches - benches were not introduced in churches until the 19th century.
Correction: No they were not. I live in Suffolk, England: many churches had benches by the end of the middle ages. Many churches just in Suffolk have fifteenth century bench ends (Woolpit, Blythburgh, Wordwell). In fact, all English churches probably had benches and seats for the congregation by the sixteenth century. A recent specialist study "Pews, Benches And Chairs" edited by Trevor Cooper and Sarah Brown (Ecclesiological Society, London, 2011) shows that sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth century benches, seats and pews are quite common, and that that some thirteenth century benches may still survive in a few churches. So benches in a church in the twelfth century is a possibility.
Rob Halliday