A Medieval synagogue in Guildford?

In 1995, archaeologists from Guildford Museum discovered an unusual stone chamber beneath a High Street shop. It was suggested at the time that it might have been a Medieval synagogue.

The building is the bottom part of a small room about ten feet square. The door is at the north-west corner. A stone bench runs all the way round the room and there was another doorway at the south-east corner with steps leading up. These steps were blocked up during the life-time of the room. The room was built in the later 12th century and demolished in the late 13th century. The walls were painted with red, black and indigo - a very expensive colour.

The room was built at the back of a house and was part of the house - it was not added on later. There is nothing left of the house but it may have had an undercroft, because a Victorian photograph shows a low door which looks like the entrance to an undercroft. The whole house may have been built of stone - the local chalk. This would mean that it belonged to a wealthy man.

Very few 12th century houses survive, and there is nothing like this room so it is difficult to say what it was for. It looks as if it were built so that people could sit around the walls, perhaps for a meeting, and this is why a synagogue was suggested.

Medieval Jews were wealthy business men and could have afforded a stone house with painted walls and its own synagogue. They also needed stone houses as protection from theft and religious persecution.

There is nothing to prove that it was a synagogue, but it fits in with what we know about medieval synagogues from documents. It was at the back of the building and was partly underground.

Synagogues were meant to be tall, but it was better to build part of it underground so it was tall inside but not so obvious from the outside. It was demolished around the time that the Jews were expelled from England - 1290 - and it seems to have been in good condition when it was demolished. The upper walls were knocked down and thrown into the part below ground, which was covered over and hidden until 1995. This is odd, since the late 13th century was a time when Guildford was expanding and people needed more space in the fairly small town.

There are some odd features about the chamber. The east and west walls were deliberately built sloping uphill, and each base of the columns is of a different style. Other blocks of stone also suggest that the stone came from another building. The columns of the blind arcading are U-sectioned and form part of the wall behind, which is very unusual. Normally the columns are cylindrical and separate from the wall. It is interesting that the only other examples known so far are in the chapel of the keep of Guildford Castle, which is mid 12th century.

So, could the chamber have some link with the castle? This is possible, and does not rule out the Jewish connection.

Possibly a wealthy local bought left-over stone from the castle. The chamber could have belonged, for example, to the Earl of Surrey or another nobleman from the south who wanted a house near the royal castle, or it might have belonged to a bishop or abbot, for the same reason, and also because Guildford was a day's ride from London. There are no documents to help us. It is the wrong shape for a chapel.

The only object found in the building was a coin of Henry III (1216 - 1272) which was in a crack in the stone bench. It was of a type minted between 1272 and taken out of circulation in 1279. There were pottery shards in the demolition rubble which show that the room was knocked down in the late 13th century.

There were Jews living in Guildford before the expulsion of 1290, though there are not records for the 12th century. It was not one of the official towns where they were supposed to live, but they did live in other places.

One Guildford Jew was Isaac of Southwark who also had property in London and Winchester. His house in Guildford was broken into in 1274, by a man called Thomas who may have owed money to Isaac. Isaac had a wife, Thippe, and a daughter Slema. Other Jews were mentioned in the mass arrests of the 1270s: Abraham, Floria, Josce and his wife Formosa. Another Jew, Bonefey, was mentioned in 1295 as having once owned property in Guildford.

Guildford's Jewish population may have been too small to regularly provide the minimum of ten males needed for the full rituals, but a synagogue of this date would have been a private one anyway, and could be used for prayer and study as well.

We may never know what the chamber was used for, but it has given us new information about Medieval Guildford and stimulated research into the forgotten Jews of the town.