Archaeology@Agincourt
The Agincourt Battlefield Archaeology Project
Evidence of the former Chapel de Gacogne, Tramecourt
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This section deals with research into the exact size and location of the former Chapel de la Gacogne. Other examples of possible parallels are given below.
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Here is a summary of the historical evidence related to the chapel
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1734 Chapel Built
1750 Cassini Map shows chapel
1793 Chapel destroyed during French revolution
1818 Woodford excavates grave (?same site?)
1825 Map showing old size of enclosure and text ‘Site of Ancient Chapel of Gacogne’
1835 chapel remains were, allegedly, being used as a stable but how much of it, if any, was still standing?
1846 a movement was started to to build a chapel as a national memorial on the spot.
1849 ‘not a vestage of the chapel was to be seen’
?? ‘...the stones of it used to build pig styes...’
1856 ‘...a small enclosed piece of ground, which we saw planted with potatoes in the summer of 1856...’
1865 ‘...in 1865 the proposal [for commemoration chapel at the church] had been “totally abandoned”, but the family at Tramecourt have undertaken a servicable though less ambitious duty by re-enclosing the trenches with a hedge, to guard them from further desecration.’
1865 'La gacogne is a hamlet within the commune of Azincourt. The chapel seems to have been built on the site of a major grave pit, which previously proved an object of some superstition for the local peasantry' (R. Belleval, Azincourt (Paris, 1865), p. 121).
1870 ‘...led in 1870 to the erection, at the burial place indicated by Woodford, of a large calvary...’
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An early reference to the chapel
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The Chapel de la Gacogne as shown on the mid eighteeth century Cassini map (mid left centre)
1825 map showing the 'place de l'ancienne chapelle de Gacogne'
The enclosure around the site, as shown here is the location of the current enclosure around the Calvary. The feature within this enclosure appears to be a mound. One of our interpretations is that this feature shows the filled-in excavations carried out by Woodford in 1818 as there is no illustration of a building on this map and some say that Woodford allegedly excavated on the site of the former chapel.
1973 Chapel of St. Mary, Bois de Rixensart
Was this chapel similar to the one built and now demolished at the site of the present calvary? The chapel pictured is now apparently in ruins
Chapel at Dreve
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Is this similar to the former Chapel de la Gacogne? The size matches the remains of the structure excavated by our team in 2007.
The 2007 excavations at the Calvary​
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Are these stones all that remain of the front of the Chapel de la Gacogne or do they simply represent a former gateway into the enclosure surrounding the calvary, as shown on early photographs?
