St Michael at the North Gate Church Tower - Oxford
Archaeology
Situated on the northern wall of the old city of Oxford this tower dates from the early to mid eleventh century. It is stone and shows signs of reworking but wonderfully illustrates some classic saxon stone features. The tower is square, unlike the round towers seen in East Anglia where stone was less common.
Looking at the work we can see it is made up of loose stones, not bricks, but at the corners major stones are used but in an alternate horizontal and vertical fashion ('long and short work') which differs from the later Norman practice. Half-way up the tower is a window/door that would possibly have been used to display relics.
Stuart Lee
Contributor's own images
c. 1040
English
Greensted Church, Chipping Ongar, Essex
Archaeology
Greensted Church preserves a wooden Anglo-Saxon church, and it is the oldest wooden church in Europe and is believed to be the oldest wooden building in world. What is now the nave of the church, built of oak timbers in a palisade style, was the early Anglo-Saxon church. Dendrochonology dates of the timbers suggest it could be as early as the mid ninth-century (c. 845 A.D.), though a recent revision of the dating suggests it may date to the mid eleventh-century. There is some evidence in the chancel that there was reworking on the site in the Norman period. The brick chancel was added during the Tudor period in the reign of Henry VII. The panelled wooden bell tower was added to the church during in the Stuart period, probably in the early seventeenth-century. The roof of the church and the windows are Victorian. Also during the Victorian period, the timbers of the nave were raised and placed on a brick foundation to keep the timbers from decaying.
Greensted Church also preserves a number of interesting early architectural features. The timbers of the nave are oak timbers which have been split and smoothed on the inside. The tool marks used in the construction are still visible in the interior of the church. A small fashioned hole on the north side of the nave was once believed to be a leper's squint, which is where lepers could be administered communion since they were not allowed into the service, but current thought suggests it is a holy water stoup.
In 1013, during a period of Danish rule, the body of St Edmund was taken to Greensted Church where it remained for a night enroute to Bury-St-Edmund. The St Edmund beam in Greensted church commemorates this event.
Kelly A. Kilpatrick
Contributor's own images
mid ninth-century to mid eleventh-century, with later additions up to the Victorian period
English
Church of St Wystan, Repton, Derbyshire
Archaeology
The Church of St Wystan is located at Repton in Derbyshire on elevated ground overlooking the floodplain of the River Trent. The site is of exceptional Anglo-Saxon interest, and a significant amount of the Anglo-Saxon fabric survives intact in the present-day Church of St Wystan, and a perfectly preserved early eighth-century crypt survives intact beneath the chancel. The monastery was probably founded bewteen 675 and 692. From the Vita Sancti Guthlaci 'The Life of St Guthlac' (chapter XX) we know that a monastery existed at Repton in the late seventh-century, and that it was a double-house under the governance of an abbess. St Guthlac received his monastic training at Repton according to the Vita. Recent archaeological excavation has found traces of timber buildings on the site, and these were probably the earliest monastic buildings.
Repton was a royal monastery located in the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Merica near the political centre of Tamworth. Repton was the original bishopric see of Mercia, but this was later moved to Lichfield. The site at Repton was probably a daughter-house of Medeshamstede (modern Peterborough).
A significant amount of the Anglo-Saxon building is preserved in the present-day church, especialy in the east end. Perhaps the most spectacular preservation is the Anglo-Saxon crypt. The crypt is one of the best preserved examples of its kind in England, and it was a royal masoleum. It was probably built during the reign of Aethelbald of Merica (c. 716-757). Aethelbald was murdered nearby at Seckington, and was afterwards interred in the crypt at Repton. A fragment of a free-standing cross found in the churchyard at Repton displaying on one side an armoured warrior or aristocrat on horseback with sword and shield is thought to be a representation of King Aethelbald. The original Repton Stone is now housed at the Derby Museum. The Crypt at Repton became the resting-site for Mercian royal members, and some notable interments in Repton crypt include Wyglaf, king of Mercia (c. 827-840) and his grandson, prince Wystan who was murdered in 849, from whom the site has acquired its present name. Following Wystan's murder due to internal rivalries in 849, he was elevated to the status of a saint, and Repton became his cult-site. The small door leading into the crypt from the exterior was probably the place where pilgrims could come to visit the remains of St Wystan.
Also, in 873/4 Repton was where a Viking party wintered, and this has been ascertained by archaeological excavation, which unearthed a mass grave dating to the period. The area around the church may have been used by the Vikings because it commanded a direct view of the River Trent and the floodplain below.
Kelly A. Kilpatrick
Contributor's own images
c. 716-754, with later additions up to the Victorian period
English
The Venerable Bede/St Paul's, Jarrow
Archaeology
Various images taken from Bede's World at Jarrow, Tyne and Wear, a museum on the site of an ancient Anglo-Saxon monastery whose most famous resident was the historian, scientist and poet Bede.
Chris Foxon
Contributor's own images
English
Anglo-Saxon Church Bradford-on-Avon
Archaeology
Various photographs of the St Laurence church at Bradford-on-Avon. Features tend to suggest a later date (10th/11th century) but it has been suggested that this was St Aldhelm's church of c. 700AD. It seems likely that some of the fabric survives from the late seventh/early eighth century but most work is later additions.
Stuart Lee
Contributor's own images
700-1000
Greensted Church
Archaeology
The Church of St Andrew, Greensted-juxta-Ongar (Greensted Church) is a timber-framed church at Greensted, Essex, thought to be Europe's oldest wooden building.
Matt Love
Contributor's own images
All Saints, Little Somborne, Hampshire
Archaeology
All Saints Church at Little Somborne is an Anglo-Saxon and Norman church. Much of the two celled stone Saxon church survives in the nave and north-end of the church. The original Anglo-Saxon west end extended about six feet further, and this was established during archaeological excavation in 1976. Also, fragments of Saxon sculpture work were discovered in the 1970s and are now on display in the church. The pilasters on the north and south walls of the church are Anglo-Saxon, and in the northern side an Anglo-Saxon double splay window is preserved. Around 1170 A.D. the Normans made a number of additions to the church, including removing the Anglo-Saxon chancel and building a new one, and also extending the nave making the church nearly twice the length. The door on the north of the church is believed to be an original Norman square-headed doorway. Other later medieval features of the church also include a twelfth-century window on the south side of the church, a Norman square-headed window on the northern end, and excavation revealed the foundations of a thirteenth-century cell attached to the chancel. Very few other additions or changes were made to the church throughout the remainder of its history. Of additional modern interest to this historical site are the graves of Thomas Sopwith, the pioneering aviator, and his wife.
Kelly A. Kilpatrick
Contributor's own images
Anglo-Saxon and Norman
English
The Kirkdale Sundial in Yorkshire
Archaeology
Views of the sundial and St. Gregory's Minster,Kirkdale.
See:
Bradley, S.A.J., 'Orm Gamalson's Sundial',Kirkdale', Kirkdale 2002.
Fletcher, R.A, 'St. Gregory's Minster, Kirkdale', Kirkdale 2003.
[L. panel]
ORM GAMAL
SVNA BOHTE S[AN]C[V]S
GREGORIVS MIN
STER ĐONNE HI
T WES ÆL TO BRO
[R. panel]
CAN & TO FALAN & HE
HIT LET MACAN NEWAN FROM
GRVND XPE[=CRISTE] & S[AN]C[TV]S GREGORI
VS IN EADWARD DAGVMC[Y]NG
& [I]N TOSTI DAGVM EORL
[on the sundial itself]
ÞIS IS DÆGES SOLMERCA
ÆT ILCVM TIDE
[beneath it]
PR[E]S[BYTER](or PR[EOSTA]S)
& HAWARĐ ME WROHTE & BRAND
"Orm Gamal-
son bought Saint
Gregory's Min-
ster when it
was all quite ruin-
ed & quite collapsed & he
it let make newly from
the ground for Christ & St Gregor-
y in Edward's days, king
& in Tostig's days, earl
This is the day's sun-circle
at each hour
the priest(s)
& Hawarth me wrought & Bred
Mike Carpenter
Contributor's own images
c.1055
Old English
St John the Baptist Church, Barnack
Archaeology
Images from the Church of St John the Baptist, Barnack. The lower two stages of the church tower date from c.1000AD.
Dave Postles
Contributor's own images
Church of St Laurence, Bradford-on-Avon
Archaeology
The chapel of St Laurence has been variously dated from the early eighth to the mid eleventh centuries. For more information, see here: http://www.britannia.com/church/saxchurch/bradford1.html
Dave Postles
Contributor's own images