People, Places and Artifacts

Brixworth, Northants

All Saints Church is the largest surviving Saxon church in the country,  probably dating from 675, and is one of the few churches to survive  Danish vandalism. It is not possible to associate the church with a  Mercian king with any degree of certainty, but King Ethelbald may have  built it in honour of St.Boniface. Brixworth is 6 miles north of  Northampton.

Cambridge, Corpus Christi College

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is a series of historical records written in  Saxon-English and gives an outline history from Julius Caesar's invasion  of Britain. Originally compiled on instructions from King Alfred, it is  the work of many authors and was continued up to the year 1140. The  authors and editors were probably able to incorporate Latin material of a  much earlier date than Alfred, nevertheless large parts of their early  and some of their later history is inaccurate. The oldest extant copy,  known as the Parker Ms and designated by the letter A, is in Corpus  Christi College, and dates from the 10th.Cent. Another copy is in the  Department of Manuscripts at the British Library.

Canterbury, Kent

St.Martin's Church. Queen Bertha came from a Christian family, and when  she married King Ethelbert of Kent, he built a church for her, in which –  in 597 – he was himself baptized by St.Augustine. St.Martin's which  stands a little to the east of St.Augustine's Abbey, is the oldest  parish church in the country, and quite possibly incorporates parts of  Queen Bertha's church. It is quite impressive in its simplicity and  antiquity.

The Lindisfarne Gospels

Written in about 690 for Eadrith, who had succeeded St.Cuthbert as  Bishop of Lindisfarne. Eadrith's successor, Etholwold, had the gospels  encased in a binding of gold set with precious stones. They show that a  very high standard of calligraphy and illumination had been reached as  early as the eighth century. The book is on display in one of the rooms  of the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library.

The Burghal Hidage

This was compiled at the end of Alfred's reign, or perhaps a  little  later, and records the thirty-one forts, known as burhs, with which  Alfred encircled Wessex – Kent is omitted, the list starting in the east   with Sussex. There are 2 Mss. (the earliest c.1025) in the British  Library.

Queen Ethelswith's Rings

Ethelswith was Alfred's sister and she was married to Burhred, King of  Mercia from 852 to 874. Two of her rings – of very high craftsmanship-  can be seen in the Medieval and Later Antiquities Department of the  British Museum.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

The Alfred Jewel dates from the 9th.Cent. and is yet another example of  the high standard of Saxon craftsmanship. The jewel is pear-shaped and  just under 2 and a half inches long and 1 and a quarter inches at its  greatest width; the design is in cloisonné enamel on a gold plate, and  the frame terminates in the head of an animal made of sheet gold; the  hollow of the mouth crossed by a gold pin. It would seem that it was  originally attached to a wood or ivory stem and may have been a form of  sceptre or part of a staff. The band of gold filigree is inscribed  AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN – 'Alfred ordered me to be made.'

St.Cleer, Cornwall

King Doniert's Stone is a cross-shaft of granite which, although bearing  Saxon ornamentations, is itself in the Celtic tradition of memorial  stones, and may commemorate the drowning of Durgarth, the Celtic King of  Cornwall, in the River Fowey c.870. It is an interesting reminder of  the virtual independence of Cornwall, which lasted into the 11th.Cent.  Despite the strenuous efforts of Kings Egbert and Athelstan.

Wareham, Dorset

Alfred's 'burh'. One of the fortifications, created by King Alfred to  protect the kingdom of Wessex from Danish invasions can be seen and  explored by visitors to this attractive Dorset town.

Whitby Abbey, North Yorks

The most famous event that took place at Whitby was the synod summoned  by King Oswy of Northumbria in 664 to decide the differences that  existed between the Roman and Celtic churches. Oswy had founded the  first Abbey of Whitby in 657 with St.Hilda as the first Abbess and in  this Abbey King Oswy and his Queen were buried, as were King Edwin and  St.Hilda herself. It is impossible to tell who lies buried in the graves  still to be seen, for the Danes destroyed the Abbey in 867, and it is  thought that King Edmund I removed St.Hilda's bones from here to  Glastonbury. Recent excavations however, have revealed traces of 7th and  8th.Cent. origins, including the foundations of cells, in which the  Saxon inmates lived.

Bayeux Tapestry, (Bayeux, Calvados, France)

This is a length of embroidery worked on linen with a woollen thread,  measuring 230 feet 10 and a half inches by 19 and three-quarters inches.  It is the story of the Conquest from the time of Harold's arrival in  France on a visit to Duke William, until the time of this death at  Hastings. The tapestry was not, as is sometimes stated, the work of  William's Queen, Mathilda and her ladies, but was most probably  commissioned shortly after the battle of Hastings, by William's  Half-brother, Odo of Conteville, Bishop of Bayeux. Originally in Odo's  cathedral at Bayeux, the tapestry escaped fire in 1077 and 1159, and was  again nearly destroyed again at the time of the French Revolution. It  is now to be seen on the first floor of a permanent exhibition gallery  in the former Bishop's Palace in Bayeux.

Cheddar, Somerset

This was an important centre in the later Saxon period. It was a meeting  place of the Witan in the 10th.Cent ; King Edmund (939-46) occupied a  hunting lodge there and other Saxon kings (including Alfred) were  associated with this small town. The site of the royal house was  excavated in 1961 and the earliest buildings date from the ninth cent.

Corfe Castle, Dorset

This great Saxon castle standing guard in the gap (Corfe was the Saxon  word for gap) in the range of the Purbeck Hills, which run east to west  in what is called the Isle of Purbeck in south Dorset, was the principle  residence of King Edgar (959-75). It was at Corfe that Edgar's son,  Edward the Martyr, was done to death, almost certainly at the  instigation of his stepmother – recent attempts to whitewash the Queen  based on certain passages in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles are  unconvincing. The castle was destroyed in 1646 by order of Parliament,  but the ruins remain most impressive, for much of the original building –  the King's Tower, the Queen's Tower, the Martyr's Gate, parts of the  Chapel, etc. – still stands, and the whole is traceable from the  existing ground plans.

Durham Cathedral, Co. Durham
In the Cathedral can be seen the stole, maniple and girdle which were  made at the command of Queen Elflaed at the beginning of the 10th.Cent.  for the Bishop of Winchester, and presented to the shrine of St.Cuthbert  by King Athelstan on his visit to Chester-le-Street in 934. These  remarkable relics of Cuthbert, who was Bishop of Lindisfarne from 685 to  his death in 687, and who together with the Venerable Bede (whose  remains were also brought to Durham), is the most revered saint in the  north country, were found in 1827 well preserved in a series of three  coffers, the innermost one being the original coffin for the Saint's  body. The shrine had been removed from Lindisfarne at the time of the  Danish raids at the end of the 9th.cent., and when Athe;lstan – who was  in the north on a punitive expedition against the Scottish King  Constantine – presented his gifts, the monks hd not yet found the final  resting place for their Saint. They came to Durham in 995 and in 998 the  'White Church' was dedicated. This church was destroyed in 1091 to make  way for the present cathedral and in 1104 the body of St.Cuthbert was  laid behind the high altar.

Waltham Abbey, Essex

Earl Harold brought masons over from Normandy to build his great church  on the site of a smaller one, which had contained a crucifix whose  remarkable healing powers are said to have cured Harold of paralysis.  The church was consecrated on 3rd. May 1060 (Holy Cross Day), and  originally very much larger than the present building; the reputed site  of Harold's grave beyond the present east wall is where the high altar  would have been. Waltham became an abbey in 1184, being subject only to  the King and the Pope. All except Harold's nave was despoiled during the  Dissolution.