The Church of St Laurence – Bradford-on-Avon ‘A Hidden Jewel’

Erected in the historic town of Bradford-on-Avon lies a ‘hidden jewel’ of the west country of England, its style of architecture is from a time that is mostly forgotten by the average citizen. Bradford’s ‘hidden jewel’ is a church dedicated to St Laurence; one of the seven deacons of Rome, and was martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman Emperor Valerian ordered in 258 AD. However, St Laurence has become a happy surprise for an Anglo-Saxon enthusiast, as England is not blessed with an abundance of surviving Anglo-Saxon buildings, especial one in this good condition. Though this archaic building has had some restoration over the years, it is still remarkable how much has survived and this church dedicated to St Laurence is England’s most completed Anglo-Saxon building of its type.

Bradford-on-Avon (also known as Bradford-upon-Avon) is 8 miles southeast of Bath in the county of Wiltshire. The centre of the town grew up around the ford across the river Avon, hence the origin of the town's name "Broad-Ford". The town is first mention in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under the year 652 AD when Cenwalh, the West Saxon king of Wessex, is reported to have fought a battle at Bradanforda be Afne. However, the chronicle gives no detail about who he fought or what the outcome of the battle was. Historians speculate Cenwalh fought either the native Celtic Britons or the Angles of the kingdom of Mercia. Until England became unified, Bradford was right on the frontier between the kingdoms of Wessex and Mercia.

The lack of surviving Anglo-Saxon buildings was due to most of them being constructed with timber and thatched roofing. Perpetual internal warfare and the invasions from the Norsemen (Vikings) consequently led to many towns or cities being destroyed and burnt to the ground – despite the restoration of destroyed settlements, wood buildings in general do not survive from this period. The surviving Ecclesiastical buildings, however, are constructed out of stone and brick, except for one timber church, and in some cases show evidence of re-used Roman work. At least fifty churches are of Anglo-Saxon in origin with having major architectural features, although in some cases the Anglo-Saxon part is small and noticeably altered. After the conquering by the Anglo-Saxons you would expect them to live within the old Roman cities, but they were essentially agrarian people who preferred to build small towns near their centres of agriculture; fords across rivers and sea ports for trading and fishing.

St Laurence is a well-preserved example of an Anglo-Saxon church-building before the Norman conquest had stamped their style throughout England; it’s tall and narrow with small windows, these characteristics are unmistakably Anglo-Saxon. St Laurence has a nave, chancel and a porticus (porch-wing) on the northern side and a probable southern porticus, which seems to have had an underground room that was replaced at some time before the beginning of the 19th century. On the left side of the below photographs is the north porticus. The right side shows the outline of the south porticus.
         

Historian William of Malmesbury, who was the foremost historian of his time in the early 12th century, documents the church of St Laurence still standing in the 1120’s. Though he thought it dated back to the time of St Aldhelm (d. 709 AD) who was a relative of king Ine of Wessex and a renowned scholar of his time. In 675 AD, Aldhelm was appointed the first Abbot of Malmesbury and around 705 AD, was also appointed to the bishop of Sherborne. His elevated reputation enticed scholars from far and wide, and they travelled great distances to learn from him at his school in the abbey of Malmesbury. Furthermore, Aldhelm founded two other monasteries as centres of learning at Frome, Somerset and Bradford-on-Avon, Wiltshire. St Laurence is regarded as his and may have been part of the location of his monastery at Bradford, which was located parallel to St Laurence, but is replaced by today’s Holy Trinity parish church from the 12th century. Aldhelm’s reputation even graced the court of Pope Sergius I, where he graciously accepted an invitation to travel to the centre of western Christendom at Rome.

A charter from king Æthelred the Unready (Æthelred II) granted Bradford to the nuns of Shaftesbury Abbey in 1001 AD, and it is believed St Laurence was designed to house relics of king Æthelred’s half-brother, king Edward the Martyr, who was originally housed with the nuns at Shaftesbury Abbey - the custodians of his body. Æthelred’s charter would suggest that St Laurence coincided with the above dates of its architectural style, rather than William of Malmesbury’s reported original date (around 700 AD). This might help explain why such a small grand building was erected. Although the existing church seems all or almost all Anglo-Saxon, some of its restorations included removing of stairs inside and filling in some windows.

Some time later St Laurence was lost amidst other buildings including a school master house and only came to notice again in the nineteenth century, when it was rediscovered in 1856 and restored in 1870 to 1880. After some restorations, the church once again became used as a place of worship and was designated a grade I listed building in 1952. Today, St Laurence is used as part of the congregation of Holy Trinity church and hosts a couple sermons a week; other Christian groups use its premises as well.

Apart from the Church of St Laurence, Bradford-on-Avon has numerous buildings of historical significance to offer, and I encourage you to make the journey to this little town, where I know you’ll find great solace in stumbling across the ‘Hidden Jewel’ of the west. Though tucked away in Bradford’s town centre, St Laurence’s shadow casts a big reminder to us all that we still have a profound connection to our Anglo-Saxon ancestors..

Author/ Photos:  Jimmer of Wessex

Opening times:

Winter (Oct - March)	Summer (Apr - Sept)
Opening: 10am	Opening: 10am
Closing: 4pm	Closing: 6pm

Finding Mercia

The Anglo-Saxons can feel very remote. It’s nearly 1000 years since that period ended with Harold’s defeat at Hastings, and the Angles, Saxons, Jutes and others had first made their mark on England some 600 years before that. Luckily we have some written sources for the period - Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica, and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for example - and we have archaeological evidence. And there is certainly a wealth of it, including famously the Staffordshire Hoard and the Sutton Hoo burial. So many of the buildings though, because they were made of wood, perished, just like the ship at Sutton Hoo. Archaeologists often only find post holes, from which, admittedly, they are able to reconstruct the great halls and smaller buildings.

Deerhurst Priory Church showing the Anglo-Saxon architecture.

Deerhurst Priory Church interior 

So it’s a rare bonus when we find stone buildings from the period. They are almost always churches rather than secular dwellings, but they can still link us to individuals. And in Deerhurst, Gloucestershire, you get a ‘two-fer’(two-for-one): St Mary’s Priory Church and Odda’s Chapel.

These are especially significant for me because I mainly write about the Mercians, and Gloucestershire was in Mercia. Deerhurst, though, was originally in the kingdom of the Hwicce, a people whose origins are obscure. Indeed, we are not even entirely sure where the Mercians came from, or what their name means.

It derives from Myrcna, meaning people of the march, or border. But it might be a name used by others to describe them and we’re not even sure whether it means the border between England and Wales, or between Mercia and the northern kingdom of Northumbria. What is certain is that aside from their core lands, north and south of the River Trent, they expanded by absorbing smaller kingdoms and tribes, such as the Hwicce.

From the outset, the Mercians were different. Not because they absorbed other kingdoms (although they may have done it less forcefully than others), but because they continued to recognise these tribes and erstwhile monarchies; in the seventh century, Osric of the Hwicce was styled ‘sub-king’. In the later period, Mercian ealdormen tended to be leaders of local areas, rather than appointed by the king. One of the most famous Mercians, King Penda, remained resolutely pagan when all about him were converting to Christianity, although he was religiously tolerant, allowing Christian preachers to spread the Word in Mercia. Mercians retained a sense of national identity, despite their tribal make-up, and even after Mercia had been absorbed into the greater kingdom of Wessex and no longer had kings, they still had a voice; in three succession disputes, the Mercians voted for the winning candidate.

Perhaps the most famous Mercian leader was Æthelflæd. She had Mercian blood through her mother, and her father was Alfred the Great, king of Wessex, but her husband was a Mercian, a mysterious man named Æthelred, and it is thought that he might have had links with the Hwicce.

St Oswald's Priory in Gloucester, where Aethelflaed was buried

Although they were both buried at St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester, Deerhurst Priory Church was in the very heart of Hwicce lands, and it’s perfectly possible that Æthelflæd and her husband worshipped in this church, which is still used today. To sit in that ancient building, where people have worshipped for over 1000 years, is really to feel a connection to the past. Æthelflæd was never a queen, but after her husband’s death she continued to work alongside her brother the king of Wessex, to fight back against the invading ‘Vikings’ and limit their expansion.

After her death, her daughter was deposed and Mercia was absorbed into Wessex. But many Mercians were wielders of great power. Eadric Streona was one such, although he changed sides so much during the wars between Edmund Ironside of Wessex and Cnut that he is notorious rather than famous. Lady Godiva was a Mercian, too, although whether you believe the story of her naked horseback ride is up to you. (I don’t!)

There had been earlier powerful women in Mercia. The wife of King Offa (he who famously built the dyke) was Cynethryth, the only known woman to have coins minted in her name. Another was King Cenwulf’s daughter, a powerful abbess who took on the might of Canterbury and Rome and fought to keep control of her abbeys. She lost the abbeys in Kent, but held onto Winchcombe, in her family’s heartlands. Yet she paid a price; it was said that she arranged the killing of her brother. It’s a rather unbelievable tale, involving a dove dropping a message on the altar of St Peter’s in Rome, saying where the body was hidden, and of her eyes falling out when she tried to cast a spell, but it’s a good tale nonetheless.

Odda's Chapel

A very short walk from the priory church is Odda’s Chapel. In 1675 a tree fell down in the orchard outside a half-timbered manor house, revealing an inscription stone embedded in its roots. The stone recorded - in Latin - the founding of a chapel by Odda in remembrance of his brother, Ælfric, who had died in 1053. In the nineteenth century renovations to the house revealed the chapel, which had been incorporated into the later building.

Odda's Chapel -replica inscription stone

It was thought by some that Odda was related to another influential ealdorman of Mercia, whose name was Ælfhere, and that Odda was his grandson. I’ve researched the life of Ælfhere, who was named as one of the three leading noblemen during King Edgar's reign, for fiction and nonfiction and he seems to have died childless. Odda was more likely to have been related to Æthelweard the Chronicler, ealdorman of the Western shires, who was descended from King Æthelred I, Alfred the Great’s brother.

From the seventh to the eleventh centuries, Mercia and its inhabitants played a key role in the history and politics of what came to be known as England. Sitting in the priory church, or visiting Odda’s chapel, it is possible to feel a very strong connection to these people who lived so long ago, but left behind something tangible, to remind us that they were there.

Photos: ©Annie-Whitehead


Author: Annie-Whitehead

Bio:
Annie is an author and historian, a member of the Royal Historical Society and of the Historical Writers’ Association. Her first novel, To Be A Queen, chronicles the life of Æthelflæd, Lady of the Mercians, who ruled a country in all but name, and her second, Alvar the Kingmaker, tells the story of Earl Alvar (Ælfhere), who served King Edgar and his son Æthelred the Unready, who were both embroiled in murderous scandals. Her third novel, Cometh the Hour, charts the life of King Penda. She was a contributor to the anthology 1066 Turned Upside Down, is the recipient of various awards for her novels and has also won awards for her nonfiction essays. She won the inaugural Dorothy Dunnett Society Short Story Competition. Her first full-length nonfiction book, Mercia: The Rise and Fall of a Kingdom was published by Amberley Books in Sep 2018 and a new book, Women of Power in Anglo-Saxon England, will be published by Pen & Sword Books in May 2020. 

Website: anniewhiteheadauthor.co.uk
Blog: Casting Light upon the Shadow
Amazon: http://viewauthor.at/Annie-Whitehead