This week’s post covers Lady Godiva (briefly and delicately), half of Thomas Becket, rood stairs and some Viking (?) graffiti, all in a remarkable 1000 year old minster church.
Last week I posted a picture of Stow minster, which is a remarkable building in Lincolnshire that I visited a couple of weeks ago. Here it is from the outside on the south. The chancel is hidden behind the south transept (the one with the three windows in close together) and the whole building is on the plan of a cross, with the two transepts and the crossing between them being the oldest parts.
How old? Well, the consensus seems to be that this church was first built around 975 Ad by Bishop Aelfnoth, but it seems likely there was an earlier church on the site. According to legend, St Etheldreda (c. 630-679) rested at a place called Stow while travelling from Northumbria to Ely. This place is on the Roman road towards Lincoln and these roads were used for centuries after the Romans left, so it seems plausible.
It’s truly magnificent and very much a “wow” moment when you walk through the door. The round arch you can see here is one of four which supported the Anglo-Saxon tower. The current tower is 15th century. The 975 church burned down, and they have found remnants of melted/burned bits under the floor. If you look at the round pillar on the left, you can see that the bottom part looks very worn and it seems likely that this is from the 975 build, so over 1000 years old.
The church was rebuilt between 1034-1050 and endowed by Leofric, Earl of Mercia and his wife, as was common at that time. Local aristocrats would provide a pile of money and resources to build a church or a set of local churches in an area. Without knowing, I visited three other of the churches Leofric paid for, all of which are fascinating in their own way though much redeveloped over the years.
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