It was nice to see Chester featured on
episode 2 of Michael Wood's series on
King Alfred and the Anglo-Saxons; I am really enjoying the series. In about 908 the Lady of the Mercians,
Ethelfleda, rebuilt the abbey at Chester, which was dedicated to St Werburgh. It was probably on the site of today's Chester Cathedral. The abbey was rededicated to St Oswald and St Werburgh, and a set of secular canons put in the place of the nuns who lived there. The nuns are said to have taken refuge in St Mary's Convent nearby. Ethelfleda refortified the city walls, too.
We recently visited the beautiful Anglo-Saxon church at
Bradford-on-Avon,
St Laurence's, which probably dates back to the 11th century, but there may have been a church on this site, or nearby, during Ethelfleda's era. It is amazing that the building has survived at all; it was used as a boys' school during the nineteenth century. The church was restored during Victorian times. As you stand within its cool stone walls, it has a wonderful, peaceful atmosphere all its own: a real 'sense of place'.
Images:
S.E.
View of Chester Cathedral from the city walls. Engraving by Batenham for
A Visit to the Cathedral Church
of Chester,
c. 1828.
St Laurence's Church, Bradford on Avon.
© Sue Wilkes.
