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Home , 650s, 670s, Agilbert, Ashendon Hundred, Diuma, Godwin (bishop)

THE IN ANGLO-SAXON c.650-c.1100

KEITH BAILEY

This paper discusses the scanty evidence for the history of the church in Buckinghamshire between the start ofthe conversion period around the middle ofthe seventh century to the onset of Norman rule after 1066. A handful of charters, some architecture and archaeological dis­ coveries, and some ' lives constitute the available material, most of which has been sub­ ject to earlier, piecemeal investigation. Taken together, however, the evidence is capable of yielding a more detailed story than has sometimes been assumed. In particular, the network of minster churches is examined. The beginnings of the creation of local, later parish, churches are also discussed.

I these respects, notably through the pages of 's In terms of its effect on the history of society, and Ecclesiastical History, completed in 731. Bede has indeed the landscape, the conversion of the various little to say about the conversion of the large tracts Anglo-Saxon kingdoms to in the cen­ of central which coalesced to form the tury or so after the arrival of St. Augustine in 597 kingdom of , and which at the time of his was one of the crucial events in English history. death in 735 was the major power in England, a Not only was a new system of belief introduced, position it maintained until eclipsed by replacing the which the incomers had after 820. During this period, the area of brought from their German homelands, but with it Buckinghamshire was divided between extremely came also a wider spread of literacy, albeit shadowy 'tribes', whose territories followed the restricted for centuries to churchmen and the high­ north-east to south-west grain of the geology in the est echelons of lay society. The new Chiltems and the Vale of . 1 The required far more in the way of buildings: Cilternscetan and the Hendrica covered the south churches, monastic complexes and so on, and these and north of the later shire respectively. In the later were to become one of the most enduring features seventh century they were part of the Middle of both town and country, albeit frequently rebuilt. Angles, a loose grouping of peoples between the Not only did the church demand accommodation, it Wash and the Upper Thames.2 Each polity would also needed substantial tracts of land to provide have had its own ruler until this region was sustenance for the clergy and their lay servants, and absorbed by Mercia, which was expanding from its a key feature of the conversion period was the core in the Trent valley. In doing so, it had to con­ granting by kings of very large estates to the newly­ tend with established southern kingdoms such as founded minsters. To do so they used the land-book those of the West Saxons and for control of or charter, itself an innovation brought from the the region around . Not until 653 was a Continent by the first churchmen. This process con­ single ruler imposed on the Middle Angles, when tinued throughout the Anglo-Saxon period. The Peada, son of Penda of Mercia was given control. result was a significant reduction in the amount of This was presumably to secure the area from land in royal hands in most counties, Bucking­ takeover by Penda's numerous enemies, who were hamshire among them. soon to destroy him at the battle of the Winwced in Unfortunately, although the importance of the 655. 3 Although Peada himself was dead within church during the five centuries after 600 is clear, three years, the area remained under Mercian con­ the survival of sources for this area is extremely trol. No further rulers of Middle Anglia are patchy, as is the archaeological record and the sur­ recorded, although there were certainly Mercian vival of standing architectural features. Kingdoms sub-kings of parts of it, some of whom played a key like Kent and N orthumbria are far better served in role in its conversion to Christianity. 62 K. A. Bailey

The process by which the assorted Anglo­ II Saxon kingdoms were converted to the new faith First, however, we must consider the wider frame­ seems to have been quite standardised.4 First, a work of the conversion, since several of the Anglo­ would arrive with a group of follow­ Saxon kingdoms impinged on the region around ers, seeking audience with the king and his lead­ London. Kent, whose king JE6elberht also exer­ ing noblemen. Discussion would then ensue cised some kind of imperium over the southern about the new faith and its advantages, compared kingdoms, was the first objective of Augustine in with the paganism hitherto endorsed, apparently 597. Within ten years, had been installed at without much depth of conviction for the most , Roch ster and Loudon. The latter was part. of the core group would follow, under Lbe control of the Eas1 Saxons.? The new after which the establishment of monastic cen­ bishoprics coincided with the boundaries of the tres, suitably endowed with land, would take various kingdoms, moving with the ebb and flow of place, from which the conversion of the popula­ their fortunes in the continuing struggles for tion at large would proceed. That this was often a supremacy. East Saxon territory included not only political rather than a spiritual process is evi­ , but also Middlesex and much of Hert­ denced by the number of cases in which kings fordshire.8 The death of JE6elberht in 616 repre­ apostatised when circumstances changed: for sented a setback, as both Kentish and East Saxon example, in Essex after the death of JE6elberht of kings began to backslide, perhaps because the Kent in 616, and again during an outbreak of political advantages were now less apparent, rather plague in the . than any deep-seated attachment to the pagan gods. Sometimes the missions were offshoots from the In the 620s, the focus moved to , original one of 597, sometimes, as with whose king Edwin (616-632) also claimed over­ converting the West Saxons of the Upper Thames lordship in the southern kingdoms.9 He married a Valley, Fursey in and the Irish missions Kentish princess and was converted as part of the to Northumbria, they were independent. If the settlement. Paulinus from Canterbury course of events was similar, it was not always became of , working to convert the smooth and straightforward. Everywhere the sev­ southern parts of the kingdom, and Lindsey. enth century was the critical period. When it began, This process was abruptly halted with the death of the great majority of Anglo-Saxons were pagan Edwin. His succesors, Oswald and , were (even if some of their British subjects had been also described as (lit. 'wide, or Britain from the Roman and post-Roman peri­ ruler'). They belonged to the northern part of the ods), whereas by 700, the majority were at least kingdom, . Oswiu's reign saw the resolu­ nominal adherents of the new faith. tion of the problem of Easter celebration between Buckinghamshire was affected by several of the differing Celtic and Roman traditions in favour these missionary drives, although there is little evi­ of the latter, at the synod of in 664. 10 dence of precisely what happened and when, as it The close interrelationships between the ruling was not the scene of any activities known to Bede, families meant that several still-pagan kings nor was it in the core territory of any of the major encountered tbe new religion away from their own kingdoms. Bede does offer a few glimpses of the territories, and were persuaded to convert, not process by which Middle Anglia was converted, least if there was a dynastic marriage involved. In although none refers to the later shire. The same is this way, the kings of East Anglia began to be con­ true ofEddius Stephanus's Life of St. , writ­ verted in the 620s. They also had their own mis­ ten soon after the death of its hero in 709. Wilfrid sion in the form of the Irish Fursey. 11 played an important role in the conversion of the Overlordship of the sort practised first by , the South Saxons and further afield in Northumbria and later by Mercia was an important Europe. A much later source for events in seventh­ factor in the conversion process. For example, century Buckinghamshire is the Life of St. Osyth when Birinus began his mission to the West (OE Osgy6), which for all its failings as a piece of Saxons of the upper Thames Valley in the mid- later medieval hagiography, does seem to present a , the baptism of their king and the plausible picture of the earliest days of Christianity grant of the Roman sitCJ at Dorchester for the new around Aylesbury. 6 bishopric was witnessed by Oswald. 12 The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire c.65~c.JJOO 63

III the broad folk divisions of the kingdom: , The resolute paganism of Penda meant that Mercia Lindsey, Hereford, Worcester and probably and Middle Anglia formed the last significant terri­ Leicester, although there is no record of its bishops tory in England to attract the attention of missionar­ before the . 17 ies, a process which did not really commence until The most likely period for a serious attempt to the early 650s. It seems, however, that Penda both convert the peoples in the region between the tolerated existing Christian communities, and did Thames and the Ouse was the , and this agrees not obstruct missionary activity, especially after the with evidence from other sources. conversion of his son Peada. Rather, he opposed any tendency to apostasy on lhe part of those who had IV been converled. 13 Given the n'Ulnber of missions First, however, we must consider the possibility operating by 650, it was always likely that the con­ that some conversion was undertaken by the sur­ version of Mercia would be complicated, and it is viving British population of the region, and espe­ unfortunate that the records are so scanty. cially that centred on post-Roman Verulamium or Penda's successor Peada was murdered in 656, St. Albans. Archaeological evidence clearly shows providing Oswiu with a convenient excuse for that the Roman town was inhabited well into fifth annexing Mercia to his empire. In 657, however, a century, and probably later, with a level of amenity group of nobles who had been concealing Penda's indicating both orfanised government and reason­ son Wulfhere from the ever-present threat of assas­ able prosperity. 1 Given that fourth-century sination placed him on the . This marked the Christianity had been an urban religion first and start of Mercia's rise to become the dominant foremost, it follows that the population would have power in Anglo-Saxon England from the late­ been Christian. This, together with the presence of seventh to the early-ninth century, and more imme­ the tomb of the third century Alban, the first major diately the final push towards converting its terri­ British martyr, would suggest not only the presence tory, including the later Buckinghamshire. of and churches, but also the possibility that Wulfhere's sisters played a key role in this. The Verulamium was the seat of a bishop. It was visited upheavals of the 650s meant that there was no firm by St. Germanus of Auxcrre in the 430s (and pos­ episcopal succession in Mercia/Middle Anglia. The sibly again a decade later), 19 to combat the first bishop, , an Irishman, came with the Pelagian heresy, which was popular with the priests Adda, Bett and from Northumbria in Britons. He also became involved in the early 653 to convert Peada and his people. He dled c.655 struggles between the natives and the Saxon and was buried at harlbury in . 14 invaders. Bede, writing three centuries later, says Cedd went on to reclaim the East Saxons from one that there had been no break in the importance of of their periodic episodes of apostasy, but the other Alban's cult, despite all of the political upheavals of two are not heard of again. Diuma's the period.20 Offa of Mercia [757-796] was said to stretched from the to the Upper Thames have refounded and richly endowed the and from Staffordshire to the Chiltems, and it which had been built at the site of the martyrdom, seems unlikely that he had made much headway in on a hilltop overlooking the Roman town. 21 converting the population at large. The key event in It seems likely that the continuing strength of this period seems to have been the foundation of the post-Roman polity in the St. Albans area was the monastery at Medeshamstede, later Peter­ responsible for the apparently slow penetration of borough.15 Diuma's successor, Ceollach, was also the area by Anglo-Saxon settlers and their of Scots-Irish origin, but soon returned to . He rulers.22 Given the later hostility between British was followed by , the first English bishop and Anglo-Saxon clerics, it is perhaps not surpris­ of the Mercians. He came from Northumbria, and ing that we have no evidence of any attempt to was of royal blooU, as were several other ea1·Jy convert the newcomers, even after their presence English prelates. 16 l'runlhere had been requesLed became an irreversible fact of life. The very rich by Wulfhere, and was bishop of all Mercia from under the barrow at Taplow, which dates c.658-c.672. It was not until the late-, under from c.600-625, and has parallels in Kent and the reforming archbishop Theodore, that Mercia Essex, provides further evidence that paganism was divided into five , corresponding with remained in an area at the outer margins of 64 K. A. Bailey

Kentish influence and overlordship.23 The first sure evidence for the presence of If the writ of St. Albans ran outside the immedi­ Christianity locally dates from around 660, when a ate environs of the Roman town as late as AD500- minster church was founded at Aylesbury. The evi­ 550, this may have involved some conversion of dence is contemporary, but in the much later Anglo-Saxon settlers whose presence was toler­ medieval account of St. Osyth. Women of royal ated, whether as mercenaries or as peasant cultiva­ birth played a crucial role in the early history of the tors. If so, some archaeological evidence may await church in Anglo-Saxon England. Some of them, discovery. Unfortunately, we know nothing of the like lEpel6ry6 (St. Audrey, founder of Ely) played circumstances in which control of St. Albans finally a part in the endless round of dynastic , passed from Britons to Anglo-Saxons, nor when but many remained unmarried. They had the neces­ this might have happened. The battle said to have sary status and connections to ensure the firm foun­ taken place in 571, which saw West Saxon control dation of the new which were so extended as far as Limbury [Luton] and its hinter­ important in spreading Christianity from its origi­ land might have impinged upon St. Albans, nal foci at royal courts to reach the mass of the although the chronicler omitted to mention it, population. which seems strange in view of its importance. The first at Aylesbury was Eadgy6, one of The Taplow burial indicates that high-status four daughters of that doughty pagan, Penda of Anglo-Saxons were present in some capacity in the Mercia. These sisters occupied a key role in centres far south of Buckinghamshire by 600. Around 700, across the whole of Middle Anglia from Adderbury the East Saxons controlled the district called in Oxfordshire to Castor near Peterborough. It Heme!, which may have included St. Albans.24 It is seems likely that the foundation at Aylesbury was not, however, clear, when or how such a link devel­ an initiative of Wulfhere, king of Mercia 657- oped. By then most of what later became Buck­ 675. With his brother and successor JEpelred (675- inghamshire was under Mercian control. North of 704), he played a key role in the spread of the Chiltems, there was a mixture of Saxon and Christianity in Mercia. Aylesbury was an important Anglian influences during the sixth and seventh central place, both in the 570s when it was taken by centuries, and this was reflected in the fragmented the West Saxons from the Britons, and after 650. As political geography of the region prior to its annex­ such, it was a natural choice for a minster site. The ation by Mercia. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, with church and its extensive burial ground, which its West Saxon bias, omits any reference to the area would initially have been used by people over a after 571. The extension of their territory from the wide area, occupied much of the area of the reused upper Thames to the headwaters of the Lea proba­ Iron Age hillfort (JEgel's burh).25 Nearby bly lasted for two generations, and there may have J(jngsbury may be an echo of its original purpose, been some missionary activity by Birinus after 635. but it seems that by the late-seventh century the Thereafter, the centre of gravity of the West Saxon royal centre, or villa regalis, was a couple of miles kingdom moved from Dorchester to , away at . Bicester, linked to Aylesbury coinciding with the spread of Mercian influence as by Roman Akeman Street, had another early min­ far as the Thames. ster, ruled by Eadgy6's sister, Eadburh.26 Eadgy6's new minster may have been a double house for v and nuns, a common feature of the early Given the south-eastern bias of Augustine's mis­ English church. One of its key purposes, however, sion, it seems likely that the conversion of was to provide priests to convert and minister to the Buckinghamshire did not begin in the early seventh surrounding area, covering a radius of ten-fifteen century. The foundation of a see at St. Paul's miles around Aylesbury, and abutting similar terri­ London in 604 was aimed at the conversion of the tories around churches like Bicester, Luton and St. East Saxons. This makes it unlikely that the middle Albans. Thames valley was much influenced from that St. Osyth was Eadgy6 's niece, the daughter of direction. It seems that whatever the relationship Wilburh (yet another of Penda's progeny) and the between the Tap low burial and Kent and Essex, this sub-king Fri6uwald. Her father exercised control of area remained pagan until at least the first quarter western in the 660s, and may have per­ of the seventh century. formed a similar role in the Chilterns.27 Osyth was The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire c.650--c.JJOO 65 probably educated by her aunt, and was ultimately the major church was at Oakley.33 The three buried and venerated at Aylesbury. She married Chiltern Hundreds do not even have this sketchy Sigehere, one of several East Saxon co-rulers information. Based on the values recorded in the (reigned 664-688), probably around 670. Their papal Taxatio Ecclesiatica of 1291 (see below), son, Offa, was unique among East Saxon kings of there are several possibilities: , the seventh-ninth centuries in not bearing a name Burnham, , and , none of beginning with S-. He was named after a fourth­ which has other evidence pointing to possible min­ century ruler of the Anglian homeland in ster status, although Burnham has a very large Schleswig, evidently under Mercian influence. church in relation to the size of the community it Offa ruled from 704-709, and had links with the serves. (Amersham, Chesham and Wycombe were Hemel area. market towns, so the size and value of their Unfortunately, Bede seems to have had little or churches may not reflect any early medieval signif­ no information about the conversion of southern icance.) In I 086, there was a link between Mercia. The vast extent of the territory ruled by the Burnham and an otherwise unknown minster at Mercian bishop, with his see at Lichfield, must Staines in Middlesex. There was also a tenurial link have left much of the initiative to the and between Boveney and the minster at Cookham in of the minster churches, although we are Berkshire. 34 It may therefore be that the dip slope equally ill-informed about the location of these. It of the Chilterns had been converted from centres seems probable that was a foundation outside the later county, including St. Albans, of the missionary period, although the story of St. although that is even more conjectural. Rumwold, who was associated with it is even more It seems, therefore, that Buckinghamshire fabulous than that of Osyth.28 There was a later acquired half-a-dozen minster churches during the medieval link between Buckingham and the royal initial conversion period, c.660-725. Only Ayles­ centre at King's Sutton in Northamptonshire.29 bury definitely belongs to this phase, while Another candidate for an early minster church is Buckingham possibly does so. It may be that there Wing, still one of the most notable survivals of were early churches which did not survive the Anglo-Saxon architecture, albeit probably only upheavals of the Danish wars and settlement in the dating in part from the seventh century.30 The vil­ century and a half after 850, and whose endow­ lage takes its name from a group called the ments were either lost to the church, or re-assigned Weowingas or WWungas, whose territory may have to later foundations. Wing has only physical evi­ been equivalent to the later triple Hundred of dence of its early importance, but the ring crypt Cottesloe. (Such polities formed the lowest level of which survives below the chancel suggests that it a hierarchy within each kingdom. They seem to once housed important relics. The problem is have been selected as the foci of the new mission­ whether these remains were those of a local , ary districts, with Aylesbury covering the later possibly the founder of the minster, or had been Hundreds of Aylesbury, Stone and Risborough and brought from a distance. Buckingham those of Stotfold, Lamua and Rowley. 31 ) A close link between local rulers and VI the heads of the new minsters was as important to There remains one individual who is likely to have the success of the conversion process as that played a role in the conversion of our area, between kings and bishops. although this is nowhere made explicit in the Other candidates are even less easy to discern. A sources. Wilfrid was a Northumbrian of aristocratic chance remark in reveals that origin born in the 630s, who became a bishop of a North Crawley church, with its unusual dedication succession of sees, including York, Hexham and to St. Firmin, a fourth-century continental bishop, Leicester. After the death of his patron Oswiu in was a minster, although of what vintage is 670, however, Wilfrid was engaged in a series of unclear. 32 There are no other obvious candidates to acrimonious disputes with successive kings and cover the Hundreds of Seckloe, Bunsty and their consorts. This led to several periods of exile, Moulsoe. The three Hundreds of Ixhill, during which he became involved in the conversion and probably represent the territory of pagan areas such as Sussex, parts of Mercia, and dependant upon the royal centre at Brill, although even Friesland in the present-day Netherlands.35 66 K. A. Bailey

The principal account of Wilfrid is contained in although he spent a year in Frisia converting a biography by his priest Eddius Stephanus, written pagans, and did not return until 680. He soon soon after his death in 709. The latter occurred at incurred the enmity of King Ecgfrith and was in Wilfrid's church at Oundle in Middle Anglia. exile again from 681-6. He began the conversion of Unfortunately, Eddius' Life is as much hagiography the South Saxons and the Isle of Wight, acting as as biography, and is short on dates and often impre­ the first bishop of Selsey. First, he had been cise as to the location of the events it records. received in Mercia by the prcefectus , a Wilfrid was educated at the Irish missionary nephew of king 1Epelred.39 Here Wilfrid founded a centre on . He travelled to Canterbury monastery which Eddius says was occupied by his and in the 650s, and was tonsured at Lyon in monks 'to this day' (i.e. after 709). A charter of 686 658. He had a Roman view of the way in which the granting land in Gloucestershire to Malmesbury English church should develop, including a central calls Berbtwald sub-king, probably with autl1ority role and high status for the bishop. He founded a in the fa r south-west of Mercia. 4!! Although not of monastery at Ripon around 660, and was ordained direct relevance to the conversion in our region, priest c.663, by , the Frankish bishop of this episode follows the same model of minster Dorchester, who was visiting Northumbria. He may foundation and endowment already noted at have given Wilfrid an awareness of the task facing Aylesbury c.660. the church in the south Midlands. In 686 Wilfrid was reinstated by Theodore, but a A crucial point in Wilfrid's life came soon after, dispute about Ripon developed, and Wilfrid again when he was a key player in persuading Oswiu to left for exile in Mercia. He stayed from 691 until adopt the Roman method of Easter calculation at 702, acting as bishop at Leicester, the see for the (664). 36 That year Wilfrid Midd le Anglia.41 He continued to establish new became bishop of York, with authority over the churches. As usual, Eddius does not specify where whole of Northumbria. His lifestyle and evident these were, but some may have been in or near the relish for political intrigue led to his deprivation later Buckinghamshire. Again, Wing is a possibil­ after only a couple of years, however, and he retired ity, as are North Crawley and Oakley. Wilfrid to Ripon. Eddius states that Wilfrid responded to returned to Northumbria, but was deposed again in 'frequent invitations from king Wulfhere [of 703, and set off once more to Rome, an extremely Mercia] to carry out episcopal duties'.37 Mercia arduous journey for a man of seventy. He returned suffered from a dearth of bishops and an over­ in 705, and assumed the bishopric of Hexham.42 extended realm. Following ( c.662-c.667) Wilfrid thus spent much time in Mercia between there was a gap until Chad, who had been ousted 665 and 709, and may well have played a role in the from York to readmit Wilfrid, became bishop at conversion of our region, although this cannot be Lichfield in 669. verified in the absence of charters. Royal involve­ Wilfrid could have answered Wulfhere's appeals ment in the founding and ruling of minsters such as between 667 and 669. Eddius gives no clue to the Aylesbury and Bicester, especially the role played location of any churches founded by Wilfrid in by royal women as early abbesses, is consistent Mercia on the 'many pieces of ground in various with what we know from Bede and other contem­ places' which Wulfhere granted to him. One of porary sources about kingdoms from Kent to them was probably Oundle. Other possibilities Northumbria. The sub-kings who ruled Mercia include Brixworth, where a great basilican church under Wulfhere and lEpelred also played an impor­ survives, and even Wing. tant role in creating the network of primary min­ The arrival of archbishop Theodore in 669 led to sters: Fri5uwald was associated with Chertsey in changes in the English church. Wilfrid regained the Surrey, Fri5uric with Breedon in Leicestershire, see ofYork and soon founded another monastery at and Berhtwald with Malmesbury. The early bish­ Hexham, like Ripon built on a lavish scale in stone. ops of Anglo-Saxon origin, most of whom came Both had crypts for the veneration of relics ( cf. from a royal/aristocratic milieu, also played a key Wing and Brixworth).38 Theodore at last began to role in founding and endowing new churches. subdivide the unwieldy English dioceses in the Eorcenweald, from 675-693 670s, creating three new sees in Northumbria and played a role in three of the four kingdoms in the two in Mercia. Wilfrid set off to Rome to appeal, London area, as Wilfrid did through much of The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire c.650-c. JJ OO 67 England at various times.43 annum (cf. £16 for the borough itself). Ten cottars The minster at Staines, known only from a were probably connected with the borough.45 The chance reference in Domesday Book, may have bishop also held Oawcott, which we are told 'lies in been either a direct foundation of a seventh-century the church ofBuckingham',46 part of the minster's bishop of London, or a colony of Eorcenweald's endowment. Here two bordars and a slave farmed church at Chertsey. In either case, it could have about 150 acres, probably a demesne farm. The acted as the missionary centre and mother church name of the settlement means 'rent-paying cot­ for south-east Buckinghamshire, giving rise in turn tage[s]' (OE gafol, cot). to new churches like Burnham. The church at Aylesbury was also in the hands of the , but its endowment is not VII mentioned. Its special status is alluded to in the Having examined the initial conversion to entry for Stoke [Mandeville], which had been held Christianity, we turn to the period up to the by the bishop before 1066, together with the upheavals caused by Scandinavian incursion and church.47 This estate had 21 ploughs and a settlement after 850, and to the subsequent two recorded population of 45 (c.230 people), of whom centuries to the . Here we are on eighteen were bordars paying rent of 20/- per year, even more difficult ground, as the sketchy sources and probably associated with the urban life of make those of the seventh century seem prolific. Aylesbury. Old English stoc generally signifies Between 700 and 850, our region was fully inte­ 'secon lary settlement' , 'otLtlying farmstead', grated into the Mercian kingdom. For most of this although it can also have reli.gious overtones.48 Its period Mercia exercised hegemony over southern use in this case may derive from a long-standing England, especially under JEpelbald and Offa (716- connection between the minster and its estate 796). Buckinghamshire suffers from an almost beyond the edge of the royal manor. The key item complete dearth of charters for this period and is states that 'from the eight hundreds which lie in the likewise ignored by the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle circuit of Aylesbury, each sokeman who has one and other narrative sources. hide or more pays one load of corn to this church'. It seems that three, possibly six primary minsters As usual, this information conceals as much as it had been established by c.750: Aylesbury, Bucking­ reveals. Latin circuitus may mean something tech­ ham and Wing, with North Crawley, Oakley and nical, akin to the circuits of counties allotted to Burnham as possibles. It remains to consider any groups of Domesday commissioners, but equally churches founded 725-850, and after 900, espe­ might mean only the area surrounding Aylesbury. cially during the revival of monastic and pastoral Also, it may not mean eight Hundreds, but rather activity from the mid-tenth century. A fourth phase lands assessed at 800 hides. The total assessment includes the creation of what later became the "typ­ for the three Hundreds of Aylesbury is 382 hides, ical" village church in large numbers, which was a and for the three Chiltern Hundreds 366 hides, feature of the eleventh century and later, as indi­ making a total of 748. Alternatively, the Cottesloe vidual landowners successfully eroded the monop­ group totalled 371 hides (753 with Aylesbury). oly hitherto enjoyed by the minsters. Before Given the uncertainty about the presence of a pri­ turning to the exiguous charter evidence, we will mary minster in the Chiltern region, the former return to Domesday Book. would seem more likely. Sokemen virtually disap­ The Buckinghamshire folios contain very little peared locally after 1066, so it is impossible to information about the church, much of it enig­ know how many such men had been affected. In matic. It is the ancient minsters which mainly fea­ Middlesex, where details of landholdings are ture, because they possessed significant and given, 36 men were .in Lbis category Ln 1086 in a valuable endowments. Thus, the church at coun ty assessed at 880 hides. 49 AI plied locally, this Buckingham was held by the bishop of Lincoln (a might indicate that around thirty or so individuals see created in the with the removal of the owed the render of a load of corn to Aylesbury diocesan centre from Dorchester).44 It had land for church. four ploughs, together with a recorded population A second to Aylesbury minster is noted of sixteen (a total of 80-90 people), a mill, meadow under Stoke. Prior to 1066, but not later, each soke­ land and wood for fencing. It was worth £6 per man owed one acre of corn, or fourpence. It is even 68 K. A. Bailey more difficult to estimate what this render might estates at , Aston Abbots and have been worth to the church, but it has all the Winslow, from Offa of Mercia in 792,58 who was hallmarks of antiquity, perhaps even before the said to have had them from Alhmund as a concept of tithe was fully established. The ability to forfeit for not going on a military expedition. We commute the render to a money payment, however, do not know if Alhmund was the head of a local has a later, possibly eleventh-century feel to it. The minster, or if these three estates had merely been apparently abrupt abolition under William I proba­ part of the endowment of a church some distance bly reflects the creation of more and more local away. 59 A grant by Offa in the 790s is possible, churches by manorial lords (eigenkirchen- propri­ since he seems to have been concerned to promote etary churches), whose owners would have St. Albans, although the estates may well have been objected to the continued flow of resources to lost in the uncertain times of the ninth and tenth Aylesbury. 5° centuries, before being granted anew by a later, Haddenham had a church with a priest called west Saxon ruler, in a charter which bas not sur­ Gilbert and its own assessment of three hides, one vived. plough and four families, worth 60/- (cf. the whole The process by which the nuns of Barking in estate £40). 51 Haddenham had passed to the arch­ Essex acquired their sole local estate at Slapton is bishop of Canterbury since 1066. In the absence of unfortunately lost to view. Given its remoteness, it any charters, it is impossible to guess when this seems unlikely to have been an original endow­ church was founded, although given its proximity ment. It probably came about after the was to Aylesbury, it must have been a "secondary" min­ refounded in the 970s. 60 Perhaps a lay owner of ster, perhaps established in the tenth century. Slapton had some connection with Barking, possi­ There are several references in Domesday to bly through a relative who became a nun there. The homo domini 'a man of 'od ', holding land in canons of St. Frideswide's church in Oxford had I066. 52 These seem unlikely to have been parish obtained their ten-hide estate at priests, since presbyter is used for them, they may before I 002, when their original title was destroyed have been monks or . At Clifton Reynes, in the St. Brice's Day massacre.61 A new charter Wulfwin held one hide in 1066.53 At Soulbury, Dot was issued in I004. Cookham minster possessed held half a virgate (possibly I5-20 acres), with four one hide at Boveney before I 066, but again there is oxen, worth four shillings. 54 On one of the numer­ no indication of how long-standing the link might ous estates at Lavendon, Wulfric held five virgates have been. During the eighth century, Berkshire jointly with Burgred in I066.55 They are both was debatable land between Wessex and Mercia, described as thegns, in this case a local usage after which it remained with the former, south denoting sokemen. This land was worth 20/-. Buckinghamshire remaining Mercian. 62 Lavendon is one of the few churches to have possi­ Buckland was in the hands of the bishop of ble Anglo-Saxon fabric (see below). Dorchester/Lincoln in 1066 and 1086. A character­ Monasteries outside Buckinghamshire had been istic strip-estate of the Vale and Chiltems, it was endowed with land in the county for centuries, and assessed at ten hides. The name derives from OE this continued to and after 1066. Westminster bocland, 'land granted by charter', but the docu­ abbey had acquired Denham in 1065, for exam­ ment concerned no longer survives. Its relatively ple. 56 Its estate at East Burnham was in lay hands small size, together with the discontinuities in the in 1066, although the three thegns who held it owed history of the bishopric of Dorchester, suggest that five ora (one ora=16d- so the render totalled 7/6) this was a tenth/eleventh-century grant, Buckland to the minster at Staines.57 Staines was also a being detached from Drayton Beauchamp, another Westminster estate, although there is no reference ten-hide strip. Both had a common history as a in the Middlesex Domesday to a church. The detached part ofYardley Hundred. held two major estates, at It had been unusual for continental churches to [West] Wycombe and lvinghoe before I066, hold property in England before 1066, but by 1086, although no charters survive to tell us when he one of the 2~-hide estates at Crafton in Wing had acquired them, nor is any church mentioned in con­ been given to the monks of St. Nicholas of Angers nection with either estate. by its new tenant-in-chief the count of Mortain.63 St. Albans was supposed to have obtained its Similarly, the count had granted an eleven-hide The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire c.650-c.JJOO 69 estate at Marsh Gibbon and six hides at to have been an economic, rather than an eccelsiasti­ the monks of Grestain. 64 Walter Giffard, sheriff and cal, link, since Wulfrner held land in three other largest lay landowner in post-conquest Bucking­ shires. 70 More probable evidence of a local church hamshire, had given five hides in Great Woolstone is to be found at Wavendon, where the to the monks of St. Peter of Couture.65 None was priest held one virgate from ofNuneham associated with the creation of new cells of their in both 1066 and 1086.71 This land had four oxen respective monasteries, and their total value was and three bordars, and was worth 5/- per annum. It only £21 per annum, little enough when the cost of may represent glebeland. administering such remote properties is taken into The sum total of the Domesday evidence for account. The foundation of new religious houses in churches in Buckinghamshire is meagre and more the county did not begin until the end of the than usually allusive. The best that can be said is eleventh century. that Buckingham, Aylesbury, Haddenham and Another Domesday problem is the ownership of North Crawley had churches, and that lvinghoe, land in 1066 by the "men" of religious houses , Wingrave, Soulbury and Wavendon which passed thereafter to laymen. For example, may have had them. To this small tally we may add three men of St. Albans held two estates at Pitstone, Whitchurch, whose name denotes a church either which passed to Mortain. 66 These seem likely to built of stone, or of wood painted or plastered in have been men who had commended themselves to some way. 72 Stone churches were not common at the abbot in some way, the land remaining theirs to the parish level in the eleventh century, especially dispose of. More complicated is Godwin, a priest in areas lacking good quality building stone, so the of archbishop , who held three virgates in latter meaning may apply, unless the two thegns fvinghoc Aston, on which were four oxen (half a who had held Whitchurch in 1066 were wealthy ploughtcam and one villein. 67 This passed to the enough to afford a more enduring fabric. count ofMortain after 1066. Was Godwin the priest of an otherwise unrecorded pre-conquest church at VIII Ivinghoe? Or was he merely a sokeman of Stigand Buckinghamshire is not well served by pre­ who had numerous "men", religious and lay, scat­ conquest charters, and none ofthem provides direct tered across the county? Ivinghoe itself was held by evidence for the existence of churches in the the bishop of Winchester, and was a substantial county. Few of them even indicate ownership of twenty-hide estate. It may have had a church by local estates by churches located elsewhere. For 1066. The bishop until 1070 was none other than example, the well-known grant of Winslow, to St. Stigand, a noted pluralist. This strengthens the case Albans in 792 tells us nothing of how this impinged for Godwin being the parish priest, and his holding upon the rights and pastoral duties of the minsters the glebe land. at Aylesbury and Buckingham. It is perhaps sug­ Another priest called Godwin had held half-a­ gestive that the block of territory granted to St. hide at Tyringham in 1066, which passed to Albans lay on the outer margins of their jurisdic­ William Peverel. Nothing before the twelfth cen­ tions, and may have been intended to lead to the tury survives in the fabric of St. Peter's church, creation of a new, secondary minster. Although although there may have been an earlier buildjng, Winslow and Granborough were retained into the whose priest was Godwi11. 68 At Wingrave, Thurstan later medieval period, there was no link between St. the priest held half-a-hide from Miles Crispin in Albans and Swanbourne in 1066. This was also I 086, although he had not been there in 1066, when true ofTurville, which was said in a dubious char­ Leofrner held the land. It had four oxen and one ter of 796 to have been granted by Offa to St. villein, and was worth 10/- a year ( cf. Ivinghoe Albans, although the VCH states that part of the Aston above). 69 There is no architectural evidence parish was a St. Albans manorJ3 for a church at Wingrave this early, but it is possi­ In her will of 966x975, lElfgifu, the widow of ble that we have here an indirect record of its foun­ king Eadwig, left Bledlow to the New Minster at dation between 1066 and 1086. Winchester, Whaddon to Romsey abbey and At Hartwell, Wulfrner, one of king Edward's Chesham to Abingdon. 74 In no case did the con­ priests, had held two hides in 1066, which passed to nection survive in 1066.75 We have no clue as to William the chamberlain. This seems more likely to whether lElfgifu's beneficiaries took steps to pro- 70 K. A. Bailey

vide churches on these estates. many familiar characteristics. It was natural that Monks Risborough was subject to a complex new landowners, often based on their estates, with series of transactions after c.990.76 It was acquired new villages, would want to round off their prop­ by Canterbury some time after 903, when it had erty with a church which was a source of profit to been granted by the rulers of Mercia and Wessex to them, just like the village house plots and the mill. a layman. It was given to bishop lEscwig of Unfortunately, the survival of church fabric dat­ Dorchester by archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury in able to the Anglo-Saxon period is even scarcer than exchange for a substantial payment to buy off the the relevant documentation. There is however some Danes who were threatening to burn Christ Church, benefit in that fabric, charters and Domesday Canterbury. This position was formalised in a grant entries rarely coincide, which lengthens the meagre by king lEpelred to lEscwig in 994-5. The land was tally of churches in the county in the late-eleventh finally bequeathed to Christ Church by archbishop century somewhat. There is neither space nor lElfric in 1003--4. The church at Monks Risborough authorial expertise to allow for a detailed examina­ is dedicated to St. , the only example in the tion of the architectural evidence. For those who county. This clearly marks it as a Canterbury foun­ wish to pursue this aspect further, the volumes of dation, although it is impossible to tell if this had Taylor & Taylor and the references therein are happened before 1066. essential reading, not least because they highlight In 1015, lEpelstan, son of lEpelred the Unready, the perils and pitfalls of finding and dating fabric bequeathed an estate at Marlow to the Old Minster which has survived for a minimum of nine cen­ at Winchester, which he had purchased from his turies.81 Given the chances of rebuilding since father.77 None of the four estates called Marlow 1086, absence of notionally Anglo-Saxon fabric were in the hands of Winchester in 1066. It is pos­ should be treated with the same caution as a lack of sible that the church at Great Marlow dates from documentary evidence. the eleventh century. It appears that St. , All Saints Wing is obviously the largest and by one of the key clerical figures of the early eleventh far the finest survivor, a major basilican church of century visited Marlow, and that may have pro­ the seventh-eighth centuries, modified in the tenth­ vided the catalyst for a church there. 78 eleventh. 82 Stone churches in the earliest phase of The Wulfnoth who bequeathed Halton to the conversion were the exception, especially in an Canterbury at some time in the 1020s or 1030s,79 area where the local stone was not plentiful. The subject to a life interest for his son Toki, is just the size of the nave, and the apsidal chancel with its sort of layman who might have founded an ring crypt all bespeak the importance of Wing. eigenkirche on his property. It was a five-hide Alas, we do not know whose relics were venerated estate, the minimum possession for a true thegn, there, 83 nor any details of its foundation. Wing may and this was the time when the erosion of the have been a daughter church of the minsters at ancient minsterlands, such as that of Aylesbury, Aylesbury or Leighton Buzzard. Equally, it may was beginning in earnest. The same might have have been founded independently, for example by been true ofWulfstan, who gave his ten-hide estate Wilfrid (see above). The local Hundredal meeting­ at Denham to Westminster abbey in 1065, the last place was in Wing parish, and the name derives year before the arrival of the Normans. 80 from a group whose territory probably covered the same area, if not more. It clearly had significance IX as a central place. The main east-west route Our sources indicate that there was probably a through Wing is a continuation of a track called the wave of church-building going on across Bucking­ Edeway in Bedfordshire (OE peod, weg, 'people's hamshire in the second half of the eleventh century. way'), and there may have been a north-south The present parochial system was emerging from Roman road in the area.84 the old minster territories. The creation of a class of Pre-conquest remains in local churches other middling landowners by the break-up of the royal than Wing do not amount to much, even if we patrimony, the injection of a relatively free society include Caversfield, which was a detached part of in the Dane law and the creation of new, nucleated the county from before 1066 until the nineteenth settlements with communal open field systems all century. Here, St. Laurence's church has late meant that the landscape after 900 was taking on Anglo-Saxon work at the base of its tower. The The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire c.650-c.1100 71 building of a church on this five-hide estate would X be lypical of the pe1i od 1050-1100, possibly by Reference has already been made to the values of Edward, a man ofTostig who held it in 1066. 85 At churches in the year 1291. These data come from the opposite extremity of the shire, lver church (St. the so-called Taxatio Ecclesiastica of Peter) has some Anglo-Saxon work in the nave and Nicholas IV, which provides the first comprehen­ chancel walls. 86 This was an important estate in sive listing of churcheR in our area.9° Certain 1086, and the church may have been a secondary churches stand out with especially high values, sev­ minster foundation. The church was valued at fifty eral of them known minsters. High values assigned marks (£33/6/8) in 1291, one of the top dozen in to churches which are in otherwise unremarkable the county. places may be indicative of an earlier special sig­ St. Michael's Lave11don has some pre-conquest nificance. That is, erstwhile Anglo-Saxon minster remnants in its tower nave and chance1. 87 This was churches may still have retained assets and rights at a highly fragmented vill, both in 1066 and after, the end of the thirteenth century which mark them and the church seems likely to have been built by out as different, even though by that time the full one of the more important thegns. Burgred is a pos­ network of parochial churches had been created. It sible candidate, since he held about nine hides out must be emphasised, however, that in the centuries of twenty. On one holding, the joint owner Wulfric which had elapsed since 1066, churches of all sorts is described in Domesday as 'a man of God', and had been endowed with lands and goods which may have been the local priest. may well skew the data presented in Taxatio More marginal, in the sense that the fabric which Ecclesiastica. remains could belong to either the pre- or post­ The values in Table 1 have been converted to a conquest periods, are St. Mary, Clifton Reynes, and common basis of marks, which is how many are St. John the Baptist, LitUe Missenden.88 The expressed in the original (1 mark=13/4=£0.67). former has possible Saxon work in the nave and Details are given for 168 locations, although fur­ tower, but no early doorways or survive. ther churches and chapels are subsumed within At Missenden, there is possibly eleventh-century some ofthe entries. Some of the minsters had such work in the nave and chancel. Judging from the dependencies, indicating that they retained the abil­ later history of the advowson, the church would ity to collect dues beyond the later parish in which have belonged to the one hide held in I 086 by the they stood, and were also able to prevent some count of Mortain as successor to Alwin. 89 chapelries from attaining parochial status. Smaller Anglo-Saxon fabric may survive in other churches have been grouped. Some groups contain churches, hidden from view by later plaster and more than ten or twenty locations, since large num­ paint, but it seems unlikely after decades of bers of churches share a few common values: research that the tally would dramatically increase eleven have values of twenty marks, eight of fifteen the number of churches in existence in 1066. It is marks, and no fewer than eighteen were assessed at perhaps unfortunate that the Norman Conquest ten marks per annum (£6.67). took place at a time of vigorous new church build­ The average value of all Buckinghamshire ing, and that the so-called Norman style took some churches in 1291 was almost twenty-one marks time to filter down to the local level, perhaps not (£14) per annum. This was very skewed by the until the mid-twelfth century in some cases. large number of low-value churches, since only Certainly almost all parochial churches in forty-eight had values above the average, and of Buckinghamshire seem to have been erected by these half were worth thirty marks (£20) or less. 1200, and some of those which appear to be High-value churches were therefore very much the Norman may be rebuildings of earlier, wooden edi­ exception. Some of them are known to have been fices. Without much more in the way of archaeo­ Anglo-Saxon minsters: Buckingham, Aylesbury, logical and architectural evidence, however, it Wing, Haddenham and North Crawley, although would be unwise to estimate whether the number of the latter was assessed at only thirty marks, having churches in the county after four centuries of apparently lost whatever significance it may have Christian endeavour was fifty, or a hundred, rather had when the Domesday survey was undertaken. than the score or so for which there is robust The problem remains: which other churches had evidence. once been minsters, either "primary", established 72 K. A. Bailey

TABLE 1 Buckinghamshire 1291: Church values [marks]

Rank Location/Group Value Average

1 Buckingham Prebend/Horley 270 2 Aylesbury Prebend/Chapels 185 3 Hanslope 70 4 Amersham 68 5 Burnham 61 6 Chesham 60 7 Ivinghoe 55 8 Wycombe 52 9= 50 9= Olney 50 9= Great Marlow 50 9= Wraysbury/Langley 50 9= Iver 50 14= Haddenham 46.5 14= Wing 46.5 16 Edlesborough 45 17 Newton 41.5 18= Averingdown [W Wycombe] 40 18= Oakley/Brill/ 40 20 /Lt. Linford 37 1-20 TOTAL 1367.5 68.37 21-30 Total 314 31.40 31-40 Total 242 24.20 41-60 Total 414.6 20.73 61-80 Total 367.5 16.70 81-100 Total 250.2 12.51 101-120 Total 245.3 10.22 121-140 Total 170.9 8.55 141-168 Total 115.3 6.07 during the conversion period c.660-725, or "sec­ tions. Wycombe, with links to the bishopric of ondary", founded after c.850 to fill in the extensive Winchester and to St. Wulfstan, its administrative gaps in the primary network? Several high-value importance, and evidence of archaic royal renders, churches are in market towns, which from their is perhaps the best candidate here for a "primary" population and prosperity might be expected to minster.91 have well-endowed churches, even if they had not Rural churches of high value are even more prob­ been founded before 1066. In this group are lematic, since they may have been endowed by pious Amersham, Chesham, High Wycombe, Marlow, benefactors after the Conquest, rather than having Olney, Wendover and Newport Pagnell. There is no residual high status from before 1066. Hanslope, evidence in Domesday Book that any but the last of assessed at seventy marks, would certainly fill a sub­ these had any urban/commercial attributes. Some stantial gap in the network of high-status pre­ or all of the others may have had prescriptive mar­ Conquest churches in the far north of the county, kets. If they also possessed churches by 1066, these perhaps equating to the territory ofBunsty Hundred, may have been minsters, probably later founda- itself named after a possible early religious site. 92 The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire c.650- c.JJOO 73

Burnham, although of high value itself [61 marks; tions, having been founded before shire boundaries £40/13/4], seems to have been associated with an were crystallised in the tenth century. Buckingham otherwise unknown minster at Staines in west town lies north of the Ouse and as such within the Middlesex. (Staines and its daughter church at territory of Stotfold Hundred. It may therefore Laleham were assessed at 81X marks in 1291, the always have served as the local mother church for most valuable in Middlesex.) It may be that lands on both sides of the river. Leckhampstead, Burnham was a secondary minster, serving the terri­ worth only 24 marks in 1291, is probably too close tory of the eponymous Hundred. to Buckingham. A better candidate would be Iver was a large estate in I 086, and as such might Stowe, although that too abuts Buckingham. Its have had a church by then, possibly serving as the name, while merely denoting 'a place' in Old minster for Stoke Hundred, although Wraysbury English, often has a religious connotation ( cf. church was equally valuable and a potential candi­ Stow-on-the-Wold). 94 Unfortunately, nothing is date for this role. Ivinghoe, the seventh most valu­ known of its early history, although its location on able church in 1291 may likewise have been the a Roman road adjacent to Lamport (OE lang port, mother church for Yardley Hundred. Neighbouring 'long market [town]') hints at some special signifi­ Edlesborough, however, was almost as valuable, cance. Perhaps it had once been associated with an although once again there is no clue to their origins. unknown Anglo-Saxon saint. Ivinghoe was in the hands of the bishop of In Ashendon Hundred, which had presumably Winchester before 1066, and a church may have been in the parochia of Oakley minster, been founded in the late-tenth to early-eleventh cen­ was a possible secondary minster, worth 33 marks tury following the revival of Winchester itself. in 1291. Waddesdon, a 25-mark church in 1291 is It seems, therefore, that in addition to the five the obvious candidate in the eponymous Hundred. known minsters in Buckinghamshire, there are six In Mursley Hundred, the St. Albans estate of places which may be considered "possibles": Winslow (28 marks) is most valuable church, but it Hanslope; Brill/Oakley; Burnham; Ivinghoe/ should remembered that Mursley both gave its Edlesborough; Iver/Wraysbury and High/West name to the Hundred, and to the later Rural Wycombe. Taken together, eleven churches still rep­ Deanery. It also grew to be a market centre in the resent an extremely attentuated provision for the thirteenth century, albeit one which had already whole shire. If it be assumed that each of the eigh­ failed by 1279.95 teeen Hundreds which made up the shire had some In Risborough Hundred, Monks Risborough is kind of minster church at the end of the first millen­ probably the best candidate for the "mother" nium, then Lamua, Stotfold, Ashendon, Waddesdon, church, although the dedication to St. Dunstan can Mursley, Risborough and Seckloe Hundreds seem hardly date from earlier than the 990s. Princes to lack this basic provision, although they may still Risborough (St. Mary) has a parish which is twice have been under the control of the relevant "pri­ as large, and this may represent the location a new mary" minster. There are no real pointers in the minster taking part of the old parochia of church dedications of Buckinghamshire, always Aylesbury. Finally, in Seckloe Hundred, the only assuming these to be of great antiquity and not sub­ obvious choice is church, albeit only ject to change. With the exception ofNorth Crawley with a value of22X marks in 1291. Like Iver at the (St. Firmin) and Monks Risborough (St. Dunstan), opposite end of the county, this was a large unitary almost all come from a relatively limited stock of estate in 1066, although divided between three names and none commemorates an Anglo-Saxon thegns. It had a large contingent of slaves and a saint apart from St. Swithin at Swanbourne. St. demesne of nine hides out of a total of twenty, sug­ Andrew, Wraysbury may, however, be a pointer to gestive of a former royal possession, which would early importance, as this dedication is suggestive of have enhanced the chances of a church being early foundation in England."3 founded there before the end of the tenth century Where these "missing" secondary minsters were can only be conjectured. In Lamua Hundred, Marsh XI Gibbon is a possibility. Its location on the Having reviewed the various sources for the history Oxfordshire boundary need not invalidate its claim, of the first four centuries of Christianity in Buck­ since several known minsters occupy similar posi- inghamshire, it remains to draw together the evi- 74 K. A. Bailey dence. It must be re-emphasised at the outset that One fact which does emerge reasonably clearly is the county is badly served in almost every respect that the primary minsters seem to have been pro­ when it comes to this crucial aspect of its early vided on the basis of one for each of the later triple medieval history. Whether it be the early back­ Hundreds. This suggests that these units were of ground to the conversion, the survival of docu­ some antiquity, and certainly by the late-seventh ments, Domesday Book, or architectural and century, that is at the time of the conversion, 300- archaeological remains, this area has little to show. hide territories seem to have been the smallest enti­ The timing and direction of the original impetus ties recognised as separate polities. They long for converting pagan Anglo-Saxons is obscure, predate the creation of the shire in the tenth century. although it seems most likely that it began in the 650s Whether they were already subdivided in the way and that the role of the Mercian royal house was that is recorded in Domesday Book is not clear, but probably most influential in founding the first minster it seems that the individual Hundreds may each churches. As such, Buckinghamshire came late to the have had a secondary minster church, dating from conversion process, in part reflecting the obdurate the ninth-eleventh centuries. After c.1 000 there was paganism ofPenda, but also the fact that it lay remote a trend away from district churches, using groups of from the key foci of missionary activity. It seems priests and monks to cover extensive tracts of coun­ likely that Wilfrid played a role in the early decades, try, as landowners began to establish churches perhaps even founding one or more minsters. which they could control, and profit from. Some of Compared with these few shafts of light, the these had certainly appeared in the county by 1066, period from about 725 to 1000 is even more but there were probably more than are mentioned in obscure, although it must have seen at least the Domesday Book. basic framework of primary and secondary min­ All in all, the church occupied a progressively sters completed and nominal conversion of the bulk more important role in society, and in the local of the population. The spread of local, usually pro­ landscape and economy from its first appearance prietorial churches which became the parish around 660, and it is unfortunate that we know so churches of the eleventh century and beyond is little of the detail. likewise shrouded in obscurity. With few excep­ tions, most of them minsters, Domesday Book REFERENCES passes over the provision of churches in the county at the end of the eleventh century, and it is not until 1. K.A. Bailey, 'Early Anglo-Saxon Territorial 1291 that we have anything approaching a full list Organisation in Buckinghamshire and its of churches and their relative values. Neighbours', Recs. Bucks. 36 (1996 for 1994), Despite this, the county was evidently converted 129-143. and equipped with churches in the same way as 2. C. Hart, 'The Kingdom of Mercia' in A. other parts of seventh-century England, with the Domier (ed.) Mercian Studies (Leicester ruling elites providing both the initial converts and 1977), ch. 3. the early endowments for new churches, and often 3. D.P. Kirby, 'Welsh Bards and the Border', in their earliest heads. The early bishops often ibid., 35-6; B. Colgrave & R.A.B. Mynors belonged to this milieu, a fact which doubtless (eds.), Bede 's Ecclesiastical History of the facilitated the process. How the new religion fil­ English People (Oxford, 1969), III, 24 (here­ tered down through the mass of the population can after HE). only be guessed at, although it seems reasonable to 4. See HE passim; H. Mayr Harting, The Coming suppose that the average peasant in the local coun­ of Christianity to Anglo-Saxon England, 1972. tryside had little or no regular contact with the 5. HE II, 5; also III, 30 for East Saxon apostasy. church prior to the eleventh century, however effi­ 6. R.P. Hagerty, 'The Buckinghamshire Saints cient and energetic the pastoral care was. Even Reconsidered 2: St. Osyth & St. Edith of where they received instruction and the sacraments, Aylesbury', Recs. Bucks. 29 (1987), 125-132; the majority are unlikely to have had a very deep K.A. Bailey, 'Osyth, Frithuwold and Ayles­ involvement, compared with later centuries, when bury', ibid. 31 (1989), 37-48. the church was the focus of each local community, 7. A Vince, Saxon London, 1990. its priest, ideally at least, a resident member. 8. K.A. Bailey, 'The Middle Saxons', m S. The Church in Anglo-Saxon Buckinghamshire c.650-c.JJOO 75

Bassett (ed.), The Origins of Anglo-Saxon 33. M. Reed, The Buckinghamshire Landscape Kingdoms (Leicester, 1989), 108-122. (1979), 74-76. 9. HE II, 9-17. 34. Domesday Book (hereafter DB), vol. I, fol. 10. HE III, 3, 5, 6, 9-17; Synod of Whitby HE III, 146a. (The most accessible edition is that pro­ 25. duced by Phillimore of Chichester in 1978.) 11. HE II, 15; III, 18-19. 35. Eddius Stephanus, Life of Wilfrid, D. Farmer 12. HE III, 7 (ed.), J. Webb (trans.) (Harmondsworth, 1965) 13. HE III, 21. Hereafter Wilfrid. 14. HE III, 24. 36. HE III, 25. 15. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, MS E, s.a. 656; WT. 37. Wilfrid, ch.l4. Mellows (ed.), The Peterborough Chronicle of 38. Taylor & Taylor, Ripon 1015-7; Hexham 763- Hugh Candidus (Oxford, 1949). 4, 1015-7; Brixworth 108-114. 16. HE III, 24. He was related to Oswiu and had 39. Wilfrid, ch.40. been abbot of Gilling in north 40. P.H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annot­ 17. S. Keynes, 'Episcopal Succession in Anglo­ ated Handlist and Bibliography (1968), no. Saxon England', in llcllldhvok of British 1169. HereafterS. Chronology, 3rd. ed., 1986, 209- 224. 41. Wilfrid, ch.45. 18. K. Branigan, The Catuvellauni (Stroud, 1985), 42. Wilfrid, chs.S0-60. ch.6 43. D. Whitelock, 'Some Anglo-Saxon Bishops of 19. E.A. Thompson, St. Germanus ofAuxerre and London' Chambers Memorial Lecture 4 May the End ofRoman Britain (Woodbridge, 1984). 1974, Univ. Coli. London, 1975. 20. HE I, 7 & 17. 44. DB I 143a. 21. K. Rutherford Davis, Britons and Saxons 45. C. Dyer, 'Towns and Cottages in Eleventh­ (Chichester, 1982), 11, 143. Century England', H. Mayr-Harting & R.I. 22. Ibid., passim. Moore (eds.), Studies in Medieval History 23. Victoria County History of Buckinghamshire, Presented to R.HC. Davis (1985), 91-106. I, 200-203. 46. DB I 144a. 24. Bailey, Middle Saxons; M. Gibbs, Early 47. DB I 143d. Charters of St. Pauls (1939), J9, p.5 48. A.H. Smith, The Place-Name Elements (Cam­ 25. M. Farley, ' in Aylesbury and the Early bridge, 1956), vol. 2,153-5. History of the Town', Recs. Bucks. 21 (1979), 49. K.A. Bailey, 'The Hidation of Middlesex', 116-121; B. Durham, 'Traces of a Late Saxon Trans. London & Middx. Arch. Soc. 39 (1988), Church at St. Mary's Aylesbury', Recs. Bucks. 165-186. 20 (1978), 621-626. 50. R. Morris, Churches in the Landscape (1989), 26. Bailey, 'Osyth, etc.', passim. ch.IV 'Mushrooms in the Night'. 27. J. Blair, 'Frithuwold's kingdom and the origins 51. DBI143d. of Surrey', in Bassett (ed.), Origins, 97-107. 52. DB note 5.17 in the Phillimore ed. 28. R.P. Hagerty, 'The Buckinghamshire Saints 53. DB I 145c Reconsidered 3: St. Rumwold Buckingham', 54. DB I 150c. Recs. Bucks. 30 (1988), 103-110. 55. DB I 145c. 29. G. Foard, 'The Administrative Organisation of 56. s 1040, 1043. Northamptonshire in the Saxon Period', 57. DB I 145d. Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology & 58. S138; E.J. Bull & J. Hunt, 'Rewalking the History, 4 (1985), 185-222. Tenth-Century Perambulation of Winslow 30. H.M. & J. Taylor, Anglo-Saxon Architecture Manor', Recs. Bucks. 38 (1998), 90-108; (Cambridge, vols. I & II 1965, vol III 1978). A.H.J. Baines, 'The Winslow Charter of 792 31. K.A. Bailey, 'Early Anglo-Saxon Territorial and the Boundaries of Granborough', ibid. 22 Organisation'. (1980), 1-18. 32. R.P. Hagerty, 'The Buckinghamshire Saints 59. An abbot Ealhmund witnesses charters of the Reconsidered 1: St. Firmin of North Crawley', Mercian kings in Kent in 789 [S130, 131] and Recs. Bucks. 27 (1985), 65-71. 799 [S155]. 76 K. A. Bailey

60. D. Knowles et al., The Heads of Religious 81. Taylors, passim. Houses in England & 940-1216 82. Ibid., 665-672. (Cambridge, 1972), 208. 83 . D. Rollason, 'Lists of Saints' Resting-Places in 61. s 909. Anglo-Saxon England', Anglo-Saxon England 62. Anglo-Saxon Chronicle s.a. 779; F.M. Stenton, 7 (Cambridge, 1978), 61-94; WT. Mellows Anglo-Saxon England (Oxford, 1947), 208. (ed.), The Peterborough Chronicle of Hugh 63. DB I 146b. Candidus, 62. 64. DB I 146c. 84. A. Mawer & F.M. Stenton, The Place-Names of 65. DB I 147d. Bedfordshire & Huntingdonshire (Cambridge, 66. DB I 146b. 1926), 122; Viatores, Roman Roads in the 67. DB I 146c. South-East Midlands (1964), 300-305, subject 68. DB I 149a. to the usual caveats about this work. 69. DB I 150b. 85. DB I 148b; Taylors, 153. 70. DB I 151b. 86. Taylors, 335-338. 71. DB I 145d. 87. Taylors, 376-377. 72. A. Mawer & F.M. Stenton, The Place-Names 88. Taylors, 717; 1074, 988-989. ofBuckinghamshire (Cambridge, 1925), 86. 89. DB I 146a. 73. VCH Bucks., III, 103; S 150. 90. S. Ayscough & J. Caley (eds.), Taxatio 74. S 1484; D. Whitelock, Anglo-Saxon Wills Ecclesiastica Angliae et Walliae auctoritate P. (1930), 118-121. Nicholae IV c.AD1291 (1802). 75. DB I, 146a; 147c; 150d. 91. Baines, 'St. Wulfstan in Buckinghamshire'. 76. s 1378 92. K.A. Bailey, 'The Hidation of Bucking­ 77. S 882; D. Whitelock (ed.), English Historical hamhsire II' Recs. Bucks. 34 (1994 for 1992), Documents c.500-1042 (1979), 527-529; S 92. 367; s 1488 93 . F. Arnold-Forster, Studies in Church­ 78. S 1503; A.H.J. Baines, 'St. Wulfstan in Buck­ Dedications, or England s Patron Saints 93 inghamshire' Recs. Bucks. 30 (1988), 42-52. vols., 1899. 79. S 1464, 1466; A.H.J. Baines, 'Halton in the 94. Smith, Elements II, 158-161. Eleventh Century' Recs. Bucks. 33 (1991), 95. W Illingworth & J. Caley (eds.) Rotuli 64-67. Hundredorum, 2 vols. (1812-1818). 80. s 1040.

This paper has been published with the aid of a grant from the Marc Fitch Fund.