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Christianity was evidently introduced into
Somerset by British missionaries based on Wales in the fifth and sixth
centuries, the period after the departure of the Romans and before the Saxons
reached the area. Evidence of missionary activity is to be found in the naming
of churches, chapels and holy wells in honour of missionary founders --
usually called saints -- such as St Congar at Congresbury, St Decuman at
Watchet and St Carantoc at Carhampton. After a battle reputedly fought in AD
658 at 'Pen' (?Penselwood), the Saxons swept across Somerset and under King
Ine (688--726) firmly established the rule of Wessex. The Saxon invaders had
recently been converted to Christianity, and the people they conquered were
also Christian. As they established themselves more securely during the
seventh and eighth centuries, the Saxons introduced their own form of Church
organisation. The monastery at Glastonbury, possibly established before the
Saxon conquest, was given lands and money by the Saxons, including some of
their kings, of whom King Ine himself made the great gift of a new church for
the monks. For ordinary churches the Saxon system was based on the minster, a
central mother church with a group of resident clergy who served not only in
the mother church itself but also in smaller daughter churches in the villages
around. Former minster status is recorded, for example, in the place-name
Ilminster, but the great churches at Wells and Bath show best this pattern of
a central minster where a college of priests, or canons, lived in a community
which resembled a monastery but also worked as parish priests. Other similar
foundations existed at Crewkerne, Milborne Port, Frome, Taunton and North
Curry. Some lesser churches lay outside the minster system, having been
provided by landowners for the tenants on their own estates.
It seems probable that the great majority of
early churches were built of wood, for the Saxons had a very strong tradition
of building their halls, houses and barns of timber, though no timber remains
have survived above ground. One of the few Somerset churches where evidence of
Saxon work can still be seen is at St George's, Wilton, a stone church of the
late Saxon period. Just over the border in Wiltshire at Bradford-on-Avon,
there survives a remarkably fine example of a Saxon church which, though quite
small, shows how well the Saxons could build in stone. |
The Diocese of Bath and Wells