Those Anglo-Saxons knew a thing or two. About church buildings, for instance. There are a handful of churches in England where today’s worshippers are kneeling in the place where pre-Conquest English men and women came together as Christians. Such buildings deserve to be looked after.
Let’s check them out. First comes Brixworth. ‘For age and size,’ says Simon Jenkins, ‘Brixworth has few rivals in northern Europe.’ Betjeman’s ‘Guide’ describes it as ‘a prodigious seventh-century Saxon church of the first importance.’ It is treasured by local worshippers today who are exerting themselves to ensure that their church is preserved for future generations. An active ‘Friends’ body is under-pinning their efforts. There are various websites with pictures that provide evidence of the worth of this unique place of worship.
Nearby is another Anglo-Saxon treasure. Earls Barton has a much-photographed distinctive tower with elaborate string-work. The tower of the parish church may have been the original worship-space. In Betjeman’s words it is ‘a massive and beautiful work, redolent of all that is best in the Anglo-Saxon tradition.’
In another county, Lincolnshire, is to be found a weighty example of Anglo-Saxon craftsmanship. Stow parish church, now dignified by the title ‘minster’, is a commanding building, the vault of which is, in Simon Jenkins’ words ‘a triumph of stone engineering’ Nigel Kerr described the church as ‘prodigious’ and commented ‘it has been rightly hailed as one of the greatest surviving Anglo-Saxon churches.’
And then there is the Anglo-Saxon church in Bradford-on-Avon. This church mysteriously went missing for centuries. It was discovered in 1856 after being used as a school, a dwelling-house and a warehouse. ‘St Laurence is unique among Saxon churches in never having suffered alteration,’ says Simon Jenkins.
So much for Anglo-Saxon architecture. Literature is another field in which Anglo-Saxons were renowned. Just as the Greeks had ‘Iliad’ and the Romans had ‘Aeneid’, so the Anglo-Saxons had ‘Beowulf’. And we still speak the language they gave us. ‘Hie dygel lond warigeath, wulf-hleothu, windage naessas frecne fen-gelad …’ (‘They live in a land of mysterious secrecy, slopes haunted by wolves, a terrifying region which crosses the fenlands …’) A period in our history that gave birth to such poetry is not without lustre. They knew a thing or two. What they did not know was that the nation was about to be transformed by an overwhelming invasion.
IMBALANCE
John Routh, Rector of Holy Trinity Sutton Coldfield, looks ahead and thinks in terms of an impending transformation in many areas of the Church’s life. Finance is one aspect. ‘In round numbers 60 p.c. of what is given comes from 20 p.c. of the congregation, most of them retired and increasingly elderly. We need to spread that load -- we are vulnerable to anything happening to that 20 p.c.’
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