St. Peter-on-the-Wall

View from the southeast

View from the west

The Anglo-Saxon Church of St. Peter-on-the-Wall near Bradwell-on-Sea in Essex dates from the middle of the 7th century and is therefore one of the oldest preserved church buildings in England .

location

The church or chapel (chapel) of St. Peter-on-the-Wall is about 3 km walk north-east of Bradwell-on-Sea at a height of about 30 m near the mouth of the Blackwater River in the English Channel . The closest major cities are Chelmsford (approx. 40 km to the west) and Colchester (approx. 50 km to the north).

history

Born in Northumbria and trained in Lindisfarne Monastery , Bishop Cedd founded a monastery around the year 654 near the ruins of the Roman fort Othona and had the first church built, which was enlarged or renovated in the years that followed. After Cedd's death (664), the monastery became part of the Diocese of London . In a letter from 1442 to the Bishop of London it is mentioned that the church had been slightly enlarged and had a roof turret with a bell . However, the roof of the church including the ridge turret burned down a few decades later; then the building was no longer used for sacred purposes, but was used as a barn . It was not until 1920 that the old church was restored and rededicated. The chapel is now part of the Chelmsford diocese of the Church of England and is administered by the parish of Bradwell on Sea.

architecture

The church, partly built from antique broken stone and bricks , is a rectangular hall building with an open roof and an unadorned portal in the west, above which there is an arched window . The former apse was torn down at some point; its floor plan is still recognizable. It is rather unlikely that the three rectangular windows on the long sides belong to the original building stock; A barn door was later broken through on the south side, but it was walled up again. Remnants of the wall of later demolished outbuildings are still visible.