First cathedral, King Wulfhere's

Summary.   King Wulfhere fixed the location of the first cathedral and must have organised its building. By the 8th-century the church was elaborate and decorated.

King Wulfhere of Mercia and Bishop Wilfrid of Ripon selected a sacred site called Licetfelda, later Licitfelda, c,667–8, for an early church.[1] “He (Wilfrid) knew of a place in the kingdom of Wulfhere, King of the Mercians, his faithful friend, which had been granted to him at Lichfield and was suitable as an episcopal see.” Wulfhere had given a large estate to Wilfrid and it seems he wanted Wilfrid to be his next Bishop of Mercia, but instead a new Archbishop of Canterbury arrived in 669, and intervened by appointing Chad of Lastingham.[2]

AI rendition of King Wulfhere and Bishop Wilfrid fixing the location of the first cathedral of Lichfield

Chad died, probably of a plague variant, and was buried at Lichfield in 672. The location of Chad’s grave and a shrine tower were revealed in 2003.[3] See the post ‘Chad's grave-the evidence,’ Wulfhere was King of the Mercians for 17 years, 658-75, and in this time set up Chad’s cathedral-church and his grave eventually becoming a shrine for pilgrims. Bede records the cathedral church was called St Peters and the grave was near a cemetery chapel called St Marys.[4]

AI rendition of the first pilgrims visiting Ceadda's (Chad) grave by St Mary's chapel

The premiss is Wulfhere would be like all Early Medieval kings of the late 7th-century and build a first cathedral to impress. Bede records that King Ecgfrith of Northumbria, 670–85, brought masons and glaziers from Gaul to build churches literally ‘in the manner of the Romans’ (Romanum).[5] Wulfhere presumably did likewise for his growing kingdom of Mercia.

The location and nature of the first cathedral is unknown, though some features can be deduced.

1.     Wulfhere would have insisted on a stone church.[6] The reason for the changeover from timber to stone churches has been much speculated. Indeed, churches in Wales and Ireland did not change to stone construction for another three centuries. The Roman mission culminating in the Synod or Council of Whitby, 663–4,[7] is clearly a critical influence. Bishop Wilfrid had Ripon and York churches rebuilt in stone.[8] This was repeated at Hexham, Hartlepool and most likely at Lindisfarne. It is thought Early Medievalists perceived stone as the material not just of Rome and the Roman Church, but as the material of permanence. Timber was the perishable material of the cyclical natural world and transient human life.[9] Stone also differentiated the new Roman church from the small, wooden Celtic, folk, pagan churches and temples.

   AI rendition of King Wulfhere from his statue on the west front of the cathedral. He is carrying his cathedral, the first at Lichfield, and it resembles the 7th-century church of St Peters in Wearmouth.  

Escomb, County Durham, the late 7th-century church was constructed of reused Roman stone, but its proportions are that of the putative timber church at Yeavering. It was therefore a bridge between two very different traditions, the layout being ‘Germanic’ and the masonry Roman.[10]

 

AI Headda holding a church like Escomb. The small statue is in the north choir aisle. Bishop Headda, 691-c.709 or 721, is credited in some websites with building the first cathedral in 700; this is untrue and is based on an unreliable 14th-century text written by a cathedral scribe/vicar. Headda was a minor bishop and under the control of Bishop Wilfrid of the Middle Angles.

2.    The cathedral most likely was constructed wholly or in part from recycled Roman material obtained from Wall (Letocetum). The roof could have been Roman tile and looked like St Martin’s, Canterbury, the earliest stone church still in use, dating from the 590s. Its chancel is built of Roman brick, and its later nave is of reused Roman stone and brick, “laid in the Roman manner.”  

Possible original plan of St Martins, Canterbury. St Augustine from the south doorway arrived in 697.

      St Martins Canterbury, middle section dated to 600s.

The recycling of Roman material also occurred with the church-cathedral of Chad’s older brother Cedd, at Bradwell-on-Sea, Essex. The church was on the edge of a large Roman shore fort and part is considered to be still standing.[11]

St.Cedd's church of St Peter, Bradwell-on-Sea, and its plan.

3.   The floor might have been recycled Roman tile or brick which was crushed and mixed with mortar to create a distinctive pink floor. It has been noted at Glastonbury, Reculver, Canterbury and Jarrow, and suggested early churches declared their Romanitas through plastered masonry buildings and terracotta-coloured floors in stark contrast to traditional timber and earth constructions.[12]

Excavated Saxon church at Glastonbury, c. 700. At Glastonbury, the old timber church of St Mary was joined by the church of St Peter, built by King Ine, 688–726, which incorporated an early stone hypogeum on the site.

4.  The cathedral probably stood to the west of the shrine. There are 9 possible examples of Early Medieval mausolea being small square, or rectangular buildings east of the church.[13] Some of the examples are questionable, especially in regard to their existence. If Lichfield follows this linear tradition, then St Peters was located at the west end of the nave. St Marys cemetery chapel would be somewhere to the east of Chad’s shrine and near the cemetery uncovered in the choir area. Blair identified where a church was dedicated to an apostle and paired with St Mary, the lesser St Mary church often stood due east of the apostolic church and this followed Continental practice.[14] Gittos expressed it as many chapels were situated in an easterly position when within a group.[15]

5. The cathedral could have been decorated, well-lit and furnished with valuable vestments. Aldhelm wrote a poem, 689­-709, describing a church built by Bugga, possibly his sister.[16] It was rectangular, lofty and had 12 altars. It glowed within with gentle light, presumably from oil lamps or bee’s wax candles, and had glass windows. The altar cloth glistened with gold twisted threads. A gold chalice had jewels attached and the platen was silver. A main cross was burnished gold and silver and had jewels attached. A metal censer embossed on all sides hung down by chains and through openings, it let out the smell of frankincense. There was a good chance the walls were plastered or lime washed and even had some painting. If there was a painted image, the likeliest being Mary, since the apse was dedicated to the Virgin. If a baptismal receptacle was present, it could have been wooden, but equally possible would be a stone bowl with incised figures. The altar table would most likely be made from stone and positioned so that worshippers could stand close to it. Near it might have been a small calling bell.

AL rendition of Bugga’s church

A poem known as the Song of the Abbots written between 803 and 821 by an unknown monk, gave some detail of three imagined churches which might have been based on Bywell monastery, Northumberland, or Crayke monastery, Yorkshire.[17] It described a cruciform church with lofty walls and lead on the roof. Three large altars with substantial jewelled crosses were placed with one in the nave and one in each side porticus. The altars with golden offerings, perhaps a reference to a chalice, had garlands of gold flowers which could have been on the altar cloth. There was also a tomb with relics and across the top was a sparkling vestment of fine linen.

6.    Whether the cathedral had a square or rounded apse is uncertain. Some contemporary churches had a square east end, such as at Wearmouth, Escomb, Bradford-on-Avon in Wiltshire, and Glastonbury, whilst others had a round apse, such as at Bradwell, St Augustine and St Martins at Canterbury, Lyminge, and St Paul in the Bail at Lincoln.

 Lyminge church with apse and triple arch to the nave.  

    

St Paul in the Bail, Lincoln, indicating an outline of a 7th century church

7.   There is no firm evidence for church towers in England until the early tenth century, and none before c.800.[18] This is tentative because there is no standing 6th to 8th-century church in existence. An early example, late 8th-early 9th-century, is at Brixworth, Northamptonshire. It is unlikely even a low tower was present in Wulfhere’s cathedral.

Extrapolation

Wulfhere’s cathedral was 60feet (4 short perches) long and 30feet (2 short perches) wide.[19] Walls were sandstone and plastered internally and externally, so coloured white. Roof was timber or thatch. The nave had seats and probably men and women sat separately. An apse contained a stone slab altar. The apse was separated from the nave by a triple arch. Windows were small and glazed. The floor was either cobbled stone, stone slabs, or pulverised tile. The bishop had his own stone seat, a cathedra, and King Wulfhere a throne chair. Walls were decorated with biblical artwork. Many oil lamps were on wall niches. The bishop used a small calling handbell.

AI rendition of people accessing the sacred landscape of Lichfield, 7th to 8th-century. The sandstone hillock had a church, shrine tower and a cemetery chapel.    

AI rendition of Wulfhere’s cathedral. The king and queen are on the right. The altar could be at the east end of the nave, or beyond the triple arch in an apse.

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[1] Wilfrid’s life is known from his biography Victa Sancti Wilfridi I. Episcopi Eboracensis. Edited by B. Colgrave, The Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus. (Madison: 1927), 33. This was later referred to in Bede’s Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, Book 4 Chapter 3. The ecclesiastical history of the English People, 731. Bede listed this work as Historiam ecclesiasticam nostræ insulæ ac gentis in libris V, which translates to, The ecclesiastical history of our island and nation in five books.

[2] A. Thacker, ‘Wilfrid, his cult and his biographer.’ Wilfrid Abbot, Bishop, Saint. Papers from the 1300th Anniversary Conference, ed. N. J. Higham. (Donington, 2013), 6. If Wilfrid was Bishop of Lichfield, 667/8‑9, then Chad was the 6th bishop of Mercia.

[3] W. Rodwell, Archaeological excavation in the nave of Lichfield Cathedral. Lichfield, Unpub. report in Lichfield Cathedral Library. (2003). Also W. Rodwell, Revealing the history of the Cathedral. 4. Archaeology of the Nave Sanctuary. 67th Annual Report to the Friends of Lichfield Cathedral held in Lichfield Cathedral Library. (2004). Also W. Rodwell, ‘The forgotten cathedral.’ Current Archaeology, (2006), 18, 1 (205), 9–17.

[4] Bede HE, Book 4 chapter 3. See note 1.

[5] Historiam Abbatum 5, in C. Plummer Venerabilis Baedae Opera Historica (Oxford: 1896), 1, 368, quoted by M. Shapland, ‘The Cuckoo and the Magpie: The building culture of the Anglo-Saxon Church.’ Chapter 5 in The Material Culture of the built environment in the Anglo-Saxon World, eds. M. C. Hyer and G. R. Owen-Croker, (Liverpool: 2015), 95.

[6] There was a distinction between building in timber, which encompassed nearly all known secular buildings, and building in stone, which was almost exclusively confined to ecclesiastical structures. See Shapland (2015) 100, note 5.

[7] The importance of this council has been argued. Essentially it was a local gathering of the leading clergy of the Northumbrian church with some national bishops and presided over by King Oswiu. It was symbolic. It marked Romanisation of the church, but the changes were not fundamental. Perhaps, the most surprising aspect was the hosts were the nuns of the monastery at Whitby (Bede names it as Streanæshealh, which means ‘the bay of the lighthouse’.) It was a testimony to Hild s influence, both as a member of the royal family of Northumbria and as abbess of the monastery. Those who exalt the early Celtic (Ionian) church see Whitby as a disaster, mainly from the perspective of Roman control and order. The Roman church, unlike the Celtic, was seen to be obsessed with sin.

[8] Bede (731) HE, book 2, ch. 14. See note 1.

[9] M. Shapland, (2015), 100. See note 5.

[10] E. Fernie, The Architecture of the Anglo Saxons, (New York: 1983),59.

[11] Bradwell-on-Sea was a Roman Saxon Shore fort known as Othona. The Early Medievalists originally called it Ithancester. Cedd founded a cathedral within the old walls in 653, which survives as the restored Chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall, and is one of the oldest churches in Britain. 

[12] R. Gilchrist and C. Greeb, ‘Glastonbury Abbey archaeological investigations 1904–79. The Society of Antiquaries of London, (2015), 418.

[13] M. Shapland (2015) 108. See note 5.  Kings or saints were buried in either a porticus on the side of the nave, such as Canterbury, Wearmouth, Hexham and Ripon, or in a separate mausoleum east of the church such as at Glastonbury, Whithorn, Hexham, Wells, Worcester, Winchcombe, Repton, Gloucester and possibly Bradford on Avon.

[14] J. Blair, The church in Anglo-Saxon society (Oxford: 2005), 200.

[15] See note 5. H. Gittos, (2013), 100.

[16] Aldhelm's poem ‘On the Church of Mary Built by Bugga’ records the consecration on 15/16 August of a church with an apse dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was constructed by a daughter of Centwine, king of the West Saxons. https://doi.org/10.25446/oxford.13909079

[17] The Song of the Abbots, De abbatibus, is a Latin poem by a 9th-century monk called Æthelwulf. It recounts the history of his monastery and its abbots. The three manuscripts were composed between 803-21 and addressed to Bishop Ecgberht of York.

[18] R. Gem, ‘Staged Timber Spires in Carolingian North-East France and Late Anglo-Saxon England’, Journal of the British Archaeological Association 148 (1995), 40–44.

[19] See the post, ‘Second cathedral was Early Medieval’.