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Abstract
The earliest standing fabric of the church of St Leonard, Southminster, is the early-12th-century nave, but the place-name betrays earlier origins. It was almost certainly the minster of Denesige mentioned in the will of Bishop Theodred of London of 942 x 951, but the former may have been founded in the early 8th century, when an earlier bishop of London, Ingwald, was granted a substantial amount of land in the Dengie Peninsula in eastern Essex in which Southminster is situated. Though test-pitting at Southminster has failed to reveal Anglo-Saxon pottery, metal detecting has revealed a number of sceattas nearby. Moreover, neighbouring Asheldham, which has produced middle Saxon ceramic, may have been a ‘home farm’ of Southminster. The latter was one of a number of ‘directional’ minsters in Essex and Kent named from their compass direction in relation to a parent minster. It is suggested that these were founded as a form of ‘outreach’ near to what were already community foci.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many thanks are due to the two anonymous reviewers who commented on an earlier draft of this paper.
Notes
1 Bede, Ecclesiastical History of the English People, trans. J. McClure and R. Collins (Oxford 1994), Bk III, 22; E. Fernie, The Architecture of the Anglo-Saxons (London 1983), 38; D. Secker, ‘The church of SS Peter and Paul, West Mersea, Essex: an Anglo-Saxon minster on a major Roman villa Site’, JBAA, 172 (2019), 1–23, at 4.
2 P. H. Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters: An Annotated List and Bibliography (London 1968), no. 1458a.
3 Ibid., no. 1526.
4 S. E. Kelly, Charters of St Paul’s, London (London 2004), 147.
5 Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters, no. 1787; Kelly, Charters of St Paul’s, 145–47, no. 6.
6 A. Williams and G. H. Martin, Domesday Book: A Complete Translation (London 2002), 975.
7 D. Bethell, ‘Richard of Belmeis and the foundation of St Osyth’s’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 3rd series 2, part 3 (1970), 299–328, esp. 303–04 and 324–25.
8 Ibid., 304, 327. There is no reason why Leland should have invented this.
9 Ibid., 324–25.
10 P. Morant, The History and Antiquities of the County of Essex, 2 vols (London 1768), I, 367.
11 J. Denton, ‘Benefice of Southminster’, Taxatio Database: https://www.dhi.ac.uk/taxatio/search?form=allnames&name=Southminster (accessed 20 June 2022).
12 R. H. Britnell, ‘Essex markets before 1350’, Essex Archaeology and History, 13 (1981), 15–21.
13 VCH, Essex II (London 1907), 161.
14 O. S. Anderson, The Hundred Names of the South-Eastern Counties (Lund 1939), 48–49.
15 S. Rippon, A. Wainwright and C. Smart, ‘Farming regions in medieval England: the archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological evidence’, Med. Archaeol., 58 (2014), 195–255, esp. 198–200.
16 T. Ennis, ‘Former Croxley Works site, Church Street, Maldon, Essex: archaeological evaluation and excavation’, ECC Field Archaeology Unit Report 1763 (Chelmsford 2009), 8–20.
17 D. Secker, ‘St Mary, The Hythe, Maldon, Essex: The Anglo-Saxon Minster and Romanesque cruciform church’, Church Archaeology, 18 (2019 for 2015), 27–43, esp. 32–33, 35–37.
18 S. Morris and D. G. Buckley, ‘Excavations at Danbury Camp, Essex, 1974 and 1977’, Essex Archaeology and History, 10 (1978), 1–28, esp. 10, 18–19, 21.
19 T. Williamson, ‘The ancient origin of medieval fields: a reassessment’, Archaeol. J., 173 (2016), 264–87, at fig. 5.
20 M. Christy, ‘On Roman roads in Essex: second supplement’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, new series, 17 (1926), 83–100, esp. 88–97.
21 P. J. Drury and W. J. Rodwell, ‘Investigations at Asheldham, Essex: an interim report on the church and historic landscape’, Antiq. J., 58 (1978), 135–51, esp. 134–37.
22 Williamson, ‘Medieval fields’, 271–75.
23 Ibid., 272–73 and fig. 8.
24 M. Atkinson and S. Preston, Heybridge, a Late Iron Age and Roman settlement: excavations at Elms Farm 1993–5, East Anglian Archaeology Report, 154 (Chelmsford 2015), 134.
25 C. Collins, Archaeological Test-Pitting in Althorne, Essex in 2018 (Cambridge 2019), 7, 12–13, 17.
26 W. A. Hurrell, ‘Roman remains at Southminster’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, new series, 5 (1894), 70.
27 Drury and Rodwell, ‘Asheldham’, 137.
28 D. Gurney, ‘Red Hills of the Dengie Peninsula’, Essex Archaeology and History, 12 (1980), 107–09; Essex County Council, The Maldon Coast: An Overview of Management Issues Affecting the Historic Environment of the Rural Coast of the Maldon District (Chelmsford undated), 10–11.
29 D. Payne, ‘Archaeological and historical desk-based assessment for the proposed solar farm at Southminster Hall, Goldsands Road, Southminster, Essex’ (Stowmarket 2013), 7–8. Available from the Archaeology Data Service: https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/library/browse/issue.xhtml?recordId=1150450&recordType=GreyLitSeries (accessed 20 June 2022).
30 E. Scott, A Gazetteer of Roman Villas in Britain (Leicester 1993), 64; C. Wallace, ‘Maylandsea’, Essex Archaeology and History, 26 (1995), 223.
31 Secker, ‘St Mary, Maldon’, 36–37. The interpretation of the land granted to Ingwald in that paper is revised here.
32 In 1837, the arable of north Mayland comprised 818 acres, 2 roods and 28 perches (J. Beardsley, ‘The place-names of Mayland’, Essex Place Names Project (2010), 11–14: www.essex.ac.uk/history/esah/essexplacenames (accessed 5 March 2022). This equates to 6.82 notional hides of 120 acres. Clearly, caution must be exercised in extrapolating from 19th-century data, but it might be postulated that the bishops gained about 6¾ hides whenever they acquired this land.
33 Secker, ‘St Mary, Maldon’, 36–37.
34 British Geological Survey map 241: Chelmsford: http://www.largeimages.bgs.ac.uk/iip/mapsportal.html?id=1001734 (accessed 5 March 2022).
35 Reproduced in Payne, ‘Assessment’, 21.
36 The 1775 map is reproduced in Anon, Maldon District Council, Southminster Conservation Area Review and Appraisal (Maldon 2004), cover. That of 1790 is reproduced in Payne, ‘Assessment’, 23–24.
37 S. Garnham, ‘The place names of Southminster’, Essex Place Names Project (2015), 6, 59: www.essex.ac.uk/history/esah/essexplacenames (accessed 20 June 2022)
38 As indicated on Chapman and André’s map of 1777, where it is labelled ‘parsonage’.
39 Payne, ‘Assessment’, 22, where the glebe is labelled ‘Pp.’.
40 Garnham, ‘Place names’, 59.
41 P. G. Laver, ‘Pandal Wood Camp’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 2nd series, 19, part 4 (1930), 255–59.
42 Laver’s survey of the earthworks has now been clarified by LiDAR data: https://www.lidarfinder.com/ (accessed 20 June 2022). The plan of the earthworks on Fig. 4 is based on the latter.
43 K. Orr, ‘An archaeological evaluation on land at the junction of Hall Road and Goldsands Road, Southminster, Essex’, Colchester Archaeological Trust report, 176 (2002).
44 Laver, ‘Pandal Wood’, 258, note 2.
45 C. Collins, Archaeological Test-Pitting in Southminster, Essex in 2015–2017 (Cambridge 2019).
46 Ibid., 13, 16, 18, 38, 46.
47 Ibid., 8–11, 16, 19, 34–35, 37, 47.
48 J. Bipsham, ‘Recent metal detector finds from Essex and Lincolnshire’, British Numismatic Journal, 56 (1986), 183–85. The exact location of the finds is undisclosed, presumably for the usual reasons.
49 G. Williams, ‘The Anglo-Saxon gold coinage, volume 1: The transition from Roman to Anglo-Saxon coinage’, British Numismatic Journal, 80 (2010), 51–75, esp. 58, 68; A. Mirrington, ‘Transformations of Identity and Society in Essex, c. AD 400–1066’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Nottingham, 2013), 171.
50 Mirrington, ‘Transformations’, 184, 192.
51 Ibid., 188–89, 195–96.
52 D. Metcalf, ‘Between sceattas and Offa’s pence: mint attributions and the chronology of a recession’, British Numismatic Journal, 79 (2009), 1–33, esp. 1, 13–14.
53 For a discussion, see for example K. Ulmschneider, ‘Settlement, economy and the “productive” site: middle Anglo-Saxon Lincolnshire AD 650–780’, Med. Archaeol., 44 (2000), 53–79, esp. 62–63. Southminster is omitted from Mirrington’s list of Essex ‘productive sites’ although it has produced only one less coin than Barking, which is included: Mirrington, ‘Transformations’, 309–12.
54 CAA, Southminster, cover; Garnham, ‘Place names’, 10, 59. In Braughing (Herts), the sub-manor of Queenbury was probably named after King Stephen’s queen, Matilda of Boulogne: VCH, Hertford III (London 1912), 309. Quenby (Leics.) was Queneberie in 1086, when it was held by one Roger for Robert de Tosny (Williams and Martin, Domesday, 638, 1391). In both cases, the ‘bury’ element denotes a ‘burh’ in the manorial sense.
55 An alternative is that it is named after Anne of Cleves, who was granted the estate of Ray or Wraywick in Southminster in 1540 (Morant, History, 366). There are two reasons why it is unlikely that Quinborough was named after her. Firstly, there is no tenurial connection between Wraywick and Quinborough, which was part of the Home Farm estate (Garnham, ‘Place names’, 36, 45). Secondly, by the 16th century, a borough meant a town.
56 Garnham, ‘Place names’, 10. Compare the more famous Cripplegate in London, so named in a law code of AEthelred II of c. 1000: G. Milne, Excavations in Medieval Cripplegate, London: Archaeology After the Blitz 1946–68 (London 2001), 127
57 Williams and Martin, Domesday, 975.
58 J. Bettley and N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Essex (New Haven and London 2007), 717–18.
59 Reproduced in Payne, ‘Assessment’, 21.
60 W. J. and K. A. Rodwell, Historic Churches: A Wasting Asset (London 1977), 72–73.
61 RCHME, Essex, Volume 2: Central and South-West (London 1921), 126–27.
62 For comparative dimensions of petit appareil, see J. R. L. Allen, ‘The petit appareil masonry style in Roman Britain: geology, guilders, scale and proportion’, Britannia, 41 (2010), 149–73.
63 W. J. Rodwell, The Archaeology of Churches (Stroud 2012), 109.
64 For a discussion of galleries, see ibid., 168–72.
65 VCH, Surrey III (London 1911), 388–90.
66 M. C. Bridge and D. Miles, ‘Dendrochronologically dated doors in Great Britain’, Regional Furniture, 26 (2017), 73–103, at 78.
67 R. Baxter, ‘St Nicholas, Tillingham, Essex’, ‘St Andrew, Heybridge, Essex’, ‘St Mary, Chadwell, Essex’ (2015–16). Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland: https://www.crsbi.ac.uk/ (accessed 20 June 2022).
68 Bethell, ‘Richard of Belmeis’, 303–04.
69 Rodwell, Archaeology of Churches, 26–28; D. J. Freke, ‘Excavations in the parish church of St Thomas the Martyr, Pagham, 1976’, Sussex Archaeological Collections, 118 (1980), 245–56.
70 Secker, ‘West Mersea’, 1–23, esp. 12.
71 Ibid., 12; D. Secker, ‘Brightlingsea, Essex: the early church, Roman villa site and late Saxon royal estate centre’ (2020), 6–7, 13–15: https://www.academia.edu/42995931/ (accessed 20 June 2022).
72 Kelly, St Paul’s Charters, 147.
73 ‘Anglo Saxon Chronicle A (Winchester Manuscript)’, in The Anglo-Saxon Chronicles, trans. M. Swanton (London 2000), 100.
74 Drury and Rodwell, ‘Investigations at Asheldham’, 133.
75 C. Ingle and H. Saunders, Aerial Archaeology in Essex: The Role of the National Mapping Programme in Interpreting the Landscape, East Anglian Archaeology Report, 136 (2011), 62–64.
76 Ibid., 73–77.
77 O. Bedwin, ‘Asheldham Camp, an early Iron Age hill fort: excavations 1985’, Essex Archaeology and History, 22 (1991), 13–37.
78 Ibid., 24–25, 29.
79 P. G. Laver, ‘Sunecastre or the camp at Asheldham’, Transactions of the Essex Archaeological Society, 2nd series, 19, part 3 (1928), 179–85.
80 Drury and Rodwell, ‘Investigations at Asheldham’, 137–38.
81 Ibid., 14.
82 D. Andrews and M. Smoothy, ‘Asheldham church revisited’, Essex Archaeology and History, 21 (1990), 146–51.
83 S. Tyler, ‘Saxon pottery’, in Bedwin, ‘Asheldham Camp’, 29.
84 P. Blinkhorn and C. Jarrett, The Ipswich Ware Project: Ceramics, Trade and Society in Middle Saxon England, Medieval Pottery Research Group Occasional Paper, 7 (London 2012), 1–8.
85 A. Telfer, Uphall Camp, Uphall Road, Ilford: A Post-Excavation Assessment (London 2004), 374.
86 Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Bk IV, 6.
87 J. Blair, Building Anglo-Saxon England (Princeton 2018), 192, 209–15.
88 W. J. Rodwell, ‘Some unrecorded archaeological discoveries in Essex, 1946–75’, Essex Archaeology and History, 8 (1976), 234–47, esp. 234–38.
89 J. Blair, ‘Grid-planning in Anglo-Saxon settlements: the short perch and the four-perch module’, Anglo-Saxon Studies in Archaeology and History, 18 (2013), 18–61, esp. 26–33; D. Wright, ‘Early medieval settlement and social power: the middle Anglo-Saxon “home farm”’, Med. Archaeol., 59 (2015), 24–46.
90 Blair, ‘Grid-planning’, 29–30.
91 J. Blair, The Church in Anglo-Saxon Society (Oxford 2005), 193.
92 P. M. Barford, Excavations at Little Oakley, Essex, 1951–78: Roman Villa and Saxon Settlement, East Anglian Archaeology Report, 98 (Chelmsford 2002), 184–87.
93 C. Ferguson, ‘Re-evaluating medieval Northumbrian contacts and the “coastal highway”’, in Early Medieval Northumbria: Kingdoms and Communities, AD 450–1100, ed. D. Petts and S. Turner (Turnhout 2011), 283–302.
94 Secker, ‘St Mary, Maldon’, 36–37.
95 Mirrington, ‘Transformations’, 321–24.
96 Assuming Leland was correct about the lost charter: Bethell, ‘Richard of Belmeis’, 304, 327.
97 R. Jones, ‘Directional names in the early medieval landscape’, in Sense of Place in Anglo-Saxon England, ed. R. Jones and S. Semple (Donington 2012), 196–210.
98 Blair, The Church, 215.
99 Williams and Martin, Domesday, 974. Southchurch was supposedly named in a ‘lost’ charter of 823. See S. Rippon, Stonebridge: An Initial Assessment of its Historic Landscape Character (Exeter 2011), 20, note 4. The charter, if it ever existed, can be regarded as dubious at best.
100 K. P. Witney, ‘The Kentish royal saints: an enquiry into the facts behind the legends’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 101 (1984), 1–22.
101 R. Dale, D. Maynard, S. Tyler and T. Vaughan, ‘Carved in stone: a late Iron Age and Roman cemetery and evidence for a Saxon minster, excavations near St Nicholas’s church, Great Wakering 1998 and 2000’, Transactions of the Essex Society for Archaeology and History, 4th series, 1 (2010), 194–231, esp. 206–09, 226–27.
102 S. Rippon, ‘Early planned landscapes in South-East Essex, Essex Archaeology and History, 22 (1991), 46–60, esp. 55–57.
103 RCHME, Essex, Volume 3: South-East (London 1922), 145–46; Denton, ‘Benefice of Southchurch’, Taxatio Database (2014): https://www.dhi.ac.uk/taxatio/benkey?benkey=LO.ES.BO.04 (accessed 20 June 2022).
104 Because it is on a ‘diagonal’ compass. See Jones, ‘Directional names’.
105 Witney, ‘Royal saints’, 5–7.
106 Sawyer, Charters, no. 91.
107 D. R. J. Perkins, ‘The Roman archaeology of the Isle of Thanet’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 121 (2001), 43–60, esp. 46–47.
108 C. Scull and J. Naylor, ‘Sceattas in Anglo-Saxon Graves’, Med. Archaeol., 60 (2016), 205–41, at 236.
109 Witney, ‘Royal saints’, 10–12.
110 VCH, Kent III (London 1932), 253, 256.
111 N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North and East Kent (Harmondsworth 1983), 303–04.
112 J. Schuster, ‘The neolithic to post-medieval archaeology of Kingsborough, Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey: from monuments to fields’, Archaeologia Cantiana, 130 (2010), 83–104.
113 Ibid., 86–93.
114 Ibid., 96–97.
115 Denton, ‘Benefice of Eastchurch’, Taxatio: https://www.dhi.ac.uk/taxatio/benkey?benkey=CA.CA.SI.05 (accessed 20 June 2022).
116 Sawyer, Anglo-Saxon Charters, no. 1526.
117 Mirrington, ‘Transformations’, 307; Bede, Ecclesiastical History, Bks III, 22, IV, 6.
118 There, Ipswich ware was found some 300 m north of the church, but not near the church itself: Secker, ‘West Mersea’, 5.
119 Rodwell, Historic Churches, 72–73.
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