The Minster Church of St Mary, Stow in Lindsey, is a major Anglo-Saxon church in Lincolnshire and is one of the largest and oldest parish church buildings in England. It has been claimed that the
Minster originally served as the cathedral church of the
diocese of Lindsey, founded in the 7th century and is sometimes referred to as the "Mother Church of Lincolnshire".
It is partly Saxon and partly Norman in date and is designated by
English Heritage as a Grade I listed building
and was also included in the
World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and traini ...
's 2006 list of the world's 100 most endangered sites.
It has the tallest Saxon arches of its time in Britain,
the earliest known example of Viking graffiti in England (a rough scratching of an oared Viking sailing ship, probably dating from the 10th century), an Early English font standing on nine supports with pagan symbols around its base and an early wall painting dedicated to St
Thomas Becket
Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...
.
Today it is part of the Stow Group of Churches.
History
The bishop's
seat at ''Sidnacester'' (Syddensis) has been placed, by various commentators, at
Caistor
Caistor is a town and civil parish in the West Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. As its name implies, it was originally a Roman castrum or fortress. It lies at the north-west edge of the Lincolnshire Wolds, on the Viking Way, and jus ...
,
Louth Louth may refer to:
Australia
* Hundred of Louth, a cadastral unit in South Australia
* Louth, New South Wales, a town
* Louth Bay, a bay in South Australia
**Louth Bay, South Australia, a town and locality
Canada
* Louth, Ontario
Ireland
* Co ...
,
Horncastle
Horncastle is a town and civil parish in the East Lindsey district in Lincolnshire, east of Lincoln. Its population was 6,815 at the 2011 census and estimated at 7,123 in 2019. A section of the ancient Roman walls remains.
History Romans
Alt ...
and, most often, at
Stow, all in present-day
Lincolnshire, England,
but the location remains unknown.
More recently
Lincoln has been suggested as a possible site.
There had been a church in Stow even before the arrival of the Danes in 870, the year they are documented to have burnt the church down.
The building remained in ruins until an abbey was built in 1040, reputedly by bishop
Eadnoth II.
Ralph de Diceto
Ralph de Diceto (or Ralph of Diss; c. 1120c. 1202) was archdeacon of Middlesex, dean of St Paul's Cathedral (from c. 1180), and author of two chronicles, the ''Abbreviationes chronicorum'' and the ''Ymagines historiarum''.
Early career
Ralph is ...
attributes the church's foundation to Elnothus Lincolniensis, almost certainly
Aelfnoth,
Bishop of Dorchester, c. 975, who built the church, possibly on the site of an earlier wooden Saxon church, to serve as a
minster (or mother church) for the Lincolnshire part of his large diocese. It was a second cathedral because part of the bishop's household of priests (which later became the cathedral chapter) lived in Stow and administered this part of the diocese. The memory of this period gave rise to the tradition that Stow is the Mother Church of
Lincoln Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Minster, or the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Lincoln and sometimes St Mary's Cathedral, in Lincoln, England, Lincoln, England, is a Listed building, Grade I listed cathedral and is the seat of the Angl ...
.
It is said to have been re-founded and re-endowed in 1054 by
Leofric and
Godiva encouraged by
Wulfwig as a minster of secular canons with the bishop at its head. In 1091
Remigius of Fécamp re-founded it as a
Benedictine
, image = Medalla San Benito.PNG
, caption = Design on the obverse side of the Saint Benedict Medal
, abbreviation = OSB
, formation =
, motto = (English: 'Pray and Work')
, found ...
abbey - Stow Abbey - and brought monks to it from
Eynsham Abbey, describing the church as having been a long time deserted and ruined. Within five years his successor had transferred the monks back whence they had come and St Mary's had become a parish church.
Victoria County History of Lincolnshire: Houses of Benedictine monks - the abbey of Stow
/ref>
In 1865 J. L. Pearson built the stair turret outside the church. This was originally inside the church in the nave up against the north side of the tower arch. At the same time some windows were altered and the church was re-roofed. A new vestry was added in the early 1990s (some skeletons and a broken 13th-century limestone cross were found during the work).
A mile to the west of the village and lying just to the south of the Roman road from Lincoln to York, known as Tillbridge Lane, are the remains of the medieval palace of the bishops of Lincoln built in 1336. All that can be seen today are the earthworks of the moat and to the north and east of the site the earthwork remains of its associated medieval fish-ponds.
Conservation issues
The church is a Grade I listed building, and is included in the 100 most endangered sites in the world by the World Monuments Fund
World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and traini ...
in 2006. The site is also a scheduled monument, though the building itself is excluded from the schedule.
The first stage of conservation needed is weatherproofing. Only then can internal decoration can be addressed. It is estimated that the work will take at least 10 years to complete and cost between £2 million and £3 million at current prices.
See also
* List of ecclesiastical restorations and alterations by J. L. Pearson
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stow-In-Lindsey, Minster
11th-century church buildings in England
Church of England church buildings in Lincolnshire
Grade I listed churches in Lincolnshire
Standing Anglo-Saxon churches
Scheduled monuments in Lincolnshire
J. L. Pearson buildings