The Church of St Aldhelm and St Eadburgha in

Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

, England dates from the 13th century, and has been designated by

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

as a grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The dedication is unusual.

St Aldhelm Aldhelm ( ang, Ealdhelm, la, Aldhelmus Malmesberiensis) (c. 63925 May 709), Abbot of Malmesbury Abbey, Bishop of Sherborne, and a writer and scholar of Latin poetry, was born before the middle of the 7th century. He is said to have been the s ...

(c. 639-25 May 709), was

Abbot Abbot is an ecclesiastical title given to the male head of a monastery in various Western religious traditions, including Christianity. The office may also be given as an honorary title to a clergyman who is not the head of a monastery. The ...

Malmesbury Abbey Malmesbury Abbey, at Malmesbury in Wiltshire, England, is a religious house dedicated to Saint Peter and Saint Paul. It was one of the few English houses with a continuous history from the 7th century through to the dissolution of the monasteri ...

Bishop of Sherborne The Bishop of Sherborne is an episcopal title which takes its name from the market town of Sherborne in Dorset, England. The see of Sherborne was established in around 705 by St Aldhelm, the Abbot of Malmesbury. This see was the mother diocese of ...

, Latin poet and

Anglo-Saxon literature Old English literature refers to poetry and prose written in Old English in early medieval England, from the 7th century to the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, a period often termed Anglo-Saxon England. The 7th-century work '' Cædmo ...

scholar, was born before the middle of the 7th century. According to the Historic England website, the other dedication is to St. Eadburh of Winchester, granddaughter of

King Alfred Alfred the Great (alt. Ælfred 848/849 – 26 October 899) was King of the West Saxons from 871 to 886, and King of the Anglo-Saxons from 886 until his death in 899. He was the youngest son of King Æthelwulf and his first wife Osburh, who ...

. Most other churches dedicated to her are in the vicinity of

Pershore Abbey Pershore Abbey, at Pershore in Worcestershire, was an Anglo-Saxon abbey and is now an Anglican parish church, the Church of the Holy Cross. History Foundation The foundation of the minster at Pershore is alluded to in a spurious charter of Ki ...

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see H ...

, where some of her remains were transferred after her death: a cult grew up around her veneration.Farmer, David (2011)
"Edburga of Winchester"
''The Oxford Dictionary of Saints'', 5th ed revised, Oxford University Press, p. 134. The second dedication to St Eadburgha may be relatively modern: ''A Topographical Dictionary of England'' (1848) lists it as being dedicated to St. Aldelme (sic) only. Old English and Medieval spellings are found in various forms, and St. Eadburgha is probably not to be confused with

Edburga of Bicester Eadburh of Bicester (also Eadburth, or Edburg, death c. 650) was an English nun, abbess, and saint from the 7th century. She has been called a "bit of a mystery"; there have been several Saxon saints with the same name, so it is difficult to pi ...

, an

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

saint from the 7th century and a daughter of King

Penda of Mercia Penda (died 15 November 655)Manuscript A of the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' gives the year as 655. Bede also gives the year as 655 and specifies a date, 15 November. R. L. Poole (''Studies in Chronology and History'', 1934) put forward the theor ...

. There are thought to be only two churches dedicated to her, in

Bicester Bicester ( ) is a historical market towngarden town and civil parish in the Cherwell district of northeastern Oxfordshire in Southern England that also comprises an eco town at North-East Bicester and self-build village aGraven Hill Its loca ...

and

Stratton Audley Stratton Audley is a village and civil parish about northeast of Bicester in Oxfordshire, England. Manor The Domesday Book of 1086 records that Robert D'Oyly held five hides of land at Stratton. Like many D'Oyly manors, Stratton later becam ...

, both in Oxfordshire. The church's isolated position away from the village is thought to be because of an outbreak of the

plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pe ...

. The churchyard cross is also from the 13th century. The church also still houses the original wooden

bier A bier is a stand on which a corpse, coffin, or casket containing a corpse is placed to lie in state or to be carried to the grave.''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'' (American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, ...

used at funerals over a century ago.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadway, Church of Saint Aldhelm and Saint Eadburgha 13th-century church buildings in England Church of England church buildings in South Somerset Grade I listed churches in Somerset Grade I listed buildings in South Somerset

See also

References

External links