Uploader's Comments

Although this church is generally described as Saxon to a Romanesque design I believe there is a very strong case for suggesting that, like England's earliest church in Canterbury, this is an adapted Roman building that is three or four centuries older than generally believed. We know there was a Roman settlement nearby. The arches and much of the stonework with the Roman pantiles are virtually identical in style to the Roman remains at Leicester's Jewry Wall. Also the Saxons generally did not build large stone buildings to this design (we know it was much wider at some point). But the clinching evidence must surely be where the classic Saxon window in the wall of the west tower has been cut into an earlier small arch of the same design as the larger arches in the church. This can be seen in the centre of the picture. The only builders earlier than the Saxons in this country were, of course, the Romans.