St Wystan's Church, Repton

{{For|the church's early history|Repton Abbey}}

The Anglo-Saxon abbey church was cruciform and may have had a tower over its central crossing. The nave of the current church has Medieval Gothic north and south aisles that were rebuilt in the 13th century and widened early in the 14th century.Pevsner & Williamson, 1978, p. 305 The west tower and recessed spire were added in 1340. The top of the spire is {{convert|212|ft}} above ground level. In the 15th century the nave clerestory with its timber roof and the two-storey porch were built and the tower windows were altered. Monuments inside the church include an alabaster effigy of a knight from about 1400 and monuments to members of the Thacker family from 1563 and 1710. The tower has a ring of eight bells, the oldest of which was cast at Leicester in about 1500.{{cite web |url=http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=Repton&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=REPTON |title=Repton S Wystan |last=Dawson |first=George |date=1 July 2009 |work=Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers |accessdate=29 September 2011}}

The church was restored between 1885 and 1886 by Arthur Blomfield.Derby Mercury, 28 July 1886

File:Saxon crypt at Repton - geograph.org.uk - 1089547.jpg]]

The crypt was constructed in the early 8th century; it was built over a spring and is thought to have originally been a baptistery.

The space was converted into a mausoleum for King Æthelbald of Mercia during his lifetime. King Wiglaf and his grandson Saint Wigstan (after whom the later church is named) were also buried in the crypt. It is thought that the royal bodies were first buried in the ground to decompose before their bones were interred in the crypt.

Following Saint Wigstan's burial, the crypt became a place of pilgrimage. However, following the Danish (Viking) invasion, St Wigstan's body was removed and taken with the fleeing monks. It was later returned but King Cnut had St Wigstan's remains removed again in the 10th century, having them reburied at Evesham Abbey in Worcestershire.{{cite web |url=http://www.reptonchurch.org.uk/index.htm |website=Repton Church |title=Time Line |access-date=2013-06-09 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130618152029/http://www.reptonchurch.org.uk/index.htm |archive-date=18 June 2013 }}

Pevsner described the Anglo-Saxon parts of St Wystan's parish church as "one of the most precious survivals of Anglo-Saxon architecture in England".Pevsner & Williamson, 1978, page 303 In addition to the crypt they include the chancel, the northeast and southeast parts of the crossing and part of the north transept. The crypt is a square chamber with a roof of three rows of three domical vaults supported by two pilasters on each wall and four free-standing pillars at the four corners of the central vault.

It has been suggested that the crypt/ baptistry at Repton later influenced the design of both the spiral-columned shrine of Edward the Confessor and the Cosmati Coronation Pavement in Westminster Abbey, both commissioned by Henry III, based on close correspondence of their dimensions and design.{{Cite web |last=Austin |first=Sue |date=21 April 2023 |title=Revealed: Links between Shropshire country hall and the King's Coronation |url=https://www.shropshirestar.com/entertainment/attractions/2023/04/21/revealed-links-between-shropshire-country-hall-and-the-kings-coronation/ |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=www.shropshirestar.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Wenn|first=James|title=Revealed: Secrets in the Stones: Decoding Anglo-Saxon Art. Part 4: The Garnet Code|url=https://www.thegns.org/blog/the-garnet-code |access-date=2023-04-24 |website=www.thegns.org |language=en}} These references are further understood to have been repeated at Soulton Hall in Shropshire, the house of the publisher of the Geneva Bible.{{Cite web |title=The Garnet Code |url=http://www.thegns.org/4/post/2023/04/the-garnet-code.html |access-date=2024-02-04 |website=Thegns of Mercia |language=en}}

• King Æthelbald of Mercia – died 757
• King Wiglaf of Mercia – died 839
• Prince/Saint Wigstan – died 849 (remains moved by King Cnut to Evesham Abbey)

In the 1980s, a mass grave thought to be associated with the Great Danish Army was found in a mound, constructed over the remains of a Saxon chapel, to the west of St Wystan's Church by archaeologists Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle and their team.Biddle, M. & Kjølbye-Biddle, B., 1992, Antiquity, Vol. 66, 1992, pp. 36–51 and 2001, "Repton and the 'great heathen army', 873–4" in Graham-Campbell (ed.) Vikings in the Danelaw: Selected papers from the Thirteenth Viking Congress, 2001, pp. 45–96, Oxford. It contained roughly 300 sets of human remains, about 20% of them women. The remaining 80% were from men aged 18 to 45. Many of them showed signs of violent injury, and a variety of Viking artefacts, such as a Thor pendant, were found among the bones. Although initial radiocarbon dating suggested that the bodies had accumulated there over several centuries, in February 2018, a team from the University of Bristol announced that the remains could indeed all be dated to the late 800s AD, consistent with the time the army wintered in Derbyshire. They attributed the initial discrepancies to the marine reservoir effect from the high consumption of seafood by the Vikings.{{cite web|title=Radiocarbon dating reveals mass grave did date to the Viking age|url=https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-02/uob-rdr020118.php|author=University of Bristol|publisher=Eurekalert|date=2 February 2018|accessdate=4 February 2018}}{{cite journal|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/30DFE4A0D5581DEBC8B43096A37985EE/S0003598X1700196Xa.pdf/viking_great_army_in_england_new_dates_from_the_repton_charnel.pdf|title=The Viking Great Army in England: new dates from the Repton charnel|author1=Catrine L. Jarman|author2=Martin Biddle|author3=Tom Higham|author4=Christopher Bronk Ramsey|journal=Antiquity|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.15184/aqy.2017.196|date=2 February 2018|volume=92|issue=361|pages=183–199|accessdate=2 February 2018|doi-access=free}}

Outside the crypt, the 'Repton Stone' was found in 1979. This is interpreted as an upper section of a standing cross with, on one face, a carving of a mounted figure. The figure is of a man wearing mail armour and brandishing a sword and shield, with a diadem around his head. The mounted figure has been identified as King Æthelbald of Mercia. In 757, Æthelbald was killed at Seckington, Warwickshire, near the royal seat of Tamworth, and he was buried at Repton. If this is Æthelbald, it would make it the earliest large-scale pictorial representation of an English monarch.{{cite journal |last1=Biddle |first1=Martin |title=The Repton Stone |journal=Anglo-Saxon England |date=1985 |volume=14 |pages=233–292 |doi=10.1017/S0263675100001368|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/anglo-saxon-england/article/abs/repton-stone/1E90EB77A4B1F5BA836DEFBFB7E79356}}{{cite book |last=Lapidge|first=Michael|title=The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England|page=392|year=1999|publisher=Blackwell Publishing|isbn=0-631-22492-0}} The Repton Stone is displayed in Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

File:The Repton Stone- detail.JPG) has been identified as King Æthelbald of Mercia]]

• South transept: George Waklin 1617 and Ellen Waklin 1614, John Macauley 1840, Thomas Whitehead 1645 (erected in 1802)
• South aisle: Gilbert Thacker 1563
• North aisle: Rev Joseph James 1856, William Bagshaw Stevens 1800, Francis Thacker 1710

The churchyard contains the war graves of 17 Commonwealth service personnel, mostly Royal Air Force of World War II.{{Citation | url = http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/2069602/REPTON%20%28ST.%20WYSTAN%29%20CHURCHYARD| title = REPTON (ST. WYSTAN) CHURCHYARD| accessdate =2 March 2013| publisher = Commonwealth War Graves Commission|mode=cs1}} Also buried there are the ashes of C. B. Fry, whose tombstone, dedicated in 2008, describes him as "Cricketer, Scholar, Athlete, Author – The Ultimate All-rounder".{{Citation needed|date=March 2013}}

The church contains a two-manual 23-stop tracker action pipe organ by Peter Collins dating from 1998. The specification can be found at the National Pipe Organ Register.{{National Pipe Organ Register|id=D06289|access-date=3 July 2020}}

• Thomas Dalby {{ca|1847}}Royal Cornwall Gazette, Thursday 24 November 1898 – 1848 (afterwards organist of New Romney, then St Mary Magdalene's Church, Launceston)
• Herbert Stevens 1865Derby Mercury, Wednesday 15 March 1865–????Derby Mercury, Wednesday 31 March 1886
• A. E. Rogers 1887Derby Mercury, Wednesday 23 February 1887–????
• Mr. Hodgkinson c. 1903Derby Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 16 September 1903
• William James c. 1909Derby Daily Telegraph, Wednesday 4 August 1909
• Edgar Foster ????–1916
• Miss Partridge 1916–1918
• Edgar Foster 1918–????
• Cyril Woodward c. 1950s
• Andrew Patterson 1983–1987
• Terence W. Bennett 1987

The church is in a joint parish with:

• St Mary the Virgin's Church, Newton Solney
• St Saviour's Church, Foremark

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• Grade I listed churches in Derbyshire
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• {{Official website|http://www.reptonchurch.uk/}}

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Category:Church of England church buildings in Derbyshire

Category:Grade I listed churches in Derbyshire

Category:13th-century church buildings in England

Category:Standing Anglo-Saxon churches

Category:English Gothic architecture in Derbyshire

Category:Arthur Blomfield church buildings

Category:Burial sites of the Iclingas