Stow Minster
{{Use British English|date=September 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2024}}
{{Infobox church
| name = Stow Minster
| fullname = Minster Church of St Mary, Stow in Lindsey
| image = St.Mary's church, Stow, Lincs. - geograph.org.uk - 48135.jpg
| imagesize = 300px
| imagealt =
| landscape =
| caption = Stow Minster
| pushpin map = United Kingdom Lincolnshire
| coordinates = {{Coord|53|19|39|N|0|40|38|W|type:landmark_region:GB|display=title}}
| osgraw =
| osgridref =
| denomination = Church of England
| previous denomination = Roman Catholic
| parish = Stow in Lindsey
| deanery = Deanery of Corringham
| diocese = Diocese of Lincoln
| functional status = Active
| heritage designation = Grade I listed building
| website = {{URL |www.stowminster.co.uk}}
}}
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{{National Heritage List for England| num=1146624 |desc=Church of St Mary |grade=I |accessdate=14 November 2017}} and was also included in the World Monuments Fund's 2006 list of the world's 100 most endangered sites.{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lincolnshire/4629115.stm |work=BBC News|title=Parish church on world risk list | access-date= 9 April 2008}} It has the tallest Saxon arches of its time in Britain,{{cite web|url=http://microsites.lincolnshire.gov.uk/venuedetails.asp?venueCode=2094 |publisher=Lincolnshire County Council|access-date= 9 April 2008|title=Venue details}}{{dead link|date=August 2014}} 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.
Today it is part of the Stow Group of Churches.{{cite web |url=http://www.stowminster.co.uk/ |title=Stow Minster |publisher=Stow Minster |access-date=16 January 2021}}
History
File:St.Mary's chancel - geograph.org.uk - 303299.jpg
The bishop's seat at Sidnacester (Syddensis) has been placed, by various commentators, at Caistor, Louth, Horncastle and, most often, at Stow, all in present-day Lincolnshire, England,{{cite book|first=Paul |last=Jeffery|title=England's Other Cathedrals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M447AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT45|date=31 March 2012|publisher=History Press Limited|isbn=978-0-7524-9035-9|page=45}} but the location remains unknown.{{cite book|first1=Michael |last1=Lapidge|first2=John |last2=Blair|first3=Simon |last3=Keynes|first4=Donald |last4=Scragg|title=The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of Anglo-Saxon England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WaAzAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA294|date=2 October 2013|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|isbn=978-1-118-31609-2|page=294}} 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.{{cite journal |last1= Criddle |first1= Peter |date= October 2008 |title= Lincolnshire and the Danes |journal= Lincolnshire Life |page= 16 |publisher= County Life Ltd |url= http://www.lincolnshirelife.co.uk/uploads/files/aspects_of_lincolnshire/aspectsoflincolnshire-1008-2.pdf |access-date= 10 April 2012 |quote= At Stow, Lincolnshire's mother-church before the building of Lincoln's Cathedral, the bishop was murdered and the church burnt down. |archive-date= 30 March 2012 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20120330092935/http://www.lincolnshirelife.co.uk/uploads/files/aspects_of_lincolnshire/aspectsoflincolnshire-1008-2.pdf |url-status= dead }}{{cite web|url=http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/LIN/Stow/ |work=GENUKI|title=Stow-in-Lindsey|access-date= 15 June 2007}} The building remained in ruins until an abbey was built in 1040, reputedly by bishop Eadnoth II.
Ralph de Diceto 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.
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 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.{{National Heritage List for England| num=1012976 |desc=Site of a college and Benedictine Abbey, St Mary's Church |grade= |fewer-links=yes |accessdate=29 May 2018}}[https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/lincs/vol2/p118a Victoria County History of Lincolnshire: Houses of Benedictine monks - the abbey of Stow]
File:St Mary's, Stow - 1865 - 01.jpg
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 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.stowminster.co.uk/restoration/ |title=Restoration |publisher=Stow Group of Churches and the Friends of Stow Minster|access-date= 16 January 2021}}
See also
References
{{Reflist|33em}}
External links
{{Commons category|St Mary's, Stow}}
- {{Official website|http://www.stowminster.co.uk/}}
{{Church of England Churches in Lincolnshire}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stow-In-Lindsey, Minster}}
Category:11th-century church buildings in England
Category:Church of England church buildings in Lincolnshire
Category:Grade I listed churches in Lincolnshire
Category:Standing Anglo-Saxon churches