Mid to late 7th century chapel, St Peter's Chapel, Bradwell-on-sea (EHER 32)

A 7th century chapel built of reused material from the abandoned Roman fort (EHER 31) and cited on the probable location of the fort's West gate. It is said to have been built in 654 AD by Bishop Cedd and originally consisted of an apse, nave, West porch with later tower, and porticus on the North and South. Only the nave remains extant. It was a chapel-of-ease to Bradwell in the Middle Ages, but was eventually desecrated and used as a barn; the apse and tower were probably destroyed at this time. Excavations in 1864-1865 exposed the foundations of the North porticus, apse and West porch, and further excavations in 1919-1920 located the foundations of the South porticus. In the same year, C.R. Peers carried out careful restorations of the building, focussing on alterations which had been made during its use in the post-medieval period as a barn. The building has since seen several phases of repair and restoration, and has been subject to a number of surveys in the 20th century; most notably, a 1:20 stone-by-stone drawn survey of the exterior by Jane Wadham in 1978. Whilst it has been generally accepted that the chapel was built by Cedd in accordance with his mission to bring Christianity to the kingdom of the East Saxons, it is a topic of debate whether the present structure is that built by Cedd himself, or if it was preceded by a timber church. As such, this record ought to be considered alongside EHER 81393 which presents the evidence for the Anglo-Saxon monastery on the site of the former Roman fort. The chapel is a Grade I listed building, and is located on the site of a Scheduled Ancient Monument.

The following is a brief description of the work which has been undertaken at the site of the chapel. 1864-1865. Archaeological excavation. Excavations directed by John Oxley Parker exposed the foundations of the North porticus and apse of the Saxon church (the South porticus at that time being inaccessible). The West porch also seems to have been examined at this time. The Northern structure was interpreted as a sacristy at the time. <1> 1919-1920. Archaeological excavation and restoration. The Southern porticus had been covered by a timber shed at the time of the 1864-1865 excavations. At some time in the early 20th century, the foundation of the corner of the Southern porticus was found, probably in the excavations by C. R. Peers, but the extent of the work which took place is unclear. The apse and Eastern porticus are now marked out in concrete, which does not appear in photos taken of the site in the 1950s and was probably not set until the 1960s. The date or degree of disturbance during this operation are not known. The apse now lies in a pronounced (and perhaps unnecessarily deep) hollow in the ground surface, into which the concrete dips. This hollow seems to have been the eroded 1920 excavation trench (which thus seems to have been left open). Peer's excavations exposed parts of the foundations of the North and South walls, passing under the two large breaches made in post-medieval times during the building's use as a barn. <1> At this time Peers, for the Ministry of Works, also carefully restored the fabric of the chapel, filling in the breaches. The barn doors in the South wall were blocked using blocks of Clipsham, an oolitic limestone, and roughly squared septaria, of the same shape as those which are predominant in the fabric of the chapel. This would be an almost invisible restoration, had the new masonry not been laid leaving the original slightly proud of it. Similar stonework was used to make good the East end of this wall where the porticus and a shed had been removed, as well for blocking the small door in the North side, which was made to look like a small patch of original masonry. The windows were reinstated with wooden frames and leaded lights. The West door was reopened and given a new frame and oak door. In the roof, a repair was carried out to the North wall plate. <2> June 1924, revised January 1996. Scheduled Ancient Monument. On the line of the West wall of 'Othona' Roman fort, on the probable site of the West gate, is St Peter's Chapel, believed to have been built in 654 AD by Bishop Cedd. It incorporates much reused Roman masonry in its structure. In Bede's history the Roman fort 'Othona' (EHER 31) is identified as the location of the Saxon monastery founded by Cedd. It is believed that the conventual buildings lay within the fort enclosure. The monastic site is thought to have survived and developed through the 8th and 9th centuries, until it was destroyed by the Danes (see EHER 81393). The chapel, which survives as a standing building, is still in occasional ecclesiastical use. It is Listed Grade I and is excluded from the scheduling. Also excluded from the scheduling are all modern buildings and other structures, sheds, fences and fence posts although the ground beneath all of these features is included. <3> 1942 and 1948. Repairs and restoration. Repairs were carried out after a landmine damaged the roof and wall tops in 1942. This was followed by a further restoration in 1948 by Laurence King as surveyor to Chelmsford Diocese. This saw a major rebuild of the roof, the West half completely renewed. <2> December 1959. Grade I listed. A 7th century chapel said to have been built by the Saxon Bishop Cedd, in around 654 AD. It is has been used for various purposes including a barn, and was restored as a Chapel in around 1920. Apart from the 20th century restorations including tiled roof, it is built of re-used Roman materials including brick, ashlar and septaria. It was originally built with apse, North and South porticus and West porch with later tower, but now only the nave remains. Due to its great age and varied use, it suffered periods of disrepair and has been rebuilt in several places, including the upper gable area, rebuilt of old material. The North and South walls were apparently divided into bays by tabled buttresses, the remains of two to each Western bay are visible. The central areas of both walls were demolished to allow an entrance when the building was used as a barn and have now been rebuilt. Remains of a doorway are visible at the East end of the South wall, which may have allowed access to the porticus. High up in the South wall are two windows with possibly restored original jambs and splays; a similar window is in the North wall, the other original window now mainly destroyed. The West wall has the junctions of the original porch walls and stone quoins. There is a central original round headed window of Roman brick with jambs of stone and brick. The central doorway is original with a 20th century lintel and vertically boarded door. <4> See also <5>. See photos <6>. 1970. Restoration. The West elevation was entirely repointed in 1970 using a shelly, greyish cementitious mortar. <2> September 1972. Field survey. The church is still in use, see pamphlet and GP [stands for General Picture; a comment accessioned from NRHE]. There is no trace of monastic buildings. Published survey 1:2500 revised. <7> <8> 1978. Building recording. The only detailed record of the chapel is a stone-by-stone hand-drawn survey at 1:20 by Jane Wadham. <9> The drawings are reproduced in the open access volume by Johanna Dale, see <2>. See also <1> for a detailed account of the observations made during the survey. May 1985. Watching brief. A hole measuring about 1.2m by 1.6m and 0.50m deep located at the East end of the church, straddling the low step in the chancel was excavated on 23rd May 1985 for the foundation of a new altar. The excavation revealed an earlier floor level at a depth of about 2ft (600mm). <10> 1985. Aerial photograph survey. The site of the Roman Saxon shore fort of Othona (EHER 31) and the surviving Saxon nave of St Peter's chapel were photographed. There were no cropmarks indicative of Saxon monastery buildings in the vicinity, see EHER 81393. <11> The aerial photographs <12> and <13> were probably taken as part of this project. 1993. Watching brief. In 1993, the tie-beam at the East end of the nave set below the level of the roof trusses had the strap on its Southern end renewed. The ironwork characterised by spikes and a forelock bolt suggests an 18th to early 19th century date and it is clear that the tie-beam was inserted below roof level to tie the walls together. <14> See aerial photograph <15>. 1999-2000. 'Othona' environs project. A survey of the fort (EHER 31) and its environs was conducted to assess past and continuing damage, and the archaeological potential for future research. <16> Desk-based assessment. The evidence suggests that the fort (EHER 31) was abandoned in the fifth century, and there appears to have been a hiatus in occupation until 654 AD when St Cedd built a church within the ruins of the fort. St Cedd was an Anglian educated in the Irish tradition of Christianity at Lindisfarne. In 653 Cedd was sent from Northumberland to evangelise Essex, which had returned to paganism after an initial conversion to Christianity. Cedd was subsequently made Bishop in 654. The standing building on the site, St Peter's Chapel (St Peter-on-the-wall), is of seventh century date, and is traditionally attributed to St Cedd, although it probably actually dates from later in that century. Of the seventh century church, only the nave still stands, measuring 16.60 x 8.00m (external dimensions). The walls are approximately 75cm thick, and are bonded into one another at the corners. The walls are built largely of material taken from the fort. At the corners of the West wall, and the upper corners of the East wall, are stone quoins, which contain a number of Roman lewis-holes, and probably came from the gateway of the fort. The walls are built of level courses of rubble with the stone types including septaria, Kentish ragstone, tufa, oolitic limestone, and a few flints and beach pebbles. Roman tiles were also used, particularly for the upper sections of the buttresses, the arches dividing the nave from the chancel, and the round head of the window in the West wall. The mortar of the original church is an orange-pink colour with small pebbles in it. Repointing work has been carried out on many occasions in a variety of mortars and the entire West wall was repointed in 1970. The present chapel has four windows, two in the South wall, and one each in the North and West walls. The only entrance to the present chapel is through a door in the West wall. The original church consisted of a nave with an apsidal East end, porticus on the North and South sides overlapping the nave and chancel, and a porch at the West end. On either side of the door at the West end, the scars are still visible from the porch wall. It is also possible to see the scars from the Western walls of the porticus, towards the Eastern ends of the North and South walls. There was originally an opening from the nave into the sanctuary but this is now blocked. Sections of arches and parts of the jambs of the opening remain to either side of the East wall. <17> The corner of a rubble wall (approximately 4ft high), referred to by Barford as 'The Chancellor Wall', is considered by him to be potentially part of the Saxon monastery (EHER 81393) or settlement. The building stood in the centre of the walled area, and was aligned on the cardinal compass points, Barford has suggested that it may represent an earlier Saxon church, possibly that originally erected by St Cedd. <1> <16> The remaining is a general description of the site gathered from several sources. The chapel of St Peter-on-the-Wall stands nearly 2m ENE of the parish church. The walls are almost entirely of reused Roman material including ashlar, septaria and brick; the roof is tiled. The chapel is almost certainly that built by Bishop Cedd in c.654 at Inthancester. It stands astride the former West wall of the Roman station and originally consisted of an apse, nave and West porch and possibly 'porticus' on the North and South. A tower was subsequently added above the porch. It was a chapel-of-ease to Bradwell in the Middle Ages, but was eventually desecrated and used as a barn; the apse and tower were destroyed. It was restored in the early 20th century and is now again used as a chapel. The building is of extreme interest as one of the earliest surviving churches in England. <5> Bede records that St. Cedd established a Christian mission, in the 650s AD, at 'Ythancester', generally accepted to be a small town or 'civitas', which had evolved in, or around, Othona (EHER 31). The Chapel of St. Peter-on-the-Wall, built on the West gate of the fort, may have replaced the original church situated somewhere inside the fort. <18> <19> (TM 03290816) St Peter's on the Wall Chapel. <20> The Church of St Peter on the Wall stands astride the West wall of the fort and in all probability is the original church built by St Cedd in around 654. It is built almost entirely of Roman material. The doorway is original as is the West window. <21> <22> See aerial photographs <23> - <31> and photographs <32> <33>. See also <34> - <42>. Note: <35> has been accessioned from the NRHE record 385939. It has not been checked as it cannot be accessed. In 1795, and for the duration of the Napoleonic Wars, the chapel was used as a semaphore signalling station. By 1800, it had been replaced by a mechanical signal semaphore (though source <43> attributes this to the year 1811). The signalmen were housed in Linnets Cottage, EHER 38601. <43> <44> Site Assessment: Of extreme interest as one of the earliest surviving churches in England. <5> A note on this record: Bede records that Cedd became Bishop of the East Saxons in 654 AD and established a church at Bradwell-on-Sea, the seat of his bishopric. It has been thought that the present chapel at the site of the Roman fort 'Othona' (EHER 31) is that built by Cedd, in accordance with his mission to bring Christianity to the kingdom of the East Saxons. Whilst there is certainly documented evidence for Cedd's presence at Bradwell, and the probable foundation of a monastery here (see EHER 81393) it is suggested that the present structure may not have been built by Cedd himself, but may have been preceded by a timber church. Early Saxon churches are known to have been made of timber, and indeed the first church at Lindisfarne, where Cedd hailed from, was constructed in this way. Timber building was what the Anglo-Saxons were familiar with, and so would be the tradition that Cedd would have expected to use. Despite the probable abundance of stone at the site of the Roman fort, the construction of a church using this material would have required skilled workmen who may not have been so readily available, especially following the retraction of the Roman presence a few centuries earlier. The stone chapel of St Peter's is similar in plan to those built by Augustine in Kent, raising the possibility that it is a second generation church founded after 699 when the Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury brought Essex under the Roman church in Kent. Alternatively, it could have been erected in the period between these two events, in Cedd's honour and following his death in 664, perhaps during the era of Eorcenwold, Bishop of London in 675. As noted above, Barford proposes the existence of an earlier church within the walls of the fort but which is constructed from stone. Nonetheless, it remains a topic of debate whether the present structure contains the remains of an earlier monastical building. As such, this record ought to be considered alongside EHER 81393 which provides detail of the evidence for an Anglo-Saxon monastery on the site of the former Roman fort. <1> <2> <45> <46> Original HER entry merged with NRHE data transfer. NRHE summary description, 385943: A 7th century chapel which is said to have been built by the Saxon Bishop Cedd, circa 654 AD, astride the former West wall of the Roman fort of Othona, then called Ithancaster. It is assumed to be part of the monastery founded within the fort by Bishop Cedd. The chapel, which is one of the earliest chapels in England still surviving, is constructed from re-used Roman materials including brick, ashlar and septaria; the red tiled roof dates to the 20th century. The chapel originally had an apse, North and South porticus and West porch with later tower; only the nave remains. The North and South walls were apparently divided into bays by tabled buttresses, the remains of two to each Western bay are visible. The central areas of both walls were demolished to allow entrance when the building was used as a barn and have now been rebuilt. In the 20th century the chapel was restored and once again used for worship.