St Mary's Church, Reculver
St Mary's Church, Reculver, was founded in the 7th century as either a minster or a monastery on the site of a Roman fort at Reculver, which was then at the north-eastern extremity of Kent in south-eastern England. In 669, the site of the fort was given for this purpose by King Ecgberht of Kent to a priest named Bassa, beginning a connection with Kentish kings that led to King Eadberht II of Kent being buried there in the 760s, and the church becoming very wealthy by the beginning of the 9th century. From the early 9th century to the 11th the church was treated as essentially a piece of property, with control passing between kings of Mercia, Wessex and England and the archbishops of Canterbury. Viking attacks may have extinguished the church's religious community in the 9th century, although an early 11th-century record indicates that the church was then in the hands of a dean accompanied by monks. By the time of Domesday Book, completed in 1086, St Mary's was serving as a parish church.
St Mary's Church in 1755, viewed from the north-east
King Hlothhere of Kent grants land to Abbot Berhtwald and his monastery at Reculver in 679, in the earliest surviving original Anglo-Saxon charter.
Interior of the ruined church, looking eastwards from an elevated gallery between the towers in 2015. A curved strip of concrete towards the top of the image marks the line of the apse, and two circles of concrete represent foundations for the columns of the triple chancel arch. To the right of these is the southern porticus, where King Eadberht II of Kent was buried in the 760s. Parched grass in the central, nave area indicates the underlying presence of original, concrete flooring.
Triple arch of the 7th-century church, between the nave and the chancel until demolition in the early 19th century: the arch was 22 feet (6.7 m) high, and the columns 17 feet (5.2 m).
Anglo-Saxon architecture was a period in the history of architecture in England from the mid-5th century until the Norman Conquest of 1066. Anglo-Saxon secular buildings in Britain were generally simple, constructed mainly using timber with thatch for roofing. No universally accepted example survives above ground. Generally preferring not to settle within the old Roman cities, the Anglo-Saxons built small towns near their centres of agriculture, at fords in rivers or sited to serve as ports. In each town, a main hall was in the centre, provided with a central hearth.
Distinctive Anglo-Saxon pilaster strips on the tower of All Saints' Church, Earls Barton
Anglo-Saxon house reconstruction at Butser Ancient Farm, 6th-8th century
All Saints' Church, Brixworth, Northamptonshire
Reconstructed basilican plan of All Saints' Church, Brixworth in Northamptonshire