The Portal Archive July 2012 | Page 18

THE
P RTAL
July 2012
Page 14
Anglo-Saxon Saints
of South London
by Harry Schnitker
The great
London borough of Southwark has a long history, but has always been rather in the
shadow of its northern cousins, the Cities of London and Westminster. During the twelfth century, it wast the
residence of important clergy and noblemen, inconvenienced by not having a home near the centre of power.
In the immediate pre-Reformation period, it had a rather nasty reputation for being the haunt of criminals
and ladies of loose conduct.
shocking
Its ‘stews’ or houses of ill repute were only marginally
less awful than the infamous ‘Clink’, the prison where
offenders frequently died from illness and starvation.
Rather shockingly, most of this happened on land
belonging to the Bishop of Winchester, who had a
palace where the Tate Modern now stands.
the fort of the men from Surrey
Alphege the connection is literally nothing but fleeting.
a court jester
To the south, in what was then open countryside,
the lands of Walworth have another fleeting religious
connection, being given to Canterbury Cathedral
by a court jester of King Edmund, called Hitard. He
was going on pilgrimage to Rome, and thought it
better to hand over his lands in case he would never
return! Again, we are scraping the barrel here. I am in
good company here, for this period in the area’s past
is severely understudied: Anglo-Saxon Southwark
received its first academic monograph only in 2009.
This late medieval den of iniquity had rather pious
antecedents. Its earliest mention is not until the
tenth century. In the Burghal Hidage it is recorded as
Suthriganaweorc, the fort of the men from Surrey. It
was probably settled as a defensive ‘Burh’ to protect the
emerging city of London to its north. Around the year Southwark burned
1000 the first version of the famous London Bridge
Most of the churches arose only in the twelfth
appeared, increasing the importance of Southwark.
century, well after the conquest by the Normans, which
was a disaster for Southwark, and which may account
St Alphege to Canterbury
for the faint traces of the Anglo-Saxon period: William
The bridge also brought the first saintly appearance the Conqueror burned Southwark when he failed to
in Southwark. This happened in 1023, when the Anglo- capture London Bridge.
Saxon Chronicle mentions Southwark or ‘Suthgeworke’
in connection with the translation of the body of St St Olave
Alphege to Canterbury. Alphege was Archbishop of
Yet it is the Conqueror’s great survey of England, the
Canterbury when martyred by Danish invaders in 1012 Domesday Book, that provides some relief. It mentions
at Greenwich. This is the first connection of the area with a church of St Olave, now under the foundations of
a saint, rather late in comparison with other locations St Olaf ’s house, just east of London Bridge. This was
where the Ordinariate is present, and even with St one of several London churches dedicated to the
Norwegian Saint. The Sagas tell us that Olaf, fighting
Old London Bridge, with river craft and warehouses. against the Danes as a mercenary for the Anglo-Saxon
© National Maritime Museum, London King, Ethelred the Unready, pulled down the wooden
London Bridge with his boats.
Ordinariate in Southwark
There is no way of knowing what actually happened,
but the presence of so many churches dedicated to the
saint in London, including the Southwark one close to
the bridge, may suggest an element of truth to the Sagas.
And so the Ordinariate in Southwark does have a saint
from the Anglo-Saxon period, the great Norwegian
King who converted his country to the Faith.