THE
P RTAL
March 2012
Page 12
The Anglo-Saxon Saints
of Eastern Essex
by Harry Schnitker
This month, the community at Hockley takes centre stage. There is no doubt that Hockley has
Anglo-Saxon roots, albeit rather indirectly. Its name derives from the Anglo-Saxon for ‘small hill’. This
rather suggests that there was nothing more to Hockley in the very early Middle Ages than a hill. Of course,
in Essex’s flat landscape, any small elevations would have stood out. Perhaps someone farmed here, but we
simply do not know; the Romano-British pottery that was found under the Plumberow Mount suggests that
they did.
We do know that by the time that
the Doomsday Book was written
on the orders of William the
Conqueror in 1086, the lands were
farmed and contained the Woods
of Hockley, which were managed
to provide fuel and timber for both
villagers and the Abbey of St Mary’s
in Barking. Situated on the north
bank of the Thames Estuary, the
abbey had owned the lands since
time immemorial.
St Erkenwald
The abbey introduces our first
Anglo-Saxon saints, for it was
founded by the Bishop of London,
St Erkenwald, for his sister, St
Ethelburga, in the mid-seventh
century. St Erkenwald became the
eponymous hero of a fourteenth-
century poem that celebrates his
life in the most mythical form. Yet
St Erkenwald was very real, and is
credited with restoring Christianity
to the East Saxons. This may very
well be correct, and St Ethelburga’s
nuns would have been of great
assistance in this process.
East Saxons once and for all, which
is not quite the case. The paganism
of their kings was notorious, and
it would take some time after St
Cedd’s death before Christianity
truly became unchallenged.
St Cedd’s monastic foundations
worked hard towards that goal.
He founded a house at Bradwell-
on-Sea, to the east of Hockley, and
at Tilbury to the west. These now
joined the great house at Barking in
the conversion of the local peasantry.
By the mid-eighth century, this had
largely been achieved. Over the next
two centuries, the Faith became so
well-established in Essex that it grew
its own religious foundations. In
946, King Eadred, ‘rex Angelorum’
from 946 to 955, gave 19 hides of
land to Eawyn, a “religious woman”
then living in Hockley. This was a
substantial gift; the hide varied in
size but was around 100 acres. We
know nothing of Eawyn – she was
a saint who never gained publicity!
Hockley made a final appearance
in the Anglo-Saxon period as the
St Cedd
place where the Danish armies of
The famous Bishop of London,
King Canute the Great halted their
whose tomb was a major centre for
chase of Edmond Ironside’s Anglo-
pilgrimage until the Reformation,
Saxons after the Battle of Ashingdon
was not the only saint working in
in 1016. Soon, the Danes would rule
the Hockley region. He was joined
England, followed by the Normans.
by St Cedd, brother of the more famous St Chad, The Anglo-Saxon saints, however, were not forgotten
who had been educated at Lindisfarne Island, off the and remained titulars of churches, and were prayed
Northumberland coast. St Bede tells us that his fellow to until the Reformation forcibly removed them from
Northumbrian was instrumental in converting the popular memory.