Introduction

Christianity lacks architecture of its own. For its first three centuries of existence it had no dedicated buildings, as Christians met in private houses: the original meaning of ecclesia is simply ‘congregation’. Under Constantine, the Church adopted the religious, civic and imperial architecture of the Roman Empire. As Christianity spread through Anglo-Saxon society this process of appropriation and adaptation continued, and was never far from the practice of secular life. Churches could be Roman basilicas of reused brick or Germanic halls of timber; they could be converted from pagan temples or laid out by kings in imitation of Charlemagne's imperial church in Aachen. Architectural elements such as naves, towers and mausolea were constructed to different iconographic schemes or practical requirements, and could be sheathed in metal, plaster or carved stone. This chapter will draw upon archaeological, architectural and literary evidence to trace the influences and social practices underpinning the different forms of Anglo-Saxon church building – and the materials used in their construction – much of which would have been familiar to ordinary Anglo-Saxons as part of their experience of daily life.

There have been numerous attempts over the past century to identify standing structures from the Anglo-Saxon period. Churches represent a unique and extremely valuable opportunity to experience standing Anglo-Saxon buildings, in contrast to many other secular types of buildings, for which we must rely on excavated plans and reconstructions. Several hundred Anglo-Saxon churches and fragments of churches survive above ground across England, ranging in date from the reputedly Roman chapel of St Martin in Canterbury, reused in the 590s by the Kentish royal house, to the many ‘overlap’ churches from the decades either side of the Conquest which demonstrate the survival of Anglo-Saxon construction after 1066.