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Summary

Site of Anglo-Saxon nunnery and medieval chapel, Stow Green.

Full description

The monument includes part of the site of an Anglo-Saxon nunnery founded at Stow in the late 7th century by Aetheldreda, Abbess of Ely. During the medieval period the site was occupied by a chapel dedicated to St Aetheldreda and by a fair held annually on her feast day (see PRN 64872). A chapel survived on the site until the end of the 18th century. The remains of the nunnery are therefore overlain by those of a medieval chapel with cemetery and precinct boundary, and traces of post medieval activity relating to the use of the site as a fair ground. The monument is situated on a low hill in the north-west corner of Stow Green, and on the top of the hill is a rectangular area defined by grass and soil changes on the east, west and north. Stone foundations were also discovered, and are thought to mark the churchyard wall that survived until the 18th century, and the extent of the medieval chapel precinct. Some medieval stone fragments including 11th-12th century decorated grave-slabs were discovered inside the precinct. The nunnery at Stow is first recorded by Gocelin the monk of Canterbury in the late 11th century in an account of the life of St Werburg, Aetheldreda's niece, who was granted the custody of the establishment and died there in about 700. A reference to the building of the 7th century church occurs in a 12th century document. There is a full description in the scheduling document. {1}{2}{3}{4}{5}{6}{7}

A church at Stow is mentioned in the Domesday Book, presumably a reference to this chapel. {8}

Remains of the churchyard and a building as well as a holloway connecting this site to the village are visible as cropmarks or earthworks. {9}

<1> ENGLISH HERITAGE, 1994, REVISED SCHEDULING DOCUMENT 22610, MPP 22 (Scheduling Record). SLI4245.

<2> ROFFE, D., 1986, LINCOLNSHIRE HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY, vol.21, pp.31-3 (Article in Serial). SLI744.

<3> 1970-85, Letters about Stow Green, - (Correspondence). SLI11480.

<4> Lincolnshire County Council, Sites and Monuments Record Card Index, TF 03 NE: V (Index). SLI2881.

<5> Ordnance Survey, Ordnance Survey Card Index, TF 03 NE: 15 (Index). SLI2344.

<6> Dorothy M. Owen, 1975, 'Medieval Chapels in Lincolnshire' in Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, vol. 10, p.21 (Article in Serial). SLI737.

<7> Paul Everson and David Stocker, 1999, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, Appendix F, p.318 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI5526.

<8> C.W. Foster and T. Longley, 1924, Lincolnshire Domesday and Lindsey Survey, 24/92 (Bibliographic Reference). SLI893.

<9> Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England, 1992-1996, National Mapping Programme, TF0935: LI.823.10.1-3 (Map). SLI3613.

Monument Types

• NUNNERY (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 650 AD to 849 AD)
• RELIGIOUS HOUSE (Early Medieval/Dark Age - 650 AD to 849 AD)
• CEMETERY (Early Medieval/Dark Age to Medieval - 1000 AD to 1199 AD)
• CHAPEL (Medieval - 1066 AD to 1539 AD)

Associated Finds

• COFFIN (Early Medieval/Dark Age to Medieval - 1000 AD to 1199 AD)

Protected Status

• Scheduled Monument

Sources and further reading

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