I suspect this is primarily a phenomenon of eastern England, where there are
villages that are highly fragmented manors. I suspect this happened as a
result of the way land was allocated to Danish armies in the last centuries
of the first millennium. My impression is that the preceding Saxon church
largely disappeared following the Danish conquest and had to be
re-established thereafter. Each lord founded a church for his own tenants.
In Wessex and the west Midlands, there was no similar discontinuity, and
minsters probably continued operating until the foundation of manorial
churches, often in the 12th century. That is a similar phenomenon, but the
existence of several manors within the same village is much less common.
Whether 'double churches' is a correct term I am not sure, but perhaps there
is not one. 'Double monasteries' (or minsters), which existed in earlier
centuries, were communities where there were both monks and nuns, which may
on occasions have had separate churches. I believe that in Ireland, at
places like Clonmacnoise, there were formerly as many as five churches
within the monastic precinct, but that is perhaps a slightly different
phenomenon again.
Peter King
-----Original Message-----
From: From: Local-History list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of GATLEY David A
Sent: 04 February 2005 16:43
To: Peter Wickham King
Subject: Re: Double churches
I don't know if this is useful, but in economic theory two large stores
will maximise their sales by locating themselves next to one another.
If the churches are of different denominations maybe the clergy were
simply responding to economics and were merely trying to maximise their
congregations.
This idea was enbodied in the building of some of the new towns in the
1940s and 1950s when churches were built next to one another. Peterlee
(I think) is an example and (dare I say it) Milton Keynes.
David
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Hudd [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 04 February 2005 16:19
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Double churches
I think that this usually occurred when two (or more) adjacent manors or
parishes built their churches in the same plot of land for convenience.
My understanding is that this was the case at Willingale in Essex where
St Christopher Willingale Doe and St Andrew Willingale Spain share the
same churchyard. I had read that there are churchyards in East Anglia
with more than two churches, but I am not so well up on Norfolk and
Suffolk
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Nick Hudd
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