| Summary : Minster allegedly founded in 716, first documented in 804. The first minster in Worcester Diocese to be reformed to the Benedictine rule in 961-3, and the only Benedictine House in the Diocese until 969. In 968-70 the monks were transferred to Ramsey, and the church presumably continued to function as a minster until 1093. The church is mentioned in Domesday with a priest. In 1093, Wulfstan visited it and found it ruinous, but a priest still served there. It subsequently became a Benedictine cell and college of secular priests, (see ST57NE7 for the later history of the site). Excavations in 1968-70 found 7 unused graves and a buckle of the Saxo-Norman period, and slight evidence of Saxon structures. Two stones, obviously halves of what seems to be a Saxon grave-stone, possibly as early as the 8th century, are built into the underside of the spiral stair leading to the bell-chamber at Westbury College. Later work traceable on the stones suggests appropriations, firstly as the memorial of a Saxon thegn or Norman Knight, and secondly for a 15th cent monument. |