More information : Ethelred, King of Mercia, (675-704), converted the royal palace of his brother and predecessor at Weedon into a monastery, under his niece Weburgh (a). The nunnery was standing when Bede wrote, but was destroyed by the Danes in the 9th c. At the time of Leland there was "a fair chapel dedicated to St Werburgh" a little S of the churchyard (b) Bridges states that "by digging in the upper part of the ground called Ash-yards to the S of the church, the foundations of old buildings have sometimes been discovered and large wall stones taken up. These, in all probability, were the ruins of St Werburgh's monastery" (c) (1)
"An old town seems to have stood in 2 pastures W of the road and S of the church of Weedon Bec. There are manifest vestiges of the ditch and ramparts that surrounded it, and many marks of great foundations. Many Roman coins have been dug up here". (2)
Baker's account is largely the same as those of all the other sources (Camden, Tanner, various Lives of the Saints etc). However, there is no reference in Bede to a priory at Weedon, though St Werburgh is mentioned, and no proof is available as to the burning of the priory by the Danes. It is difficult to know from where this often repeated siting of the priory arises. The foundations mentioned by Bridges and Reynolds are doubtless the same and could represent an AS palace/priory, though the coins, with Watling Street nearby, are most likely Roman.
The above descriptions seem to locate the site at approx SP 634 591. This area is crossed by both railway and canal embankments and nothing of interest was seen either here or in the immediate vicinity. (3) |