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Christchurch

Although there is evidence of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements on the site of Christchurch, the history of the modern town began over 1000 years ago, when Alfred, King of Wessex, setup a series of fortified towns calkled burghs along the coast as protection against Viking fleets. Christchurch or as it was know then, Tweoxneam or Twineham, was deemed a suitable site for a burgh, situated between Southampton and Wareham. Its stands on a spit of land where the rivers Stour and Avon meet, so only the landward end had to be defended.

Today’s Christchurch is one of the most beautiful towns in the country, and is now in the county of Dorset having previously been in Hampshire, the town was taken over by Dorset during some county boundary changes. The whole of the towns ancient past is contained within a half mile radius.

The great priory, has a Norman nave, overlooked by a 15th century tower standing 120 foot high. The North-East turret of the north transept is a gem of Norman architecture. With its nave, choir and lady chapel the edifice is 300 feet long.

The building displays the workmanship of centuries of craftsmen, and their humour is portrayed in wood and stone carvings. On a capital in the Montacute Chantry, the 12 Apostles are portrayed with two-faced Judas and the wooden carving of the fox in the pulpit depicts jealousy between the monk and the wandering friar.

In the beautiful Salisbury Chapel, sit and remember Margaret, the tragic Countess of Salisbury, a victim of the Wars of the Roses. Her father and grandfather were killed in the wars and her brother and eldest son perished at the block. Then her younger son, Reginald Pole, who became Archbishop of Canterbury, angered Henry the Eighth and the king avenged himself on the family. The countess, instead of resting in her chapel, was at 80 yeas of age taken to the Tower of London and executed.

Christchurch derives its name from a legen associated with Christ the carpenter. The church was to have been built on St Catherine’s Hill, a mile higher up the Avon valley, but each day material carried up the hill was mysteriously taken overnight to the sacred site of an older church. Believing it to be divine guidance, the masons started to build on the old site and were joined by an extra workman who was never at the meal table. One day a beam was cut too short and left overnight. The next day the beam was not only inplace , but also slightly overlength! The strange workman was not seen again, the astonised builders belived he must have been the carpente of Nazareth. The beam is still there but it is not in its original position.

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