Halton Quay

[bunn]

At Halton quay, there is very little, apart from this very small chapel, which claims to commemorate St Indract and his sister St Dominica, saints and Irish royalty, who arrived in Cornwall in 689AD. Very little of note has happened since this very firm and established event, is the impression you get from the sign.   Wikipedia, on the other hand,

Comments

[marycatelli]

Oh, yes, there were backsliders. Quite substantial. The Venerable Bede basically portrays England as having to be converted all over again.

Cornwall, actually, was a hold-out for the degree to which it held onto Christianity, but probably wasn't uniform.

[bunn]

Fond though I am of Bede, I trust him about as far as I can throw him on the pre-invasion British church. And double helpings for Cornwall (about as far from his native Northumbria as you can get*). I don't think he mentions St Indract, but if he did, he'd have a vested interest in magnifying the impact of an Irish saint (since Northumbria was converted in the Irish tradition).

Bede on the British (not English) church is like some nineteenth century American writing about Manifest Destiny. :-/

* and still be in Britain :-D

[pixel39]

When I was writing my paper on the historical Arthur I found I could throw Bede all the way across the room...

[bunn]

That's a good point, actually. My copy of the Ecclesiastical History is very small and light.

Maybe I should trust him as far as I can throw the Chapel of St Indract. Or at the very most, some chunkier historical tome, such as the Paston Letters.

[timetiger]

The pictures are delightful, and I am happy to know about St. Indract.

[bunn]

I have to admit, St Indract had passed me by entirely : a most obscure gentleman, if he wasn't invented by Glastonbury monks as another cash generation scheme.

[pixel39]

You'd think they would have had plenty of cash, since they already had both Arthur and the Holy Thorn...

[bunn]

I think possibly if you are a medieval monk of Glastonbury, the concept of 'enough cash' is not really one you are prepared to settle for...

[puddleshark]

That is a most peculiar chapel. Well done, Cornwall! Carry on.

[pixel39]

Anglo-Saxon era churches tend to be narrow and tall, so that might be the aesthetic they're aiming for. There's a lovely one in...er...Bradford-on-Avon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Laurence%27s_Church,_Bradford-on-Avon

[puddleshark]

Now that's a beauty! Even nicer than Breamore.

[topum]

A couple more canoe posts and I am definitely buying one, this looks awesome.

[pigshitpoet]

what an interesting find!