The Church of SS Peter and Paul, West Mersea, Essex: An Anglo-Saxon Minster on a Major Roman Villa Site

Abstract

The church at West Mersea, on Mersea Island, was an Anglo-Saxon minster first documented in the later 10th century, but there are signs of earlier origins. The island was accessed by a causeway dated by dendrochronology to the end of the 7th century, while investigation of the fabric of the church indicates that the constructional technique of the lower nave north wall is similar to that of the neighbouring late-7th-century church of St Peter-on-the-Wall, Bradwell-on-Sea. Though the evidence is circumstantial, the church at West Mersea may have been built at the same date. The church occupies the site of a very extensive Roman villa complex. This was largely revealed by 18th-century antiquarian activity, which resulted in inevitable destruction of deposits and only vague accounts of features. Nevertheless, an approximate idea of the extent of the villa can be realised. East of the villa was a Roman wheel-tomb supported by twelve buttresses. The latter could have been (re)interpreted in a Christian context, the buttresses symbolising the Apostles.