Bells Cathedrals: Wimbourne Minster and Christchurch Priory | Page 3

in various ancient documents: the dates vary from 705
A.D. to 723 A.D. At this time, Ine was king of the West Saxons; and
one of his sisters, Cudburh--or Cuthberga, as her name appears in its
Latinised form--was espoused or married to Egfred, or, as he is often
called, Osric, the Northumbrian king, but the marriage was never
consummated, and the lady as soon as possible separated from him and
retired to the convent at Barking, and afterwards founded the convent at
Wimborne. Some say that she objected to the intemperate habits of her
espoused as soon as she met him; others, that having previously vowed
herself to heaven, she persuaded him to release her from the
engagement to him, which had been arranged without her wishes being
consulted. Her sister Quinberga is stated to have been associated with
her in the foundation of the religious house, and both were buried
within its precincts, and both were afterwards canonised; Saint
Cuthberga was commemorated on August 31st "as a virgin but not a
martyr." A special service appointed for the day is to be found in a
Missal kept in the Library of the Cathedral Church at Salisbury, in
which the following prayer occurs:--
"Deus qui eximie castitatis privilegio famulam tuam Cuthbergam
multipliciter decorasti, da nobis famulis tuis ejus promerente
intercessione utriusque vitae prosperitatem. Ut sicut ejus festivitas
nobiscum agitur in terris, ita per ejus interventum nostri memoria apud
te semper habeatur in coelis, per Dominum etc."
There is reason to believe that the earliest date given above for the
foundation (705 A.D.) is the most probable one, as Regner in his tracts
mentions a letter bearing this date written by Saint Aldhelm, and taken
from the register of Malmesbury, in which he includes in a list of
congregations to which he grants liberty of election the monastery at
Wimborne, presided over by the sister of the king. There is also some

evidence for the existence of a community of monks at Wimborne, as
well as of nuns. But of these original religious houses not a trace
remains: the very position of St Cuthberga's Church is uncertain; we
cannot be sure that the present building occupies the same site; the last
resting-places of the two royal foundresses are not even pointed out by
tradition. Probably the buildings were destroyed, the nuns slain or
driven out, when the raiding Danes overran Wessex in the ninth
century.
The next historical event that we meet with in connection with
Wimborne is the burial of King Æthelred, the brother and immediate
predecessor on the throne of the great West Saxon king Ælfred. As
there is doubt about the year of the foundation by Cuthberga, so again
there is a conflict of testimony as to the date, place, and manner of the
death of Æthelred--the inscription on the brass (about which more will
be said when we come to describe the interior of the minster) not
agreeing with the usually accepted date for the accession of Ælfred,
871; but as the brass is itself many centuries later than the burial of the
king whose likeness it professes to bear, its authority may well be
questioned. Anyhow, Æthelred died either of wounds received in some
battle with the Danes, in some spot which different archæologists have
placed in Surrey, Oxford, Berkshire, or Wilts, or worn out by his long
and arduous exertions while struggling with the heathen invaders; and
his body--this alone is certain--was brought to Wimborne for burial. It
has been conjectured that Ælfred, after he had defeated the Danes and
established himself firmly on the throne of Wessex, would naturally
rebuild the ruined abbey. He founded, as we know, an abbey at
Shaftesbury; he is recorded to have built at Winchester and London; he
had undoubtedly a taste for architecture, and he was a devout son of
Mother Church, so that it is by no means improbable that he would
erect a church over the grave of his brother: but no record of such
building remains, and there is no trace of any pre-Norman work in the
existing minster.
The original church and conventual buildings having been swept away
by the Danes, whether Ælfred restored it or not is uncertain, but it is
certain that a house of secular canons was established at Wimborne by

a king of the name of Eadward; but again there is some uncertainty as
to whether this king was the one who is sometimes called the Eadward
the Elder, sometimes Eadward the Unconquered, son and successor of
Ælfred, or Eadward the Confessor. Anyhow, it became a collegiate
church and a royal free chapel, and as such it is mentioned in
Domesday Book, and it is noticed as a Deanery in the charters of Henry
III. Leland, writing in the reign of Henry