Religion

The Iron Age practise of votive deposition of weaponry in water continued in Saxon times right into the Viking period.

Christianity

Following the withdrawal of the Romans, formal Christian organisation seems to have survived for a while in England . In 429 St Germanus visited Britain and British bishops attended councils in Europe until at least 455. But following the invasion by the pagan Saxons the Christian record dies out.

In 597 AD, Pope Gregory I sent Augustine to England to establish a hierarchy of Bishops and spread his influence throughout the land. Augustine and his fellow monks landed on the coast of Kent and made their way to the court of Æthelbert who ruled the Cantii from the old Roman city of Canterbury. Perhaps because Æthelbert already knew Christianity (he had a French Christian wife), Augustine met with immediate success and was created Archbishop of Canterbury then London by the Pope. Bishoprics were then set up in Rochester, London and eventually York.

Augustine had found no surviving groups of Christians, nor churches. But there is evidence that pagan temples existed since, in 601, Pope Gregory advised Mellitus, the first bishop of London to remove the magic from pagan sites, reconsecrate them, and allow them to continue in use, "may they more freely resort to the places to which they have been accustomed".

In the harsh pagan Saxon world, Christianity had its attractions. Bede tells us that when Paulinus in 627 was trying to persuade Edwin, King of Northumbria, to change his beliefs, one of the king's men argued "when we compare the present life of man on earth with that time of which we have no knowledge, it seems to me like the flight of a sparrow through the banqueting hall where you are sitting to dinner on a winter's day with your thanes and counsellors. In the midst there is a a comforting fire to warm the hall; outside the storms of winter rain and snow are raging. This sparrow flies swiftly in through one door of the hall and out through another. While inside he is safe from the winter storms, but, after a few moments of comfort, he vanishes from sight into the wintry world from which he came. Even so man appears on earth for a little while, but of what went before this life or of what follows, we know nothing. Therefore, if this new teaching has brought any more certain knowledge, it seems only right that we should follow it"

The missionaries set up further bishoprics which largely mirrored the tribal territories, because it was only with royal patronage that missionary work could be pursued. The diocese for our area was created in 635 when Birinus (d. 650), the first bishop of the West Saxons, established his diocese and built his cathedral at Dorchester. In about 660 this diocese was moved to Winchester where it has remained ever since.

The 7th and 8th centuries saw the establishment of minsters. Founders hoped that the unending prayers of the monks would float heavenward and tip the divine scales of justice in their favour. Thus in 666 AD a minster at Chertsey was founded by Eorcenwald who became its first abbot. More information about Eorcenwald and Chertsey Abbey can be found by clicking here.

At this time minsters were not monasteries of reclusive monks so much as small communities which spent most of their time preaching the faith and ministering to the faithful - a centre for missionary activity ¹.

Bede paints a rosy picture of how people at this time saw these preachers "the religious habit at that time was held in high esteem. Wherever any priest or monk paid a visit, he was joyfully welcomed by all as the servant of God. And if people met him on the road, they ran to him and bowed, eager to be signed by his hand or receive a blessing from his lips .... On Sundays the people flocked to the churches and monasteries, ... to hear the word of God. When a priest visited a village, the people were quick to gather together to receive the word of life; for priests and clerics always came .... solely to preach, baptise, visit the sick ... to care for the souls of the people"

It is possible that NW Surrey was perceived as a backward pagan region and that the Chertsey minster was deliberately set up with the purpose of converting the heathens of the heathlands.

It was only some half dozen years after the foundation of the Chertsey minster, when Surrey (a name which means the 'southern area'), now having been conquered by the Midland Angles of Mercia, that the area which included the area we know as Surrey Heath was granted to the Chertsey minster by Frithuwold, ruler of Surrey under Wulfhere, King of Mercia. This arrangement persisted for some 900 years until the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1537.

We don't know what Chertsey minster looked like at this time but a 7th century description of the minster at Abingdon tells of a church with 12 cells set around it in a circle in the Celtic manner for 12 monks to live, eat and sleep in - surrounded by a high protective wall. It was also probably of wood as Lindisfarne in c. 664 which had a church "of hewn oak thatched with reeds after the Irish manner". Chertsey was an old settlement, dating back to at least Roman times, strategically placed on a large island (Cherot's Eyot) in the flood plain of the Thames. It is very likely that the island formed a 'stepping-stone' in an ancient crossing of the Thames. It was common to establish minsters at important points such as bridgeheads or at pagan shrines.

It is possible that the priests from the Chertsey Minster ventured out, made contact with local tribal leaders, such as descendants of Ceabba, and established a base and chapel in Chobham from which they could conduct their forays into Frimley, Bisley and Horsell. Thus Chobham would have become an administrative and religious centre for the west half of the Minster's territory.

In 964 King Edgar threw out the missionary priests from Chertsey minster and the establishment was rededicated to the Benedictine Order of monks. Chobhammers would no doubt have continued to pay their tithes to the new Abbey, but seen even less religious support from Chertsey.