Sidwella

Sidwella

Saxon Christian girl beheaded by a scythesman and buried at St Sidwells The legend goes that Sidwella was a Saxon Christian girl living in Exeter in the 8th century. Her father was a nobleman named Benna who was very rich and had one son and four daughters. The family lived in the walled city of Exeter and Sidwella regularly left the city to bring food to the villagers working the fields at St Sidwells (then farmland). She was reputedly beautiful and virtuous.  Her stepmother was jealous of her and wanted her killed, and paid a reaper to do the deed.
Read More

Categories: People, Saxon and Sidwella.

Anglo-Saxon St Sidwell’s

Anglo-Saxon St Sidwell’s

Arrival of the Anglo-Saxons After the Romans left, the city declined in importance and lay dormant for 300 years. Dumnonian Britons lived inside the city walls and farmed the surrounding land, especially the St Sidwell’s area where there was a scattering of dwellings. The Anglo-Saxons arrived towards the end of the 7th Century. They built the first St Sidwell’s church in the 8th Century and it became a pilgrimage site for St Sidwella throughout Anglo-Saxon and medieval times. A medieval catalogue of relics in the Cathedral archives records that King Æthelstan , who ruled the English 924–39, visited the city
Read More

Categories: History, Saxon and Sidwella.