Back in the seventh century, Viking pirates sailed up a muddy Essex
creek. Legend has it they captured a lonely nun who, when offered a
choice between her 'modesty or her mortality', chose to die. The
nun carried her severed head up the hill to her church where she
collapsed. Where she lay a spring bubbled up.Back in the seventh
century, Viking pirates sailed up a muddy Essex creek. Legend has
it they captured a lonely nun who, when offered a choice between
her 'modesty or her mortality', chose to die. The nun carried her
severed head up the hill to her church where she collapsed. Where
she lay a spring bubbled up.
The nun was St Osgyth, or Osyth, the wife of the Saxon king of
Essex, who chose the veil rather than consummate her marriage. The
site of her death became a shrine and a busy settlement grew up. In
the 12th century Richard de Belmais, bishop of London, founded a
large Augustinian priory in the middle of the village. This became
a powerful establishment, which, by the time of the dissolution of
the monasteries in the 1530s, was one of the wealthiest Augustinian
monasteries in Europe.
A few years ago a local boat builder noticed some decayed
timbers sticking out of the mud in St Osyth Creek. The tides
gradually revealed more of these timbers, which are on a
significant bend in the channel. Could they be the remains of a
medieval wharf that served the town in its early days?
The nun was St Osgyth, or Osyth, the wife of the Saxon king of
Essex, who chose the veil rather than consummate her marriage. The
site of her death became a shrine and a busy settlement grew up. In
the 12th century Richard de Belmais, bishop of London, founded a
large Augustinian priory in the middle of the village. This became
a powerful establishment, which, by the time of the dissolution of
the monasteries in the 1530s, was one of the wealthiest Augustinian
monasteries in Europe.