On the southern outskirts of Shrewsbury (Shropshire), in the Sutton Farm area, there is a tiny brick church. It looks like a nondescript ruin, a sure candidate for demolition as part of some kind of renovation. However, it cannot be demolished: in the lists of architectural heritage, the building is listed as the former Church of St. John and is classified as grade II * (just like that, with an "asterisk" - that is, a particularly important structure of interest not only to specialists). She has her own page in the catalog of Shropshire monuments - from the description it turns out that the Church of St. John was first mentioned in 1278, therefore, built earlier, "perhaps in the XII century on the site of an old wooden church."
Her story contains nothing remarkable. Perhaps, only one detail is surprising: the temple fell into decay back in the days when there were no written laws on the preservation of heritage, and yet no one was going to demolish it: in the 16th century the roof was replaced, in the 18th century it was at least repaired …
In 1994, the Church of St. John was bought from the Church of England by the Greek Orthodox Church of Great Britain for a symbolic 50 pounds sterling and a promise to put the ancient monument in order. Now a modest building with a length of only 10 meters bears the proud name of the Temple of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council and has 75 parishioners professing Greek Orthodoxy.
Former Church of St. John in Shrewsbury, now the Church of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council. Photo from Shropshire Star website
In May of this year, the quiet days of the old church ended: thanks to archaeologists, it was in the spotlight as the oldest cult site in Britain, continuously in use for 4000 years, according to BBC News, The Telegraph, Shropshire Star and others. At the same time, it turned out that there are simply no other such places in the country.
Archaeological prospecting at Sutton Farm began on a routine basis, under the law requiring rescue excavations at any future construction site (for more on this practice, see Suddenly: Britain's Economic Growth Threatened by Archaeological Deficit).
Last year, the city authorities gave the go-ahead for the renovation of the Sutton Farm area - it is planned to build a cottage community of 300 houses here. The church building will not be damaged, new buildings will smoothly surround the untouchable monument. However, a parking lot was planned on the territory adjacent to the temple. The site for the future parking was started by archaeologists last summer.
Any construction in England is fraught with sensational discoveries. Parking is a "particularly dangerous" category: under the parking in Leicester, as you know, the remains of King Richard III were found, and the excavation of the parking lot in Godalming turned into an archaeological thriller.
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To survey the site at Sutton Farm, developers hired commercial archaeologist Janey Green, owner of the private archaeological service Baskerville Archaeological Services (Baskerville is Janey's maiden name). According to Miss Green, at the church site she hoped to find human burials and, possibly, the remains of an ancient gate, about which, for some thousand years of memory, the locals told her about. At the end of the excavations and the extraction of more or less valuable finds, the territory around the church could have been rolled into asphalt with a light heart.
However, archaeologists quickly realized that they had stumbled upon a very unusual place. “Every day our findings are getting more and more strange,” Janey Green said in winter. At first, researchers were surprised by the abundance of artifacts from completely different periods - from flint tools of the Stone Age to medieval pins and coins of the era of Charles I.
The turning point came in February: archaeologists found a pit filled with human skulls, next to the burial of a woman who died in the early Middle Ages, and next to it - animal graves. This was the first sensation of the excavation at Sutton Farm. It is known that Christians did not bury animals on the consecrated church land, therefore, "inhuman" remains could be here only in the pre-Christian era.
Further studies have completely confused scientists - in the words of Janey Green, animal bones turned out to be "an unprecedented find." Among them are the remains of a calf and a pig, neatly laid side by side in compliance with symmetry. Between the ribs of the calf, a Neolithic flint tool was found, and the pig's body lay in a kind of coffin, covered with leather. In any case, this is exactly what it looked like at the time of the discovery - experts have yet to find out whether the prehistoric pig and the Christian coffin have "stuck together" over the past millennia.
In addition to a calf and a pig, the graves contained bird skeletons, a pregnant goat, and the remains of two dogs, one of which died in childbirth. On the bones of animals there are no traces of violent death, by all indications they were laid in the ground very carefully, in accordance with some kind of ritual.
Janey Green ruled out the possibility that animals were buried in the Victorian era, when the fashion for cemeteries for pets arose - in the 19th century, inconsolable owners left in such graves "funeral gifts" like a collar, a bouquet of flowers and even letters, but nothing like archaeologists so far did not find. The archaeologists left the exact dating of the unusual burial to other specialists, and, pending the results, continued excavations.
One of the animal burials at Sutton Farm. Still from Shropshire Star / Youtube video report
The study of man-made structures on the site turned out to be no less amazing. Historical memory did not disappoint the inhabitants of Shrewsbury: the unsightly church was once really a mighty structure. Judging by the found base, its original length was not the current 10 meters, but almost thirty. Archaeologists have discovered a transept - a transverse nave, which on the plans of basilicas and Gothic churches looks like a crossbar.
“We didn't expect the building to be 17 meters longer at all. Judging by its size, it was a very large and important church. We believe that the original structure was erected in the Anglo-Saxon period, and rebuilt in the late Middle Ages,”- said Janey Green in February.
The Anglo-Saxon period lasted from the 5th to the 11th century, which makes the history of the Church of St. John more ancient by several centuries. Perhaps the first Christian church was built here at the end of the 7th century by order of Saint Milburga - historians will have to carefully study the monastery documents preserved in local archives.
Then, in February, archaeologists discovered a fragment of a wooden post in the ground. In line with the general Anglo-Saxon dating, the place was taken for a fragment of the doorway of an early Anglo-Saxon church. The tree, as expected, was sent for analysis. The results came in May: the 40-centimeter long piece of wood became the main sensation of the excavation at Sutton Farm.
A piece of wood at the time of discovery (left) and after cleaning. Photo from Shropshire Star website
Based on the results of radiocarbon dating, the found fragment of a wooden post was placed in the ground in 2033 BC. It was a national discovery.
Archaeologists believe that the wooden support could have been part of the course - a road for ritual processions that connected religious objects and structures of the Neolithic era. To date, about 50 courses are known in England, the most famous is, of course, in Stonehenge.
Ceremonial course roads discovered near Stonehenge. Photo: Google
The assumption of modern scientists has a completely material basis. In the 1960s and 70s, excavations were already underway at Sutton Farm, just east of St. John's Church, when archaeologists discovered prehistoric burial mounds (Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age), pits for upright stones and two rows of holes left over from decayed stone pillars. Taken together, it was very reminiscent of the course, oriented from east to west, stretching for several hundred meters and leading from the mounds straight to a miniature medieval church. Judging by the dating of the piece of wood and other recent finds, there is now one more course in England.
One of the local publications flashed a message that the burials of animals found near the church also date back to the Neolithic era. The totality of the finds suggests that the land of Sutton Farm was sacred already in the Stone Age, and under the current church there was one of the main places of worship, to which the ceremonial path-course led.
However, the uniqueness and national value of the discovery is not in its antiquity, but in the duration and continuity of the status of the land - this area remained sacred for 4050 years, only the beliefs of the people inhabiting it changed.
“We were shocked by the results of the radiocarbon analysis, because we expected to get the Anglo-Saxon dating. Everyone knows that Christians loved to build churches on top of pagan sanctuaries, this would not surprise anyone. But now we have irrefutable archaeological evidence that this place was considered sacred already in the Neolithic era! Such information significantly supplements our knowledge and even rewrites the history we know. A distinctive feature of Sutton Farm is the continuity of ritual status, regardless of the change of belief. It is a living monument because people have been praying here for 4000 years,”explains Janey Green.
The archaeological evidence Janey Greene talks about includes finds from different years that support the site's cult significance in the Stone, Bronze and Iron Ages, during the Roman period, under the Anglo-Saxons and after the Norman conquest - right up to the present day, when the former Catholic and later Protestant the church passed to the Orthodox Greeks and remained active.
Historians do not know any other similar places in England. “Most of the Neolithic sanctuaries subsequently lost their cult significance and were abandoned, like Stonehenge. The only place we know of with a similar history is the 12th-century Temple in Knowlton, Dorset, which was erected on top of a Stone Age sanctuary. But the Dorset Church was abandoned in the 17th century and now there are bare walls,”says Janey Green.
Why the area on the southern outskirts of Shrewsbury became sacred 4050 years ago and remained so, despite the successive change of eras and religions - this will be explained by historians. Father Stephen Maxfield, the current “owner” of the Orthodox Church of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council, reacted to the sensation in his own way: “Who would have thought that this tiny church had such a great history? But we, as soon as we saw this dilapidated building, immediately realized that it was special. Now we know for sure that it is. This place is able to heal the soul, here you can feel the connection with the higher world."
Not a single publication reports on the fate of the parking lot planned near the church.
