St Chad

It is not clear whether the long-lost chapel of St Chad had a parish or not. Chad of Mercia (died 2 March 672) was a prominent 7th-century Anglo-Saxon Catholic monk who became abbot of several monasteries, Bishop of the Northumbrians and subsequently Bishop of the Mercians and Lindsey People. He was later canonised as a saint.

Church in Chester
St. Chad's existed by c. 1250. It lay in the area in the north-west of the city known as the Crofts and its status is uncertain but may once have been parochial. Harl MS 2162 records that Cecelia, maidservant of the female anchorite attached to St Chad's was involved in a quitclaim in the year 1300. By 1318 St Johns had appropriated it. The church was mentioned in the late 14th century and c. 1500, but had probably disappeared by the 1530s. Certainly no curate was associated with it in the 1540s. By the early 17th century the exact site of the church had been forgotten, although the church is said by Hanshall to have been located at the bottom of Princess Street, on the North side, which is now the location of the new car-park in the Northgate Development. Others place it on the site of the Infirmary on what is now Bedward Row. Bedward Row was once known as Little Parson's Lane and this might explain Hanshall's comment as Princess Street was once known as Parson's Lane. Hughes writes as follows (mentioning St Chad):


 * "Returning to Watergate Street we see before us Linen Hall Street called formerly Lower Lane from its being at one time the last street on this side of the city. There is nothing to interest us in this street which terminates with St Martin's in the Fields at the rear of the Gaol and General Infirmary. So late as the sixteenth century there was at the further end of this street an ancient Church quoted in old deeds as the Church of St Chad but the place thereof is now nowhere to be found."

There may be a mention of St Chad's in the Domesday book. According to the Cheshire Domesday Eaton-on-Dee was owned "from the time of King Edward" by St Chad's Chester, but had been granted to Gruffudd of Wales. It is last recorded as standing during the reign of Henry VII.

Farndon/Holt


Both Farndon and Holt also have a church of St Chad. It seems likely that there was a church at Farndon in the Saxon period, and one existed at the time of the Domesday Book in 1086. The earliest part of the current building, however, dates to the 14th century, given the presence in the nave of the effigy of Sir Patrick de Bartun, a knight of King Edward III. Very little is known about Sir Patrick, save that he fought for Queen Philippa at the Battle of Neville's Cross in 1346. It is remarkable that the effigy has survived; it was one of three similar effigies of knights discovered buried near the chancel during church repairs in 1800. The other two effigies were ground into sand and sold, but for some reason, the Barton effigy was spared.

The Church was damaged during the English Civil War and later repaired. The church contains a unique Civil War memorial Stained Glass window, and features an image thought to be that of William Lawes, the famous court musician, who was slain at the battle of Rowton Heath. The church tower still shows signs of Civil War musket ball damage. William Barnston had the structure, apart from the tower, substantially rebuilt in 1658.

Every July the villagers at Farndon parade to St Chad’s Church for their Rush Bearing Celebrations. Before churches had paved floors, rushes were strewn to keep the earth floors sweet and it was common to make a special occasion from their annual renewal. Few such customs survive and the ones which do are mainly in North-West England. At Farndon the special service in the church is preceded by a procession involving the local schoolchildren, their Rushbearer and Rose Queen and the Farndon and District Brass Band, and flowers and rushes are used to decorate the church and graveyard.

Life
Most of our knowledge of Chad comes from the writings of the Venerable Bede (672/3 – 26 May 735) who had gathered information from at least one who knew him personally. It is reasonable to suppose that Chad and his three brothers (all of whom were involved with the church) were drawn from the Northumbrian nobility. They certainly had close connections throughout the Northumbrian ruling class. However, the name Chad is actually of British Celtic, rather than Anglo-Saxon origin. It is an element found in the personal names of many Welsh princes and nobles of the period and signifies "battle". The only major fact that Bede gives about Chad's early life is that he was a student of Aidan at the Celtic monastery at Lindisfarne. Chad traveled to Ireland as a monk, before he was ordained a priest.

Bede gives great prominence to the Synod of Whitby in 663/4, which he portrays as resolving the main issues of practice in the Northumbrian Church in favour of Roman practice. Cedd (Chad's brother) is shown acting as the main go-between in the synod because of his facility with all of the relevant languages. Unfortunately, the synod may have helped to spread the plague within the church, killing many including Chad's brother Cedd (d. 26 October 664). Cedd was not the only prominent churchman to die of plague shortly after the synod. This was one of several outbreaks of the plague; they badly hit the ranks of the Church leadership, with most of the bishops in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms dead, including the archbishop of Canterbury. The plague had a direct role in the rise of Wilfrid of Ripon to Bishop of York. Wilfrid may have played a part in the foundation of St Johns in Chester.

In 665 the pro-Roman Wilfrid was expected to become Bishop of York but he left the country to seek a valid ordination in France as some considered ordinations in Britain to be invalid. In his absence King Oswiu of Northumbria became impatient for some religious guidance in his kingdom and decided to send Chad to Kent to be ordained Bishop of the Northern Church at York and this duly took place. When Wilfred returned in 666 he was displeased and opposed St Chad’s ordination. Three years later a new Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore was appointed and he soon charged Chad with holding his office illegally. Chad quickly replied that if this were the case he was very happy to resign as he had only taken up the bishopric out of a sense of duty and never thought himself worthy of the position. Theodore was so moved by Chad’s humility that he promptly completed Chad’s ordination in the Roman manner, but Chad preferred to resign and retired to Lastingham. There is reason to believe that the original name for Lastingham was Læstingau. Læstingau first appears in history when King Ethelwald of Deira (651-c.655) founded a monastery for his own burial. Bede attributes the initiative to Ethelwald's chaplain Caelin, brother of Cedd, Chad and Cynibil. Bede records that Cedd and Cynibil consecrated the site, and that Cynibil built it of wood. Cedd ruled the monastery as the first abbot until his death, combining this position with that of missionary bishop to the East Saxons. St. Cedd died of the plague at Læstingau. Bede records that a party of monks from Essex came to mourn him and all but one were all wiped out by the plague.

In AD 669, Bishop Jaruman of Mercia died and King Wulfhere of Mercia (the father of Werburgh) asked Archbishop Theodore to send his people a new Christian leader. The primate did not wish to consecrate a fresh bishop, so he persuaded King Oswiu to release Chad from the Abbacy of Lastingham to be the new Mercian Bishop, whose seat was then at Repton. Chad did not stay long at Repton, but removed the centre of the Mercian See to Lichfield in Staffordshire. King Wulfhere gave him the land of fifty families upon which to build a monastery.

According to tradition Chad (while Bishop of Lichfield) educated Werburgh. However this is dubious historically as the same tradition mentions two brothers of Werburgh, Wulfhad and Ruffin who are not believed to have existed, and claims that King Wulfhere, Werbergh's father (who died in 675) was a pagan at the time. The date and the circumstances of Wulfhere's conversion are unknown. It has been suggested that he adopted Christianity as part of a settlement with Oswiu in 658, some years before Chad moved to Lichfield. Chad worked in Mercia and Lindsey for only three years (669-672) before he too died during a plague.

In 786 King Offa made the city an archbishopric with authority over all the bishops from the Humber to the River Thames; his appointee was Archbishop Hygeberht. This may have been motivated by Offa's desire to have an archbishop consecrate his son Ecgfrith as king, since it is possible Jænberht refused to perform the ceremony, which took place in 787. After King Offa's death in 796, Lichfield's power waned; in 803 the primacy was restored to Canterbury by Pope Leo III after only 16 years. Bishop Peter moved the see of Lichfield to the fortified and wealthier Chester in 1075, leading to the rebuilding of St Johns. The Two Saints Way is a 92-mile pilgrimage route between the cathedral cities of Chester and Lichfield. Chester and Lichfield were the resting places of St Werburgh and St Chad respectively.

Chad appears in the 20th-century Stained Glass by W. T. Carter Shapland (1961) in the west window at Chester Cathedral. The other figures in the glass include Werburgh, Oswald, Aidan, Wilfred and Æthelflæd. In the University of Chester chapel there is a somewhat simpler window by local strained glass artist Trena Cox, she also made a similar window for St Chad at Farndon.

Related Pages

 * Farndon;
 * Werburgh;
 * St Johns;
 * Bede;
 * Bedward Row;

Online

 * Hanshall on Chad;