Illustrated Lecture About St. Peter’s Church by Professor Warwick Rodwell OBE.

On the 25 April 2012 Barton upon Humber Civic Society held an illustrated lecture on St. Peter’s church.  This lecture was given by Professor Warwick Rodwell OBE, who was the driving force behind the extensive excavations of the church over the last 30 or more years.

St. Peter’s church is one of the most important buildings to have survived from the Anglo-Saxon period in the whole country.  It was taken over by English Heritage in 1978 after the town had to decided which of the two churches, St. Peter’s or St. Mary’s, was to be the parish church.  They chose St. Mary’s to protect it from possible demolition.  After the acquisition of St. Peter’s church, there followed the largest programme of archaeological excavation ever carried out on a church in the UK.
The talk showed the highlights of the excavations.  It showed the development of the town and the link between the two churches, which are possibly closer in date than previously thought with the possibility of an earlier building underneath St. Mary’s.  It also brought up some interesting theories about Viking activity in the town and where the castle was possibly sited.

The following images are a very small snap-shot of the night.  Neither the images, or indeed the descriptive text, could ever give justice to the quality of the talk given. 

There was an introduction at St. Peter’s church, with a guided tour of the inside and outside structure.

After the lecture tea and cakes were available in the church hall. There was also an excellent “coffin cake”, including authentic skeleton (plastic), to excavate and then slice.