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THE PROPOSED BUILDING PHASES OF ST WYSTAN’S AND THEIR DATES
The investigations of Harold Taylor, Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle (table 1) suggest that the Anglo-Saxon history of St Wystan’s can be divided into eight phases. 1
Table 1 The relevant publications by the three authors, in chronological order.
| 1971: | Harold Taylor, ‘Repton reconsidered: a study in structural criticism’, in Peter Clemoes and Kathleen Hughes (eds), England before the Conquest: studies in the primary sources presented to Dorothy Whitelock, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 351–89 |
| 1977: | Harold Taylor, Repton Studies 1: the Anglo-Saxon crypt, 1974–76, privately printed |
| 1979: | Harold Taylor, Repton Studies 2: the Anglo-Saxon crypt and church, privately printed |
| 1985: | Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle, ‘The Repton stone’, Anglo-Saxon England, 14 (Dec 1985), 233–92 |
| 1986: | Martin Biddle, ‘Archaeology, architecture and the cult of saints in Anglo-Saxon England’, in L A S Butler and R K Morris (eds), The Anglo-Saxon Church: papers on history, architecture and archaeology in honour of Dr H M Taylor, CBA Res Rep 60, 1–31 |
| 1987: | Harold Taylor, ‘St Wystan’s church, Repton, Derbyshire: a reconstruction essay’, Archaeol J, 144, 205–44 |
| 1989: | Harold Taylor, St Wystan’s Church, Repton: a guide and history, privately printed |
| 2001: | Martin Biddle and Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle, ‘Repton and the “great heathen army” 873–874’, in James Graham-Campbell et al (eds), Vikings and the Danelaw, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 45–96 |
| 2002: | Harold Taylor, St Wystan’s Church, Repton: a guide and history, second edn, amended by Martin Biddle, Birthe Kjølbye-Biddle and Stephen Medcalf in 2002 |
Phase 1: There was an abbey at Repton in the late seventh century. We know this because the abbey is mentioned in the Life of St Guthlac. 2 Nothing is known of the church beyond its existence.
Phase 2: In phase 2 a square structure with massive plinths was built. This survives complete except for its roof (fig 1 box C). It must be dated later than c 715 because of a coin of that date associated with it. Access was provided by the two passages through its north-west and south-west corners. A stone-lined drain under the floor suggests that it was originally a baptistery. Later it was used for burials. 3
Fig 1