About
550 AD the New Kingdom of East Anglia was in being, and run by a
ruling family called the Wuffings. The most powerful was Raedwald
who was overlord of all South Britain from 610 - 624 AD. His seat of
government was at Rendlesham, just north of Woodbridge. On a visit to
Kent, he was persuaded to introduce Christianity into East Anglia,
and he was baptised in 616 AD.
St. Augustine had arrived in Kent in
597 AD in order to re-introduce the religion to the nation. Raedwald
founded a monastery at Bedricoworth (Bury St.Edmunds) and his
step-son Sigbert succeeded him in 628 and invited St. Felix to come
to be the first Bishop of East Anglia in 630 AD. The See was based at
a place which Bede names as 'Dummoc' which is now accepted to have
been Dunwich. In 675 AD a Bishopric of Elmham was founded as an
extension of the Bishopric of Dunwich.
As there are two Elmhams in
East Anglia - North Elmham in Norfolk and South Elmham in Suffolk
there has been some doubt which was meant. At South Elmham St.Cross,
on the Wissett Rd are the ruins of a small 11th century building
standing within a Roman enclosure. It is thought to have been erected
to commemorate an earlier Saxon Minster, probably a wooden structure
which stood on or nearby the site, and this was the religious centre
for the Elmham Diocese. However at North Elmham above East Dereham,
Norfolk, are the ruins of a Saxon Cathedral also dating back to the
early 11th century. It is on a site which had been in use from about
800 AD or even earlier. So the doubts remain which was actually
'Elmham'.
It
is generally believed that on his death in 624-5 AD Raedwald was
buried with great ceremony in a ship burial which was found at Sutton
Hoo, near Woodbridge. The excavation by Basil Brown took place in
1938 and he disovered the clear impression in the soil of a wooden
ship 26.6m long and 4.6m wide with space for thirty eight oarsmen.
The treasure, now in the British Museum, included bowls of ornamented
silver, a mass of Anglo-Saxon jewellery, a golden harp, a helmet and
many other things.
On
the death of Sigbert, the throne passed to Anna who became king in
635 AD. Sigmund and Felix were the first of the East Anglian Saints,
with Sigbert's feast day on January 25 and Felix's feastday on March
8th.
King
Anna had considerable trouble with neighbours in the Kingdom of
Mercia which spread across the Midlands of Britain. It seems that in
654 AD, he was chased from Cambridgeshire by King Penda, the pagan
king of Mercia until he reached Blythburgh, where King Anna and his
army turned and gave battle. According to K.N.Johnceline, in his
history of Wenhaston the site of the Battle of Bulcamp was where the
Blythburgh Hospital stood. In this fight King Anna and his army were
soundly defeated and King Anna and his son Firminus were killed.
Legend has it that the tramp's shelter in the embankment of
the A145
leading from the A12 to Beccles, near the entrance to Henham Park,
marks the spot covering a well which in turn was the site where King
Anna was killed. Both bodies were buried in Blythburgh Church, or
possibly the Priory, and it became a place of pilgrimage, before they
were reburied at Bury St Edmunds in the 11th century.
Tradition
records that to the south and east of the font in Blythburgh Church,
in the broken brickwork of the flooring, are the remains of two
purplish-black marble slabs which are now believed to be those that
covered the bodies in the Saxon Church. A wooden carving of Anna and
his daughter Etheldreda who was Abbess of Ely formed part of the Rood
Screen which is now incorporated into the Priest's stall in the
Choir.