Nottinghamshire's earliest churches

This video is about the earliest churches in Nottinghamshire – the ones founded in the seventh or eighth centuries, long before the majority of what we now call parish churches were even constructed.

Many of them are at places where waterborne transport could have most easily landed. This is the same at other inland counties such as Leicestershire and Wiltshire. What surprised me is that nearly all seem to be successors to pre-conversion shrines. And there seems to be a reason…

updates:
1: Roman lead ‘fonts’ were probably not used for baptism (as I stated) but for the ritual of pedilavium – foot-washing prior to the receiving of the Eucharist. This was a common practice around the seventh century. The rite is based on John 13:14–17 and various Old Testament references (plus Luke 7:44 where failure to observe the custom is noted).
2: Stapleford (Notts) is on the River Erewash, not the Trent as I wrongly stated.
3: Mike Bishop's list of candidate churches may be based on research by Dawn Hadley published in 1996. I have yet to track down a copy of Dawn's book to confirm this.
4: A draft of the PDF mentioned in the video is available here: www.hoap.co.uk/earliest_churches_in_notts.pdf
5: Many thanks to several people have provided feedback about this draft PDF. Most importantly there is evidence that Averham was also an early church. And a good many other details need improving ;-) So watch out for a revised PDF and a new video...

LINKS TO SOURCES CITED

Bishop, Mike C., 2000, An archaeological resource assessment of Anglo-Saxon Nottinghamshire.
East Midlands Archaeological Research Frameworks; online at https://archaeologydataservice.ac.uk/...

Gaunt, Andy, 2017, Archaeoastronomical and Topographic Survey at St Mary’s Church, Edwinstowe in Sherwood Forest, Nottinghamshire; online at https://www.mercian-as.co.uk/reports/...

Vince, Alan, no date (circa 2008), East Midlands Historic Environment Research Framework; online at https://researchframeworks.org/emherf...

‘Patterdale Paddler’, 2014, ‘River Chater - North Luffenham to Ketton - a little bit ditchy!’; www.songofthepaddle.co.uk/showthread.php?tid=44456-River-Chater-North-Luffenham-to-Ketton-a-little-bit-ditchy!?p=520704

Trubshaw, Bob, 2015, Minsters and valleys: A topographical comparison of seventh and eighth century land use in Leicestershire and Wiltshire; Heart of Albion; www.hoap.co.uk/minsters_and_valleys01.pdf

Trubshaw, Bob, 2022a ‘Anglo-Saxon boundary shrines’;    • Anglo-Saxon boundary shrines  

Trubshaw, Bob, 2022b ‘Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords’;    • Anglo-Saxon shrines at fords  

Trubshaw, Bob, 2023a, ‘Early churches and waterborne trade’;    • Early churches and waterborne trade  

Trubshaw, Bob, 2023c, ‘Always upstream, never downstream’;    • Always upstream, never downstream