Breedon Priory Churchyard
High on a hill near to Donington Park and East Midlands airport is the church of Breedon Priory, which can be seen for miles around. With a couple of hours to spare before catching my flight to Edinburgh we decided to visit the churchyard.
History
Breedon Priory, formerly known as St. Mary and St. Hardulph, is a holy place with an authenticated history of Christian worship for over 1300 years. In A.D. 676 an Anglo-Saxon Monastery was established on the hilltop, by Mercian King Aethelred, and for some 200 years this flourished as a centre of culture and crafts.
It was from this building that the remarkable array of Anglo-saxon carved stonework was salvaged, which can be seen in the Church today. But in A.D. 874, the community was attacked by pagan Danish and Norse invaders and buildings looted and despoiled.
The next major step came in A.D. 1122 with the arrival of a Prior and five Canons from Nostell Priory in Yorkshire, who established an Augustian Priory on the site and it is the Nave and North Aisle of this building which survive as the Parish Church of today, restored in later centuries, but still retaining much of its 12th century design and styling.
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