Church Organisation and Ecclesiastical Landscapes in North Wales and Cheshire, c.800-1100 : A Comparative Analysis

O'Neill, Jacob and Edmonds, Fiona and Murrieta-Flores, Patricia and Downham, Clare (2025) Church Organisation and Ecclesiastical Landscapes in North Wales and Cheshire, c.800-1100 : A Comparative Analysis. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis uses a topographical approach to explore the organisation of the early medieval Church in both Wales and north west England through the lens of three regional case studies. It seeks to uncover what kinds of churches existed in these places prior to the Norman Conquest, when they were founded and how they related to each other. Some of the pre-existing frameworks for analysing Church organisation in Britain and Ireland are explored and described, followed by three regional case studies, namely Tegeingl in north east Wales, broadly coterminous with the later county of Flintshire, then the hundreds of Wilaveston or Wirral in the north west of Cheshire and then the hundreds of Warmundestrou and Mildestuic in the east of that county. The history of each identified church site is explored through several different bodies of evidence, though art historical evidence, toponomy, and archaeology feature most often as a result of the relative lack of written evidence from these regions. The thesis argues that whilst each site has its own biography and is worthy of individual study, the broad pattern of a small number of early mother-parishes breaking down into smaller units over subsequent centuries is valid on both sides of Anglo-Welsh border, and that there are essential similarities in Church organisation across the study areas, though their cultural expression and appearance remained diverse.