Saxon doorway - 800 AD

Saxon doorway - 800 AD

The founding of St Mary’’s is given as 800 AD, it is probable that the church was begun as early as the late 6th century. Deerhurst occupied a position of importance in the territory of the Saxon Hwicce, a subkingdom of Mercia, and the church was the most important in the region. In the year 804 Aethelric, son of King Edmund of the Hwicce, granted land at Deerhurst to the priory, he and his father were probably buried at Deerhurst. In 1016 Edmund Ironside and Canute chose Deerhurst to sign a treaty dividing England between them. In the 11th century Deerhurst was the home of Earl Odda, one of the most powerful of Edward the Confessor’s nobles. Odda was responsible for the chapel which bears his name, which was completed shortly before his death in 1056. After Odda’s death the priory lands were given to the monastery of St Denis, in France, and the chapel passed into the hands of Westminster Abbey. The monastery was later the property of Tewkesbury Abbey, but at the Dissolution of the Monasteries the priory was disbanded and the church became the parish church.

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