Wolverhampton, W Midland - St Peter's Church - postcard c.1910

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  St. Peter's Church, Wolverhampton
• Publisher:  none given
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp:  n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition: 

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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St Peter's Collegiate Church is located on the highest and the oldest developed site in central Wolverhampton, England.^[1] For many centuries it was a chapel royal, and from 1480 a royal peculiar, independent of the Diocese of Lichfield and even the Province of Canterbury. The collegiate church was central to the development of the town of Wolverhampton, much of which belonged to its dean. Until the 18th century, it was the only church in Wolverhampton and the control of the college extended far into the surrounding area, with dependent chapels in several towns and villages of southern Staffordshire.

Fully integrated into the diocesan structure since 1848, today St Peter's is part of the Anglican Parish of Central Wolverhampton. The Grade I listed building, much of which is Perpendicular in style, dating from the 15th century, is of significant architectural and historical interest. Although it is not a cathedral, it has a strong choral foundation in keeping with English Cathedral tradition. The Father Willis organ is of particular note: a campaign to raise £270,000 for its restoration was launched in 2008.^[2]

St Peter's is an Anglo-Saxon foundation. The history of St Peter's was dominated for centuries by its collegiate status, from the 12th century constituted as a dean and prebendaries, and by its royal connections, which were crystallised in the form of the Royal Peculiar in 1480. Although a source of pride and prosperity to both town and church, this institutional framework, hard-won and doggedly-defended, made the church subject to the whims of the monarch or governing elite and unresponsive to the needs of its people. Characterised by absenteeism and corruption through most of its history, the college was involved in constant political and legal strife, and it was dissolved and restored a total of three times, before a fourth and final dissolution in 1846 cleared the way for St Peter's to become an active urban parish church and a focus of civic pride.

There is some doubt abut the origins of the College of Wolverhampton. A charter was discovered around 1560, by which Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, confirms Lady Wulfrun's endowment of a Minster at Hampton in the year 994-5.^[3] The authenticity of the charter is in some doubt,^[4] as it was allegedly discovered in the ruins of a wall at Lichfield and has since been lost. An alternative explanation is that the 7th century King Wulfhere of Mercia was involved in the founding of the town, the church, or both. The only real evidence for this is his name, preserved in the not far-distant settlement of Wolverley, which seems superficially similar. However, older forms of the town's name run against this hypothesis. Shortly after the Norman Conquest we find the College referred to as the church of Wolvrenehamptonia. This certainly suggests that the eponym was Wulfrun rather than Wulfhere, although this does not guarantee that she was the founder: the settlement could date back to some earlier time. The name almost certainly means the High Town or Chief Settlement of Wulfrun.

Wulfrun apparently granted the College lands in or around Upper Arley, Eswich (probably Ashwood, Staffordshire, which was Haswic in Domesday), Bilston, Willenhall, Pelsall, Ogley Hay, Hatherton (near Cannock), Kinvaston (near Penkridge) Featherstone, and two villages called Hilton—one near Ogley and the other by Featherstone. There were also lands at Wolverhampton itself, probably those which Wulfrun herself had received from Ethelred II by a charter of 985.^[5] The Arley lands probably came from a grant which King Edgar the Peaceful had made to Wulfgeat, a relative of Wulfrun, in 963.^[6] In fact, before, the discovery of Wulfrun's charter, Edgar was generally accepted as the founder of the College.^[7]

The church was originally dedicated to St Mary and this was still the dedication at the Domesday survey of 1086: it was switched to St Peter in the mid-12th century. It seems likely that the College always consisted of secular clergy —priests who did not belong to a religious order, rather than monks. A writ attributed to King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066) refers to the College as ""my priests at Hampton"". Although the document is known to be a forgery, probably dating from a century later, the secular character of the College seems to have been accepted unchallenged, despite the implication in the foundation charter that it was a monastery. All of the Domesday entries relating to the church of Wolverhampton refer to clergy, canons or priests, never monks. There is no evidence that a monastery ever existed at Wolverhampton. If there was, it seems odd that Wulfrun would replace it with a secular chapter.

A college was not originally an educational institution but rather a body of people with a shared purpose, in this case a community of priests charged with pastoral care over a wide and wild area. Colleges of priests were not unusual in the Middle Ages, particularly in the Anglo-Saxon period, although they persisted long after. At a time of scattered population, poor communications and frequent lawlessness, it made sense to organise local ministry in teams that could offer mutual support and collective management of resources. From their central base, they could tour the surrounding hamlets, celebrating the Eucharist, preaching and teaching. In most cases, such settlements would not initially have a church building at all, but at most a cross to mark the place of worship. The later parish system organised under diocesan bishops only became truly viable as a landscape of peaceful villages emerged in the later Middle Ages.

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=staffordshire

number of items=single

period=pre - 1914

postage condition=unposted