ST ALFEGE - History of the church

St Alfege - history of the church

I : The early church

The Danish captors of St Alfege remained encamped at Greenwich for several years but we can be sure that, the moment they left, the faithful people of this place would have erected some kind of shrine at the scene of the murder. Since AD 918 the manor of Greenwich had belonged to the abbey of St Peter at Ghent, a fact which reinforced the importance of the archbishop's shrine - so much so that, about 1150, Pope Eugenius III took St Alfege's site of martyrdom under his personal protection. Records have not survived to show how soon the first permanent structure was put up on the site, but it is certain that a church then regarded all over Europe as of prime importance has stood here ever since, enlarged and beautified as circumstances allowed. Early in the 13th century, a second church was built and lasted some 500 years until the storm of 28 November 1710.

It seems that the first Rectors were inducted by the Abbot of Ghent. His choice was not always pleasing to the inhabitants of Greenwich, and the early gaps in the list of Rectors testify to disagreements. It must have come as a relief to the church fathers at Greenwich when, in 1317, King Edward III was persuaded to take the Abbot's possessions into his own hand, ostensibly because of the danger of foreign ownership to an England at war. King Henry V's Act of 1414, by which alien monasteries were deprived of their English holdings, ended Ghent's power over St Alfege; it also made much easier the Crown's enjoyment of the Royal Palace at Greenwich.

In addition to their unusually close contact with continental Christianity, worshippers at St Alfege now had a unique view of the power struggles that were about to enmesh their monarchs. Duke Humphrey's murder in 1447, followed by the hanging of several prominent Greenwich citizens, must have chilled many hearts in Greenwich.

Memorials in the earlier church: The lists of memorials to royal servants show how rich the interior of this early church must have been. Thomas Tallis was buried beneath the chancel, as was Antony Lyle, one of Queen Elizabeth I's four Gentleman Ushers. Thomas Sheffield, Keeper of Gardens to King James I, had his tomb near the north door. Over the east door was a tablet to Thomas Hixon, Keeper of the Wardrobe to Queen Elizabeth I. Brass plates before the chancel rails recorded Richard Bower, King Henry VIII's choir master to the Royal Chapel children; to John Wytte, Footman to Queen Elizabeth; and to Henry Trafford, Clerk of Her Majesty's Green Cloth. As befitted a riverside palace, the Warner family of watermen was there, Royal Barge Masters through several reigns.

A white marble monument on the South wall, surmounted by a figure in alderman's robes, recalled Sir William Hooker, Lord Mayor of London in 1673, who lived in Crooms Hill. Nearby was the memorial to William Lambarde, removed to Sevenoaks when the family gave up residence at Westcombe.

II : The building of the new church
III : Damage to the church in 1941

ST ALFEGE CHURCH

St Alfege - history of the church

I : The early church