St Osyth's Priory

A pilgrimage route published by John Merrill, The Essex Priory Way, connects this former priory site and scene of medieval veneration to Colchester

‍Highlights

• Priory remains
• Parish church, site of St Osyth’s death
• Former holy spring on site of St Osyth’s fatal attack

St. Osyth’s Priory and holy well have slipped from our spiritual landscape. The obscurity of this holy place seems strangely appropriate, because the historical figure of St. Osyth herself is so uncertain. We can see her only fleetingly, a glimpse of a murder scene in the shadows of the Dark Ages. A new pilgrim route visiting here, The Way of Our Lady of Light, will help restore her.

She was born in the Midlands, became a nun, married an East Saxon king, and died a martyr’s death here in Essex. Quite how these contrasting places and events fit together in her life story is a puzzle. Some records say she never consummated her marriage, which was arranged for political purposes. Others claim she had a son before taking the nun’s veil.

We will never know for sure, but the energy that went into St. Osyth’s veneration here in Essex has left its mark for all time. A magnificent medieval gatehouse is the most obvious reminder of the abbey that was built in her honour. It stands beside the road, a minute’s walk from the parish church.

Her shrine at the abbey is first mentioned in a list of holy places in Britain written around the year 1000. The chapel that housed it still survives in the complex behind the gatehouse. The local church has a long-standing tradition of celebrating St. Osyth’s saint’s day in this ancient shrine chapel, on 7 October.

Other places in England claimed shrines and relics of St. Osyth too (such as Bierton in Buckinghamshire), but her memory is clearest here. The abbey complex is in private ownership and not currently accessible to the public. At the time of writing, a housing development was being planned, funds from which would be used to restore and open up the historic priory buildings.

The town church, dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul, is closely bound up in the life and death of St. Osyth. She walked here carrying her head after being decapitated by pagan assailants, collapsing and dying on the threshold.

The structure you can visit today is on the site of the original church. It has Norman fragments and eye-catching Tudor brickwork on the outside walls. It is open every day, still the center of a thriving community as it was when the saint knew it. The town is named in her honour but was previously called Chich.

As for the holy spring, it is now little more than a mark on a map and some ruins of an ancient wellhouse. It is just under a mile from the church, on private land to the north of St. Osyth town. My attempts to find it one hot summer’s evening turned into a painful exercise, tall nettles a poor combination with shorts.

The doorway of the medieval wellhouse, marked as ‘conduit house’ on maps, is still standing, a ruin on the edge of a private plantation called Nun’s Wood. Drainage channels run alongside the structure, but are now dry and overgrown. A large and peaceful pool of water, called Dolphin Pond, lies at the heart of this wood downhill from the conduit house. Perhaps it is fed by the same source that once filled St. Osyth’s holy well, which sprung up where she suffered her martyrdom. It was from here that she carried her head to the church door.

Later traditions about St. Osyth grew out of the uncertain history of her death. In the 12th century, it was reported that she had been executed by Danish raiders in 653 for refusing to bow before their gods. This is often repeated, but clearly untrue since the first recorded Danish raid is 140 years later. But the legend might yet contain a fragment of the saint’s real fate.

St. Osyth grew up in an area where Christianity was struggling to take hold. Her husband, King Sighere, renounced his faith at one stage and reverted to paganism. Perhaps St. Osyth died during her husband’s struggles against Christianity, holding out against his lapse into the old ways. The king was eventually reconverted in 665. Bede records King Sighere’s apostasy in some detail, recounting that he rebuilt the ruined temples and began to worship idols again (History iii.30). It sounds like the right context for St. Osyth’s rejection of her husband and subsequent martyrdom. We can only speculate; Bede makes no mention of her.

Directions‍

St Osyth’s Priory, The Bury, St Osyth CO16 8NZ

W3W: starch.dives.enigma

GPS: 51.7991N 1.0749E

St Peter & St Paul Church, Church Square, St Osyth CO16 8NX‍

www.stosythparishchurch.co.uk‍

W3W: months.tune.rising

GPS: 51.7985N 1.0770E

The priory gatehouse and parish church are close together on the east side of town. The gatehouse is easy to spot—a large flint structure on a road called The Bury. The church is a minute’s walk away, down a side street called Church Square, on your right as you head back into town. It is open daily 8 am–4 pm.

The former well is on private land, but you can identify the site from a public footpath. Drive out of town on the B1027 towards Colchester for half a mile. After the road bends right, there is a lay-by on the left, closely followed by a second lay-by. Park in this second lay-by and follow the footpath. Just before the path bends left, after 350m, look across the field on your left to Nun’s Wood. The conduit house is hidden in the middle of the line of trees about 300m away.