I was invited to take part in the 950th anniversary celebrations of St John’s Church in Chester, which took place on Saturday 14 June 2025 with an open church day full of talks, activities, public engagement.
It’s a fitting time for reflection—on the church itself, on the landscape that surrounds it, and on the wider historical forces that once shaped this area of the River Dee in Chester, Cheshire. As a landscape historian and archaeologist, my work often focuses on the interplay between place and power, and St John’s is one of the richest sites for that kind of reflection.
The Original Church of Chester
St John’s is often called the original church of Chester. By AD 1075, it had become the cathedral and collegiate church of the city. But its importance goes back much further—possibly to the 6th or 7th century, when it may have already served as a site of religious leadership and debate. For an aerial view of St John’s Church adjacent to the River Dee painted from a balloon in the 19th century, see here.
The Synod of Chester
It is possible that the Synod of Chester was held on the site where St John’s stands today. This was a pivotal moment in early medieval Britain, when British bishops rejected the Roman mission of Archbishop Augustine of Canterbury (AD 597–604). This act of resistance was later seen as provoking divine retribution. In the Battle of Chester—fought in either AD 605–06 or AD 615–16, according to differing sources—Æthelfrith of Northumbria defeated the Welsh. Writing over a century later, Bede reported that about 1,200 monks from the monastery at Bangor-on-Dee, roughly 30 km south of Chester, were killed during the battle.
Edward the Elder and Farndon, Cheshire
The story of power and place continues with Edward the Elder, King of the Anglo-Saxons, who fortified Chester in AD 924 and defeated a Mercian and Welsh revolt against his rule there—only to die soon afterwards at his palace in Farndon, a royal residence 10–12 km south of Chester. It is likely that St John’s was already functioning as a minster or mother church at that time, firmly embedded in the regional religious and political landscape.
Edgar’s River Procession (AD 973)
Perhaps the most dramatic tale comes in AD 973, when Edward’s son, King Edgar the Peaceable, came to Chester after his coronation at Bath. There he met six (or perhaps eight) kings from the Irish Sea region, who pledged their allegiance. According to later chroniclers, they rowed Edgar in a ceremonial longboat along the River Dee, possibly beginning at his palace in Farndon, attending a commemorative service at St John’s, and returning to Farndon—creating an unforgettable image of royal supremacy.
This procession was clearly a symbolic act of King Edgar’s control over the Irish Sea region and its kings: In the early medieval period, the Dee was a vital route connecting Chester to the Irish Sea world—Wales, Ireland, Scotland, and Isle of Man.
Landscape, Ceremony and the Wider Context
In my article, Contextualising preconceptions: the Anglo-Saxon palace and Anglo-Norman castle in the royal vill of Farndon, Cheshire (published in Archaeologia Cambrensis, 2022), I explore this wider context. I argue that King Edgar’s river parade in AD 973 highlights not only St John’s and Chester’s significance, but also the Anglo-Saxon royal vill at Farndon, where ceremonial, economic and strategic influence converged.
The research challenges older assumptions about where royal power was focused at Farndon. While Aldford Castle has traditionally been thought to sit on the site of the royal palace at Farndon, my findings suggest that the castle more likely stands over an Anglo-Saxon thegnly site of strategic commercial importance adjacent to the River Dee. Meanwhile, fresh research and interpretation strongly points to an alternative siting of the lost palace at Farndon. Find out more here.
By taking a wider view—both spatially and temporally—we begin to see that the relatively modest medieval remains of St John’s today are not merely remnants of obscurity, but fragments of a much wider riverscape and landscape of enduring political and ceremonial significance.
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