Explore over 1,100 years of history
Discover a church built on the site of the Roman Basilica where St Alban was martyred in the 3rd century
St Michael’s Church is open to visitors most days.
St Michael’s church, St Albans, has a strong claim to be the oldest site of known Christian activity in the British Isles: St Alban lived within a quarter of a mile of the present church in the Roman town of Verulamium. During the Persecution of Diocletian he was tried for being a Christian and sentenced to death in the basilica that once occupied the site where the church now stands.It is probably also not by chance that the church was named after Michael, a powerful warrior-angel sent to provide strength in times of such conflict as Alban would have faced in this place. There are no remains of the first Christian buildings on the site, but some time in the 10th century the Anglo-Saxons raised a more enduring structure. They reused bricks from the ruined Roman town which can still be seen in the arches of the original windows and among the external masonry. The church was later expanded as aisles were added, and the roof was lifted to increase levels of light. Despite these modifications, St Michael’s remains the most extant Anglo-Saxon building in Hertfordshire.
St Michael’s and medieval pilgrims
Around the time that the present church was constructed, St Michael’s came under the control of the nearby Benedictine monastery. During the high Middle Ages, it was used for prayer and preparation by pilgrims who were journeying to Alban’s shrine. Several artefacts survive from this period. These include 14th century brasses, the 15th century ceiling, a medieval altar stone (now set in the floor under the east window), and the early Tudor font. Medieval St Michael’s would have been more elaborately painted than today. Chief among the wall paintings was the ‘Doom’, a depiction of the Last Judgement. The only surviving remnant is the large wooden lozenge displayed on the south wall which shows men and women rising from their tombs and looking with hope to heaven.
St Michael’s in the early modern world
At the Reformation, the right to appoint the vicar of St Michael’s passed from the Abbey to the Bacon family, owners of Gorhambury, the estate immediately to the west of St Albans. Francis Bacon, the famous philosopher and statesman (died 1626), may be buried in the church; there is a magnificent statue to him at the left of the high altar. The pulpit, plus the communion table under the arch (both c.1600), are thought to have come from Bacon’s Old Gorhambury House. The Bacons were succeeded by the Grimstons, who still live at Gorhambury today. There are several Grimston memorials in the church, most notably the beautiful east window which recalls the Transfiguration, when Jesus’ identity as God’s Son was revealed to his closest followers.
The Parish of St Michael’s today
St Michael’s is an ancient church but not a static one; it has been evolving for nearly eleven centuries and continues to do so. The pub down the road is named after the original Six Bells in St Michael’s tower – but it is decades since an additional two bells were hung to make a full octave! St Michael’s today is a vibrant, welcoming, all-age congregation, part of the Church of England, worshipping and serving Jesus in western St Albans.
St Michael’s Church and Verulamium
Beneath our Church lie the remains of the Basilica of Roman Verulamium, the site of St Albans trial in the third century AD
Roman Verulamium
The Roman City of Verulamium was founded in c .AD50 on a site which had been an important tribal centre for the Catuvellauni in pre-Roman times. The early town was destroyed during the revolt of Boudicca in AD60/61, but was gradually rebuilt and over the years, despite a set back in AD155 when it was again badly damaged by fire, developed into one of the largest cities of Roman Britain. The city survived for at least a generation after the formal ending of Roman rule.
The Roman Basilica and Forum
In 1955 during work in the yard of St Michael’s School fragments of a Roman inscription carved on Purbeck marble were discovered (on display in the Verulamium museum). Subsequent excavation revealed one of the entrances into the Basilica, over which the inscription was originally situated. This inscription has been dated to the year AD79 during the governorship of Agricola and it was at this time the Basilica was built. Most of our knowledge of the Basilica comes from excavations at the northeast corner. Work was carried out in what was then the yard of St Germain’s Farm in 1935, and further work in 1939 and more recently prior to the building of the museum extension. The building of the parish centre in 1972 revealed that there had been a major rebuilding of the Basilica, an event that probably took place after the disastrous fire of AD155.
Other walls rel;ating to the buildin found in the past around and under the church, and a writer in the nineteenth century recorded that it was almost impossible to dig a grave in the churchyard without hitting a Roman wall! The Basilica was the administrative centre of Verulamium with law courts, offices, a meeting place for the city council and probably a school. The historian Tacitus, when describing the events of the Boudiccan rebellion, describes Verulamium as a Municipium, a chartered city, although it is not clear whether this status existed in AD61 or at the time he was writing. One possible scenario is that following the rebuilding after the rebellion Verulamium was provided an earthen defence, a new administrative centre, and a new status. There are traces of earlier walls predating the contemporary forumand it is possible that an earlier first century Bg have beenasilica awaits discovery.
Parts of the Forum were excavated between 1898 and 1902 by William Page and the then incumbent of St Michael’s the Rev. C.V Bicknell in 1911 and 1914. These showed that it was of normal form with a covered ambulatory surrounding a large open courtyard, and a range of buildings behind the ambulatory on the southeast side. a further building was excavated near the southwestern corner by Mortimer Wheeeler and Molly Cotton in 1949 and the southwest wall was located by Sheppard Frere in 1956. As with the Basilica there had been a major rebuilding when at least two temples had been added to the southeastern range. It is however difficult to satisfactorily relate all this work together and further work is needed.
St Michael’s Church
It must have been in the Basilica that, at sometime in the Third Century AD, Alban, a citizen of Verulamium, was tried for his Christianity, so that the Church has some claim to overlay the scene of Alban’s trial. Interestingly, the remains of this building, of comparable dimensions to the nave of the existing Abbey Church, must have been deliberately demolished before St Michael’s Church was built.
According to the Abbey’s own tradition, enshrined in the Gesta Abbatum, in the year AD948, Abbot Wulsin (or Ulsinus) of St Albans, among other things, built three churches at the entrances to the town, one of these being St Michael’s. There has been some debate over the date of the earliest work visible in the existing Church although it seems that the earliest visible architecture probably dates from around AD1000. There is currently some debate over Wulsin’s floriut, which seems to have been c. 860 to 880, rather than the mid 10th century. It is possible that the earliest parts of the existing church were preceeded by a timber building, for excavation at St Stephen’s produced some eveidence for that being the case here.
Throughout the Middle Ages St Michael’s was frequently referred to as the church of St Michael at Kingsbury. Kingsbury was a royal Saxon estate and it is possible that its centre was in the derelict Forum and Basilica. Two Saxon coins have come from the Forum along with a distinctive loomweight and there is some Saxon pottery close by. It was in AD1005 that St Albans Abbey obtained Verulamium from the crown so it is possible that the building of the present Church took place at around the same time. It is clear that not only is there still much to learn about the Roman Forum and basilica, but also about the history of St Michael’s.
Chris Saunders 2008
Visit us
St Michael’s Church
St Michael’s Street
St Albans AL3 4SL
United Kingdom
Parish Office Hours
Tuesday to Friday
9 am to 1 pm
Phone
01727 835037