St. Etheldreda's Church, West Halton

Anglican church in the Church of England. Services take place roughly once a month with a focus on festivals.

Church service times can be checked via the notice board in the porch or via subscription to the Humber Outlook our parish magazine.

If you would like to visit the church and see inside please ask, we can happily open on request.

There is considerable historical evidence indicating that West Halton may have been the site of an important Anglo-Saxon religious community (Grenville and Parker-Pearson 1983: 1-3). This assertion steams from several factors that West Halton was a substantial religious and political centre.

By the nineteenth century the Parish of West Halton incorporated dispersed lands in Guness and Crosby, implying the parish had once been much larger. Churches with such large parishes are typically the mother church or 'minster' of the seventh to ninth centuries (Blair 1988, p. 1-2). The significance of the parish church is further suggested by a description recorded by local curate Abraham de la Pryme in 1696 records when he stated 'the church is all fal'n to ruins, but appears to have been very stately, magnificent and larger then any one for a great many miles round about it' (Published by the Surtees Society 1870: 140-1).

The manor of West Halton also appears to have been of some significance, the village comprising the central manor of a comparatively large soke that included the lands of Walcot, Coleby, Haythby, Thealby, Crosby, Conesby and Winterton (Grenville and Parker-Pearson 1983: 1-3 and Foster and Longley 1924: 74-5). In 1066 West Halton was the most substantial estate in Manley Wapentake and its lord as king the most powerful man in England after the death of Edward the Confessor. Whether he held the estate as earl or otherwise cannot be determined with certainty, but it seems likely that it was a comital manor with wide administrative functions (Roffe 2000).

A possible reason for the churches importance lies in the unusual dedication of the parish church of West Halton to St. Etheldreda. Etheldreda (OE Æthelthryth), the daughter of Anna, king of East Anglia, was married in 660 to Egfrith, the young king of Northumbria, who agreed that she should remain a virgin, as she had in a previous marriage. After 12 years Egfrith wished their marital relationship to be normal and Etheldreda, advised and aided by the bishop of Northumbria, refused becoming a nun at Coldingham before leaving to found a double monastery in Ely (Farmer 1992). The Liber Eliensis, a twelfth century chronicle and history written at Ely Abbey, provides details of her journey south from Coldingham. The work alleges that Etheldreda crossed the River Humber and stayed 'at a hamlet situated on an island almost surrounded by the fen called Alftham' where she founded a monastery before continuing her journey. The exact location of Alftham is unknown although the Liber Eliensis records it was ten leagues from where Etheldreda crossed the Humber and and could therefore place it in the West Halton area. Whilst there is little evidence to corroborate these accounts, they have been observed to suggest an intimate knowledge of local topography and thus provides some level of authenticity (Roffe 2000).

The listing for the church can be read at: http://www.historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1260344