Church Micro 4866...Ruddington Traditional Geocache
Church Micro 4866...Ruddington
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Parish Church Of Saint Peter's - Ruddington
Ruddington was the Anglo-Saxon homestead of Ruddingas (Rudda’s people), but the first recorded evidence of any church is in Domesday Book 1086, when the population was about 250. It is unclear whether this reference is to a church in Ruddington or nearby Flawforth (or Flawford), but Flawforth is the more likely since it was the main church for the people of Ruddington, Edwalton, Plumtree and Bradmore.
There are no early traces of a church building, but the present position of the church and the Hermitage on a raised area between Church Street, Wilford Road and Manor Park make it a likely site. The Hermitage in particular is thought to have been the original manor house of Rudda, the Saxon founder of Ruddington, who would naturally site a church near his residence (though there is no evidence for a pre-Conquest church). Excavations in 1975 revealed a well shaft and 566 pottery fragments.
Archaeological excavations reveal clear evidence of a Saxon church building after 663AD and a church deed of 1282 referring to the Chapel of St Mary indicate that it was at Flawforth. The parish church in Ruddington originated as a manorial chapel of St Mary attached to the adjacent manor house (now the Hermitage), and the instigator of its building would have been the lord of the manor.
The present church was originally a manorial chapel until Flawford church was demolished in 1773 and the chapel became the parish church. The Hermitage has revealed features of its past in the Tudor west wing rebuilt in 1708.
All but the tower was finally demolished in 1887, when the present church was built on the same site and consecrated in November 1888. The south and east walls of the old tower were incorporated into the body of the nineteenth-century building.
Subsequently, St Peter’s central position in the village has continued to make it a strong focal point and extensions have kept pace with the growth of the village, which has included a number of new estates during the twentieth century.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ba Oynpx Oruvaq Erq