The Children's Story of Westminster Abbey

by G. E. Troutbeck

The island on which the Abbey stands was called “Thorney Isle” in those old days, and it is described in a charter of King Offa as “the terrible place,” probably because of its wild forests and fierce beasts. The little streams which once separated Thorney Isle from the mainland still run underground, but in those early days the island was also surrounded by a great marsh, which stretched out to Chelsea on the north bank of the Thames, and to Lambeth and Battersea on the south bank.

The early stories of the foundation and building of the church on Thorney Isle have been handed down from far-off times, and although they cannot all be proved to be quite true, we may be sure that there is a great deal of truth deep down in them, as there is in most of the tales that people have loved and told to their children through all the ages.

To begin with the oldest story of all. We are told that in the second century after Christ, while the Romans were still in Britain, a certain Lucius, a British King, became a Christian. His people also became Christian, and Lucius built a church at Thorney, where a temple of Apollo had once stood. Lucius is also said to have built a church where St. Paul’s now stands, on the site of a temple of Diana.

Another very interesting story is that of the rebuilding of the church at Thorney in the Saxon times. The Venerable Bede tells us that Sebert, King of the East Saxons, and nephew of Ethelbert, King of Kent, was converted to Christianity by St. Augustine in A.D. 603 or 604. The Norman monks said that this King Sebert built a church and founded a monastery at Thorney Isle, and a very beautiful story is told about the consecration of this church of King Sebert’s.

One stormy Sunday night—the very night before Mellitus, Bishop of London, was to come and consecrate the church—a fisherman named Edric was casting his nets into the Thames. While he was doing this he heard a voice calling to him from Lambeth, on the other side of the river, and when he had crossed over in his boat he found a venerable looking man in foreign dress, who asked to be ferried over to Thorney Isle. Edric took him across the river, and when they landed at Thorney the stranger went at once to the church, leaving the fisherman waiting by the shore. Then, while Edric watched, a heavenly light seemed to fill all the air, and angels ascended and descended on a ladder which reached from heaven to earth. Edric heard the angels singing, and saw how they burned sweet incense and held flaming tapers. At last the stranger came back, and said to Edric: “I am Peter, keeper of the keys of Heaven. When Mellitus arrives to-morrow, tell him what you have seen, and show him the token that I, St. Peter, have consecrated my own Church of St. Peter, Westminster, and have anticipated the Bishop of London. For yourself, go out into the river; you will catch a plentiful supply of fish, whereof the larger part shall be salmon. This I have granted on two conditions—first, that you never fish again on Sundays; secondly, that you pay a tithe of them to the Abbey of Westminster.”

When King Sebert and Bishop Mellitus arrived the next day for the solemn consecration, Edric met them, bringing a salmon, which he presented to the Bishop from St. Peter, at the same time telling him the wondrous story. It is told that the Bishop saw on the church the crosses and all the marks of consecration, and was satisfied that the fisherman’s tale was true.

King Sebert is said to have died about the year 616, and he and his wife Ethelgoda were buried in the church at Thorney. His tomb was replaced in the great church built on Thorney Isle by Edward the Confessor, and was finally moved into the present church, where it still remains.

It is supposed that the church at Thorney was left neglected until it was restored by Offa, King of the Mercians. After his day it was probably overrun and robbed by the heathen Danes, but it is said to have been again restored by the great St. Dunstan, who brought some Benedictine monks from Glastonbury to the monastery at Thorney.

Harold the Dane, son of Canute, was buried at Thorney, but his brother, Hardicanute, ordered the body to be taken out of its grave and thrown into the Thames. An old story says: “And he (Hardicanute) caused to be hurled out the body of Harold, and to be thrown, beheaded, all out of church; head and body he throws into the Thames. The Danes drew it from the water, and caused it to be buried in the cemetery of the Danes.” (St. Clement Danes).