After 700AD the period in what was later to become the Kingdom of England was exciting to say the least. By 880 the Danes were invading and what used to be our Northumbrian capital at York became the centre of what became the Danelaw. If you draw a diagonal line on the modern map from Carlisle to London, this was roughly the boundary between Anglo Saxon territory to the west and Danish to the east. We don't have any evidence of the Danes seriously affecting life in Barlick. The evidence of some Danish place names suggests that at some point they were around us but this is most likely due to immigration and assimilation during the period to 1042 when the last of the Danish royal line, Harthacnut, died and Edwin the Confessor became king of a unified country.
Going back to Serlo's 'ancient church', whether the old Pagan temple was converted or a new church was built, by at least 800 the probability is that Barlick had a monkish priest and a church. This may be a good place to assess how successful Christianity was in displacing the old worship.
I think it's a given that belief and superstition that existed from time immemorial can't be erased overnight. You have only to look at some modern manifestations like throwing salt over the shoulder, crossing of fingers, feelings of unease if lost in a forest, make your own list up. These are all remnants in the folk memory and indeed, modern Paganism is alive and well in the New Age Movement and followers of what they call 'The Old Religion'. Even at the height of the monastery building in the 8th century there were complaints about the monks themselves telling Pagan Stories like Beowulf, indeed it is believed that the copy we have today of this ancient poem was transcribed by monks at the Abbey at Malmesbury.
In public our old Barlickers would no doubt be devout Christians, they would defer to the priest and attend services but I suspect that household deities may have survived at least in the mind and the odd offering made to propitiate any of the old spirits who were still hanging about. Some of the most ancient icons of the early church bear evidence that even the evangelists were hedging their bets! It didn't help that they had no access to the Bible and the services were in Latin. As far as they were concerned it was meaningless gabble. However, they soon found out that if they conformed in public they had a quiet life and nobody bothered them. What they did in private was their own business and who knows, the priest may have had his own little sins as well.
Whenever this quiet little existence started, we know exactly when it finished and next week I'll re-tell the story of how we lost our church, the consequences and what my latest take on those events is. There may be more to it than I thought at first.
]A typical early Saxon Church.
