History
The church was established in the middle Saxon period, and is believed to have been a minster church: one which served as a base for a group of clergy living a communal life, who may have taken some pastoral responsibility for the population of the surrounding district. A charter issued by King Coenwulf of Mercia refers to a council which had taken place close to what is called the monasterium (meaning minster) of Croydon. An Anglo-Saxon will made in about 960 is witnessed by Elfsies, priest of Croydon; and the church is also mentioned in Domesday Book (1086).
The earliest clear record of the church's dedication to St John the Baptist is found in the will of John de Croydon, fishmonger, dated 6 December 1347, which includes a bequest to "the church of S. John de Croydon".
In its final medieval form, the church was mainly a Perpendicular-style structure of late 14th and early 15th-century date. It still bears the arms of archbishops Courtenay and Chicheley, believed to have been its benefactors. However, in 1867 this building was gutted by fire.
Under the direction of Sir George Gilbert Scott it was rebuilt, incorporating some of the medieval remains (notably the west tower and south porch), and essentially following the same design, while extending the building's footprint further east. It was reconsecrated in 1870. It still contains several important monuments and fittings saved from the old building. The church was elevated to the status of Croydon Minster (the modern honorific title) on 29 May 2011, the first such change in the diocese of Southwark.
Croydon has strong religious links, Croydon Palace having been a residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury from at least the beginning of the 13th century to the beginning of the 19th. The Bishop of Croydon is a position as a suffragan Bishop in the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. As of 2012 the bishopric was vacant following the translation of Nicholas (Nick) Baines to be Bishop of Bradford; and the vicar was Colin J Luke Boswell, Vicar of Croydon and Chaplain to the Whitgift Foundation. A list of the bishops of the Episcopal Area of Croydon includes:
| Tenure | Incumbent | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| William Louis Anderson | ||
| Maurice Harland | ||
| Cuthbert Killick Norman Bardsley | ||
| John Taylor Hughes | ||
| Stuart Snell | ||
| Wilfred Wood | ||
| Nicholas Baines |
Read more about this topic: Croydon Minster
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The myth of independence from the mother is abandoned in mid- life as women learn new routes around the mother—both the mother without and the mother within. A mid-life daughter may reengage with a mother or put new controls on care and set limits to love. But whatever she does, her child’s history is never finished.”
—Terri Apter (20th century)
“All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“While the Republic has already acquired a history world-wide, America is still unsettled and unexplored. Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)