Sudeley History Timeline

500-1000

500-798

Roman villas built in the area around Winchcombe Anglo-Saxon tribes – the Hwicci – settled the Severn Valley Winchcombe became the chief city of Mercia under King Offa

798

Winchcombe Abbey (Benedictine) founded and completed in 811

877

Vikings reached Winchcombe and caused considerable damage to the Abbey

969

In 969, during the Benedictine revival, Oswald, bishop of Worcester, compelled the secular clerks who were then dwelling at Winchcombe to withdraw. In their place he put monks who should keep the strict rule of St. Benedict, as it was then observed at Fleury, and appointed Germanus, dean of Ramsey, as their abbot. On the death of King Edgar there was a revulsion of feeling in Mercia in favour of the secular priests who had been ousted, and in 975 the monks of Winchcombe were expelled, and returned to the monastery at Ramsey from which they had come.