Royston wrote:Boreades wrote:It might be the same in Dorset. It has many old mine workings, the oldest "Christian" Church in S.England, next door to what's described by some as a Synagog.
So is it or is it not a synagogue?! Whereabouts in Dorset is it located?
The oldest church in England is officially St Martin's, Canterbury. The oldest church in Dorset is St Martin's, Wareham. Which makes one wonder if the churches were built for followers of Christ or Mithras.
Sorry, lost my own notes on the subject. Just a bit further north of Piddletrenthide and its Arabic numerals, we have Hinton St Mary, with a 4th century Christian Church, but in a Byzantine church style.
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinton_St_Mary_Mosaic
According to Waldemar Januszczak (BBC4 Treasures Of The Dark Ages), next door to that was a synagogue.
This was the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p011j1xs - but that episode isn't available at the moment. Bugger.
So, we have Middle Eastern style buildings, in a part of Britain very close to two megalithic trade hubs (Poole and Portland).