Oxborough No. 3 / Oxburgh / Oxenburh

In his entry for 'Oxburgh', Blomefield (1805-1810) describes the then church of St. John the Evangelist in some detail, as is his custom, and adds: "South-west of the present church, about half a mile, and near to the rectory-house, stands the ancient parochial or mother church, being a single building of flint, &c. with a finishing over, and having four large buttresses of free-stone, one at each corner: it is a very plain rude edifice about 34 feet in length, and 20 in breadth, very much resembling that draught of the church of Glastonbury [...] About the south-west part of this pile, near the foundation of the buttress, a gardener digging some few years past, found a small Saxon brass coin, on one side the legend is Aedelred Rex, the reverse is obscure, but seems to be Leofstan, probably the mint-master. This is that Edelred or Eldred, who was King of England in 946, about whose reign this church was most likely erected. The greatest part of the old pile is still entire, with the arches of the east and west windows, and some of the principals of the old roof; the western part of it is now a dove-house, and has been so time immemorial; it was most likely disused some ages since, upon the building of the other church, as may be supposed from the burials of several rectors there, some ages past. On the north side of the east window, is an arch in the wall, no doubt for the imago principalis, which was enjoined to be in all churches; to this old church there belonged a very large churchyard or cemetery, containing 3 or 4 acres of ground, now part of the glebe". [NB: the monarch to whom the foundation of this church is attributed above would probably be Eadred [aka Eadreadus, Edred], son of Edward the Elder, and younger brother of Edmund I, from whom he inherited the throne; he reigned from 946 to his death in 955].