In the beginning…
There is plenty of evidence about the early occupation of Bourton on the Water. Iron-age man was here and the early British encampment of Salmonsbury was later occupied by the 2nd August Legion of the Roman Imperial Army. In late Roman times the settlement moved out of the encampment to build villas along the banks of the River Windrush.
However, we know little of the Christian beginnings in Roman times, though a charter exists to show that in the year 708AD a local Saxon king, Cenred, gave lands in his kingdom to the newly founded Abbey and Convent of Evesham. In return the Abbot was to provide monks to spread the Gospel in specific places in the kingdom including Bourton on the Water. The charter suggests that a simple wooden church was built here in 709AD. By the 10th Century charters clearly talk of the existence of a church here, and the Domesday Register (1086) notes that Bourton has its own priest with 60 acres of land and a church.