ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the effects on the British church of the arrival of the Saxons in western Wessex and demonstrates how knowledge of the encounter may help with the identification of British sites in Dorset, Somerset and Devon. It suggests that the pattern of church sites might be better understood by considering what we know about the religious circumstances in late 7th-century Wessex and early 8th-century Wessex. In 597 Augustine arrived from Rome to convert the Anglo-Saxons and with a remit to govern the Church across Britain. However, according to Bede his two attempts to draw the British into his fold were rebuffed, quite probably as much for political reasons as religious. Only then did they come face to face with the differing customs of the British church. Agilbert's replacement, Wine, was obviously not committed to Roman orthodoxy. Evidence for the British church in western Wessex is difficult to find because of the lack of material culture associated with Christianity.
