Greatest Anglo-Saxon Architecture Quiz

Answer: Its walls were built of white stone

Candida Casa translates as the 'White House'. The church was small, and all detailed information about it has been lost, but its whiteness would have rendered it visible from both Ireland and the Isle of Man. It remained a base of Christianity for over a millennium, and became the source of missions to Christianise other Celtic parts of Britain.

Answer: Inundation by sand

While Christianity disappeared in the rest of England until St Augustine arrived in 597 and built new churches in Kent, it remained in Cornwall, Wales, Scotland and Ireland - another St Piran was built further up the cliffs upon the abandonment of the first. The small church at Newquay is well preserved, as a result of its inundation.

Answer: Crypt

Ripon Cathedral was built in about 670, shortly after the re-Christianisation of northern England. The intensely atmospheric crypt contains a tiny passage pilgrims would have crawled through to reach the sacred central chamber.

Answer: Tall naves, no side chambers, rectangular chancels

The Celtic church built in this distinctive style, while the Roman church of what is now southern England, and the continent, built chambered churches with aisle-less naves. The other styles described are much rarer forms. Good examples of early churches in the south can be seen at Bradford-on-Avon, now in Wiltshire, Bradwell-juxta-Mare, Essex and Earls Barton, Northamptonshire, and in the north also at Monkwearmouth.

Answer: All of these

The ambulatory crypt was designed so that pilgrims could view a relic, believed to be the larynx of St Boniface. Walled-up Romanesque (rounded) arches can be seen in the nave.

Answer: Mercia

Both the crypt, with its rich columns, and the walls of the ninth century chancel survive in this church, despite it being sacked by the Vikings.

Answer: Triangular

Many Saxon windows remain around Britain. They are almost all small, narrow and deep set. Some are rectangular, many arched, but the distinctively Saxon form is triangular. St Mary's Church, last rebuilt in about 930, also contains some Saxon carvings: animal busts, an angel and a Virgin and Child.

The small chapel is the only surviving part of Odda's Palace, built in 1056. Picturesquely, it is now incorporated into a mediaeval timber framed farmhouse.

Answer: Wood

This makes it the oldest wooden church in the world - predating by centuries even the famed Scandinavian churches. Its walls are built with vertical split tree trunks, tongued and grooved - assembled without any nails. Originally, the building has no windows and would have been lit solely by torchlight.

Although no Saxon domestic halls have survived above ground, it is probably safe to assume they were of a similar design.

Answer: Carolingian

The church was rebuilt thanks to an endowment from Lady Godiva of riding naked fame, and her husband the Earl Leofric. Graffiti of an oared Viking sailing ship survives from the earlier church of about 975.

Answer: Rhenish helm

The actual dating of the spire is controversial - it may have been rebuilt in the 12th century - but this is the sole surviving British example of a stunning form of Saxon architecture, imported from the Rhineland (hence its name). By the time of the Norman invasion, British architecture was no longer crude, but was experimenting with new forms and designs, many from mainland Europe.

It was ready to ascend new heights with the great castle- and cathedral-building schemes of the Normans.