The Church, Old Town, St Mary's Isles of Scilly.
Old Town Bay was known to the Norsemen as Mariuhöfn (Mary's Haven), first mentioned in a Saga.
It was c 893AD that Olaf Tryggvessön when he, the king of the Norse lands, came to Scilly.
The Islands were haven to many holy men, and one particular Soothsayer; it was from this meeting that Christianity was taken to Scandinavia.
To redress that peaceful word, Svein Shliharfsön King of Orkney, in 1155 arrived and plundered the Islands.
The first great old church, had only recently been built around 1140.
In 1662 it was rebuilt from the earlier large latin cross church, as the date stone over the main door proclaims.
But became ruined again by 1820, it was rebuilt in 1835, and then restored in 1890.
An internal arch (vestry) and the cross on the east gable apex are 12th C.
The present church is but a fifth of the size of the original church, but there is certainty that the walls are of the same stone.
16th June 2009
