Church & Religion

A minster (monastery) already existed at Exeter before Alfred re-founded the town (see the Dark Ages section). It grew in size in the 10th and 11th centuries, rising to cathedral status in 1050. Its site has been excavated.

A strand in late Saxon church life throughout England was the proliferation of the chapels which were to become parish churches in the later middle ages. This process was already well advanced by the time that the documentary records of churches begin to survive in the Norman period and later, so is not well understood.