Greensted Church, Essex England
©
The Heritage Trust
 
Parts of the little church of St Andrew at Greensted in Essex are estimated to be over a thousand years old, and it is possible that the site has been a place of Christian worship for 1,300 years. It is the oldest wooden church in the world and the oldest wooden building in Europe. The fifty one logs that form the walls of the Anglo-Saxon part of the church are of oak, and to touch them is to be transported back to the forests where they once stood and to the people who cut, shaped and used them for their place of worship.
 
See also here.
 
 
Of wood well made this wall
©
The Heritage Trust
 
Not of stone
Heart of oak, cleft down
from top to bottom.
Fastened well in wooden sill
round side out towards winter’s winds
flat side in for warmth.
 
Adze marks made here by a man
more than a thousand years ago.
 
Naes staenen!
But of wood well made this wall
Once fastened and thatched
A new hall for a new lord of all.
 
  
 
NB Naes staenen: Old English – Not of stone.