Anna Palmer lived as an anchoress next to St Peter’s Church in Marefair in the 1390s. She was summoned by John Buckingham, Bishop of Lincoln, on several charges of heresy and one of incontinence. She was said to be a leader of Lollard heretics and was imprisoned in Banbury after calling the Bishop an anti-Christ, only admitting that she was innocent of the charge of incontinence.
St Peter's Church is considered the most outstanding Norman church in the county and its capital sculpture is one of the highlights of the Romanesque in England. Probably built c. 1150 by Simon de Senlis II, the church is constructed in reddish ironstone and yellowish oolithic limestone. The exterior features Norman arcades and corbels carved with a variety of images, mainly human and animal heads.
The interior preserves a continuous arcade of eight bays in the Norman style with capitals carved with faces, foliage, animals, and birds. In the south aisle is a well-preserved 12th-century grave slab featuring a disgorging head breathing out a stream of creation with foliage, dragons, and a stag hunted by a dog. The church is a redundant parish church under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.
Sources: Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons
Written by Nicolo Ciampini
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