St Arilda's Church and Severn Estuary, Oldbury on Severn

NOTE: the “old” Severn Road Bridge can be seen in the distance. The photograph was taken in the mid 1980s, before the new Bridge was built. Arilda is a rare Saxon personal name, and apparently all a lady had to do to become a Saint in Saxon times was to be the daughter, or widow of a King, and to enter a nunnery (c.f. St. Werburgh, to whom one of the churches in the City of Derby is dedicated). She is said to have been born at Oldbury, and according to Revd. Thomas Dudley Fosbrooke's An Original History of the City of Gloucester (1819), was martyred at Thornbury, and her relics brought to St Peter's Abbey by Serlo, who was Abbot from 1072 until his death in 1104.

(Information provided by Rosemary Lockie)