Saxon Painswick

A grim fate awaited the Romanised Celts of Painswick when around 400 A.D. the eruption of barbarian hordes from Central Europe into Italy forced the Roman Emperors to withdraw from Britain the protecting Legions. Softend by 350 years fo Roman peace the Celts were no match for the Saxon Pirates who poured across the North Sea from Germany and swarmed westward through England.
Ifold's looted villa was left silent and deserted. A band of Saxons, who had brought with them their Saxon women, cleared the forest from the area around what is now St Mary's Churchyard, Painswick,  and built a small "Wicke" - the Saxon word for village.
With the coming of Christianity, they built a church on the site of our present parish church. Our Wicke's last Saxon thegn was a notoriously loose and riotous liver call Ernisi, who in old age turned monk. His chieftan was the great Earl Godwin of Wessex, whose son Harold, was to be the last King of England.