Kirkebi, Pontefract

Next to a mini roundabout in Pontefract sit the remains of Kirkebi, an Anglo-Saxon church building uncovered by archaeologists in 1985. Burials form the year 700 have been found, and in the 900s, it may have been the place in which the English king, Eadred of Wessex, planned his campaigns against the fearsome Viking, Eric Bloodaxe, in 948, as well as the submission of the kingdom of Northumbria. In its day, it was a place of importance, where kingdoms were considered and kings rose and fell. Now it is barely even a ruin, a peculiar set of stones by a modern urban road network. It was also once a place where the Living God was worshipped and His gospel proclaimed; now it is a footnote to centuries past.

The same shall be said of all seats of government, parliaments, capitals and palaces. None but Jerusalem, city of the great king, shall be remembered and cherished. Great places of today are the ruins of tomorrow.

And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged. Isaiah 13:22

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