After years of secrecy and delicate handling, BYRGA GENIHT can finally reveal its most spectacular discovery to date. The reason Soulton Hall has preoccupied much of our time and output is because it hosts two great treasures — the altar stone of the old St Paul's Cathedral, and the relics of St Erkenwald, patron saint of the City of London.
The news was broken by the much-loved regional newspaper of record, the Shropshire Star. We expect this nationally important story will get more attention over the coming weeks.
James D. Wenn pieced together the clues that revealed the identity of the altar stone and the location of the relics three years ago. In that time, we have been working with representatives of the Anglican, Roman Catholic, and Orthodox churches to find an appropriate and sensitive course of action for dealing with them. An ecumenical conference was held at Soulton in April 2024, and links to the talks outlining the evidence for the treasures are given below.
The man who designed Soulton Hall, Sir Rowland Hill, transported the altar stone and relics from the old St. Paul's Cathedral in 1549, secretly defying the orders of Edward VI to destroy them as part of the Reformation.
You can read more about our grand plan for the site in a separate item in the Scrapbook.
