St Peter's Collegiate Church is located in central Wolverhampton, England. For many centuries it was a chapel royal and from 1480 a royal peculiar, independent of the Diocese of Lichfield and even the Province of Canterbury. The collegiate church was central to the development of the town of Wolverhampton, much of which belonged to its dean. Until the 18th century, it was the only church in Wolverhampton and the control of the college extended far into the surrounding area, with dependent chapels in several towns and villages of southern Staffordshire.

Fully integrated into the diocesan structure since 1848, today St Peter's is part of the Anglican Parish of Central Wolverhampton. The Grade I listed building, much of which is Perpendicular in style, dating from the 15th century, is of significant architectural and historical interest. Although it is not a cathedral, it has a strong choral foundation in keeping with English Cathedral tradition. The Father Willis organ is of particular note: a campaign to raise £300,000 for its restoration was launched in 2008. Restoration began in 2018.

History

St Peter's is an Anglo-Saxon foundation. The history of St Peter's was dominated for centuries by its collegiate status, from the 12th century constituted as a dean and prebendaries, and by its royal connections, which were crystallised in the form of the royal peculiar in 1480. Although a source of pride and prosperity to both town and church, this institutional framework, hard-won and doggedly defended, made the church subject to the whims of the monarch or governing elite and unresponsive to the needs of its people. Characterised by absenteeism and corruption through most of its history, the college was involved in constant political and legal strife, and it was dissolved and restored a total of three times, before a fourth and final dissolution in 1846-8 cleared the way for St Peter's to become an active urban parish church and the focus of civic pride.

994–1066: Origins and endowments

Wulfrun's charter There is some doubt about the origins of the College of Wolverhampton. The most important item of evidence is a charter, alleged by an anonymous history of the Diocese of Lichfield to have been discovered around 1560 in ruderibus muri, "in the ruins of a wall."Anglia Sacra, p. 445. The story of its discovery and its subsequent disappearance has cast doubt on the authenticity of the charter. It is known from a transcription made by William Dugdale in 1640, when the original was in the library at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, and included in his famous survey, Monasticon Anglicanum. In this document, probably dated 994, Dugdale gave the date as 996, but this has generally been regarded as incorrect. See Bridgeman, p. 114. Sigeric, Archbishop of Canterbury, confirms Lady Wulfrun's endowment of a Minster at Hampton. The original grant by Wulfrun, partly Latin and partly Old English, is quoted in the charter. A translation begins:

The charter then defines the boundaries of the estates given by Wulfrun in considerable detail. Some of the places named are fairly easy to recognise from their modern or medieval forms: Arley, Bilston, Willenhall, Wednesfield, Pelsall, Ogley Hay, Hilton, Hatherton, Kinvaston, Featherstone. Others raise problems. These were discussed in the notes to a collection of Anglo-Saxon charters prepared for publication by C. G. O. Bridgeman in 1916, and his conclusions have been generally accepted. These include the identification of Eswick as Ashwood, Staffordshire, as it was Haswic in the Domesday Book, and of the second Hilton as a village of that name near Ogley and Wall, Staffordshire.Bridgeman, p. 112-3. The ten hides of land at Wolverhampton were probably those which Wulfrun herself had received from Ethelred II by a charter of 985.Bridgeman, p. 103. These were specified as ix uidelicet in loco qui dicitur aet Heantune, et aeque unam manentem in eo loco quae Anglice aet Treselcotum uocitatur ("nine plainly in the place which is called Hampton and equally the remaining one in the place called by the English Trescott"):Kemble, p. 214. the latter is a place on the River Smestow to the west of Wolverhampton. The Arley lands probably came from a grant which King Edgar the Peaceful had made to Wulfgeat, a relative of Wulfrun, in 963.Translation in Bridgeman, p. 99-100. In 1548, before the alleged discovery of Wulfrun's charter, Edgar himself was generally accepted as the founder of the College. Wulfgeat was an important adviser to Ethelred, a king who proverbially, as the Unready or Redeless, did not accept good advice: he fell into disgraceDuignan, p. 9, footnote 2. and Wulfrun's grants were partly to make amends for his perceived injustices. When Wulfgeat died in about 1006, he left four oxen to the church at Heantune.Bridgeman, p. 119.

Heantun church The church was originally dedicated to St Mary and this was still the dedication at the Domesday survey:Domesday text, Phillimore reference: STS 7,13 It was switched to St Peter, probably in the mid-12th century: an escheator's inquisition in 1393 recalled that it was still St Mary's when Henry I (1100–35) granted a small estate to set up a chantry for himself and his parents.Calendar of Inquisitions Miscellaneous, 1392–1399, p. 20, no. 44. It seems likely that the College always consisted of secular clergy —priests who did not belong to a religious order, rather than monks. A writ attributed to King Edward the Confessor (1042–1066) refers to the College as "my priests at Hampton." Although the document is known to be a forgery, probably dating from a century later, the secular character of the chapter seems to have been accepted unchallenged, despite the implication in the foundation charter that it might be a monastery. All of the Domesday entries relating to the church of Wolverhampton refer to clergy, canons or priests, never monks. There is no evidence that a monastery ever existed at Wolverhampton.

A college was not originally an educational institution but rather a body of people with a shared purpose, in this case a community of priests charged with pastoral care over a wide and wild area. Wulfruna's was far from unique, even in its locality. The collegiate church of St Michael at nearby Penkridge pre-dated Wulfruna's church, probably by about half a century. Frank Stenton pointed out that Old English word mynster was often used as a word for churches served by such communities of priests and does not necessarily indicate that a community was made up of monks, although it is derived from the Latin monasterium.Stenton, p. 148-9. Rather than conventional parishes, substantial areas in Anglo-Saxon England were served by groups of priests who replicated the bishop's cathedral chapter in which they had been trained by working in community. These were generally not monastic houses in the full sense. Ethelred II did decree clerical celibacy for such bodies, in an effort them more monastic in character, but without success.Stenton, p. 660. Richard A. Fletcher noted that in this period of renewed Viking activity there were numerous "communities of clergy at which reformers looked askance but which very probably made a significant if unobtrusive contribution to the Christianization of Anglo-Scandinavian England."Fletcher, p. 394. In some cases, like that of Ripon Cathedral, former monasteries were revived as collegiate churches. At least one, Stow Minster in Lincolnshire, benefited greatly from the generosity of another Mercian noblewoman, Godgifu or Lady Godiva.Fletcher, p. 395. Wulfrun's foundation belonged firmly in this wave of lay foundations. By Domesday Wolverhampton and Penkridge had been joined by St Mary's Church, Stafford and St Michael's at Tettenhall.

1066–1135: Norman conquest and its consequences It is not clear when the College began to have a close connection with the Crown, although this was to become a defining characteristic, which shaped much of its history. The forged letter of Edward the Confessor is meant to point to just such a close relationship, but we know it dates from a century later, after the church had Wolverhampton had passed through a series of difficulties which it probably wanted to resolve permanently. Some of these stemmed from the Norman Conquest, which brought considerable disruption to Staffordshire's collegiate churches. Wolverhampton's was given by William the Conqueror to his own personal chaplain, Samson.

The following table summarises information in the Domesday Book relating to locations that were or had been holdings of the canons of Wolverhampton. The information is derived from the relevant facsimile page at Open DomesdayStaffordshire, Page 4, at Open Domesday and the translation at the University of Hull's Hydra Repository.

+ Lands at Domesday Phillimore reference no. Location Ploughlands Lord in 1066 Tenant-in-chief 1087 Slaves Villeins Smallholders Free men Approximate geographical reference STS 7,1 Wolverhampton 3 Canons of Wolverhampton Samson the chaplain 14 6 30 STS 7,2 Upper Arley 6 Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton 2 7 3 3 STS 7,2 Arley 1 Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton but Osbern Fitz Richard had taken it by force 4 STS 7,3 Bushbury ½ Wulfric William Fitz-Ansculf 1 STS 7,4 Trescott ½ Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton 1 STS 7,5 Tettenhall 2½ Edward the Confessor William the Conqueror, who had given its as a free grant to Tettenhall church 1 3 STS 7,6 Ashwood, Staffordshire 8, but waste because part of the royal forest Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton STS 7,7 Wednesfield 3 Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton 6 6 STS 7,8 Willenhall 1 Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton 3 5 STS 7,9 Pelsall 1 but waste Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton STS 7,10 Hilton 1 Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton 2 4 STS 7,11 Ogley Hay Waste Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton STS 7,12 Hatherton 2 Canons of Wolverhampton Samson the chaplain, who let the land to the priests Edwin and Alric 1 3 7 Man-at-arms STS 7,13 Kinvaston 1 Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton 3 3 STS 7,15 Hilton 2 Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton 1 1 1 STS 7,15 Featherstone Waste Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton STS 12,1 Sedgley Woodland Ælfgar, Earl of Mercia William Fitz-Ansculf WOR 13,1 Lutley ? Canons of Wolverhampton Canons of Wolverhampton 2 2 1 STS 1,4 Bilston 4 King Edward King William 8 3 Domesday shows a variable situation of retreat and advance for the canons of Wolverhampton. They no longer held Wolverhampton itself as tenants-in-chief but as tenants of Samson. No holdings of the canons are mentioned at Bilston, either before of after the Conquest: the whole of Bilston now belonged to the king himself. Other lands he had let out to other priests: certainly Hatherton, although the Victoria County History includes, while Open Domesday does not, Kinvaston, Hilton and Featherstone. At Arley, some of their land had been seized forcibly by one Osbern Fitz Richard. On the other hand, even before the Conquest, they had acquired an estate at Lutley, Worcestershire, and they claimed woodland at Sedgeley: neither of these was in Wulfrun's grant.