St Werburgh's

On the other side of the motorway from where I live is a suburb called St Werburgh's. It's a bit more well-heeled than here and the houses cost more. They've got a city farm, a pub called The Farm, loads of allotments and there is a new housing development designed by the local people which looks very futuristic.
There was a festival there on Saturday, but I forgot my camera, so can't bring you any pix. But I will one day.

Anyway, I thought I'd try and find out who St Werburgh was. Here are the results -

St Wereburga, as she was known as, was born in Staffordshire in the early seventh century and died towards the end of it.

She came from a remarkable line of people - her mother was also a saint (must run in the family), St Ermenilda, who, as far as I know, hasn't had any suburbs named after her.
Her granny was another saint - Saint Sexburga. You don't hear much of her, and with a name like that I'm not surprised. Sounds like a good name for a Big Brother inmate.

Her father, Wulfhere, was the son of Penda, a very ferocious king of Mercia, who may have been responsible for various war crimes including the killing of many
Christians (he was a devout pagan).
To be honest, her ancestry is the most interesting thing about her.
She was very beautiful and was wooed by a "headstrong warrior" Werebode, to whom her father was much indebted. But she didn't fancy being Mrs Headstrong Warrior and stuck it out to go into a nunnery.
She somehow landed the job of reforming the existing Mercian monasteries and founding others such as Trentham and Hanbury in Staffordshire and Weedon in Northamptonshire.

Her most famous miracle was to banish some geese that had been wreaking havoc in the cornfields around Weedon. Not a great one for biodiversity then. Before she died she expressed a wish to be buried in Hanbury, but the nuns at Weedon refused to release her body. When a party of people from Hanbury arrived, all the locks fell open before them and they carted her off.

After nine years, and with her becoming a famous saint, it was decided to transport her body to a more conspicuous place. Upon opening the coffin, her body was found to be remarkably preserved. This so impressed her brother Kenred that he gave up his throne (he was the Mercian king at the time) and became a monk

And that's more or less it for St Werbs. Her feast day is February 3.