As elsewhere in England, the Vikings raided many Wessex churches and monasteries and stole their valuable contents. Once King Alfred (reigned AD 871-99) had won Wessex back from the Danes, he turned to restoring the glories of the church. His patronage was responsible for a renaissance in the arts in south-west England, which endured for more than a century after his death.

Most of the works of art commissioned by Alfred, his nobles and his successors, were for the church. The Anglo-Saxons were famous as goldsmiths, and many gold shrines, pieces of church plate, and other works in precious metals were given to churches and monasteries. Inventories of the monasteries at Abingdon, Evesham and Winchester mention large amounts of precious metalwork.

According to Asser, Alfred’s biographer, the king spent a sixth of his revenues paying for artists and craftsmen. Many of these must have come from abroad, but they were encouraged to pass on their skills to native craftsmen. The beautiful gold, crystal and enamelled ‘Alfred Jewel’ in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, shows Carolingian influence although it is clearly an English work. Contacts with mainland Europe also encouraged the production of illuminated manuscripts. The famous 10th-century ‘Winchester School’ manuscripts, with their distinctive fluttering style, were products of this exchange of artistic ideas.