One of the first questions visitors ask on entering a church is, “How old is it?”

This seems straightforward, but the answer is surprisingly complex. The situation is similar to the Ship of Theseus paradox, which asks whether an object remains the same if all its parts are gradually replaced. A more familiar illustration is Trigger’s broom from Only Fools and Horses: although he had replaced the head 17 times and the handle 14 times, Trigger still claimed it was the same broom.

In the case of St Peter and St Paul’s, parts of the present building date back over 900 years, to around 1100. It is believed that an even earlier Saxon church stood on the same site sometime between the late 7th and mid-10th centuries. That building would have been constructed of wattle and daub with a thatched roof, similar to the huts at the Singleton Open-Air Museum. No visible remains of this Saxon church survive today.