He is regarded as the patron saint of boundaries, and by extension, of trade and travel,[3] as well as various aspects of farming.

Little is known about the life of Botolph, other than doubtful details in an account written four hundred years after his death by the 11th-century monk Folcard.

Botolph, returning to England, found favour with a certain "King of the southern Angles", whose sisters he had known in Germany, and was by him permitted to choose a tract of desolate land upon which to build a monastery.

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle records for the year 654: "The Middle Angles, under earldorman Peada, received the true faith.

At the time, the site was a tidal island all but surrounded by water, but Botolph attracted other monks and hermits and together they turned areas of marsh and scrub into productive grazing and farm land.

They remained for some fifty years before being transferred to their own tomb at Bury St Edmunds Abbey on the instructions of Cnut.

[8] St Botolph's Church in Hardham, West Sussex, houses some of the most ancient surviving wall paintings in Britain, including the earliest known depiction of St. George in England.

An alternative possibility is that the churches were dedicated to the saint because his relics came through the four gates when Edgar moved them from Iken to Westminster Abbey.

[citation needed] The parish of Buttsbury in Essex was initially called Botolfvespirie,[10] meaning Botolph's Pear Tree.