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Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20282, 17 April 1934, Page 4

According to tradition, Joseph of Arimathea reached the shores of Britain in the year of the Christian era 61, settled at Glastonbury with eleven companions, and built the first church. Its length was 60ft and its breadth 261 1. The walls were made of twigs and branches twisted together after the ancient custom. Professor Willis, in his “ Architectural History rf Glastonbury Abbey,” records that “ on the spot where the present church stands there existed a structure of twisted rods, or bundles, which was believed to have been built as a Christian Orator}-, and reported to lie the earliest church in Britain Tt bore the name of ‘ Vetusta Ecclcsia,’ the ‘Old Church.’ and was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.”