Bill Thompson

“the ancient Church of St Mary Axe.  The church was originally called St Mary, St Ursula and her 11,000 Virgins, a reference to an entourage including St Ursula and her handmaidens who were beheaded with axes in 451 AD.  Some thought the church itself was that old; others thought it was built a few hundred years later.”
― Bill Thompson, The Relic of the King

“A document from the reign of King Henry VIII described one of the two actual axes used for the beheadings.  The story was that the relic was displayed in the church; it gave both the church and the street their odd names.  In the early 1560s refugees from Spain used it as a place of worship but by then it was in a state of disrepair.  It was demolished shortly thereafter, taken down to the foundation.  Another building, the one which Thomas and Belinda Russell owned today, was built in 1620 on the ruins of the ancient church.”
― Bill Thompson, The Relic of the King