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<< Our Photo Pages >> St Andrew's Church (Bothal) - Ancient Cross in England in Northumberland

Submitted by Anne T on Thursday, 25 October 2018  Page Views: 1944

Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 1.903 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Northumberland Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Morpeth  Nearest Village: Bothal
Map Ref: NZ2398986621
Latitude: 55.173316N  Longitude: 1.624913W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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Anne T visited on 24th Oct 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Anglo Saxon Cross Shaft Fragment, St Andrew's Church, Bothal: I had arranged to collect the key to the church from the Reverend John Parks, who lives in Pegswood. The church in Bothal is very easy to find, and in a very scenic place, with a nearby footpath running down to the River Wansbeck. The narrow west end of the church faces the road, and is largely hidden by tall, dense trees. My first thought was “how am I going to photograph the outside?” This did prove to be a little bit of a challenge, but in the end, walking into the much larger and spacious churchyard, I managed a couple of shots. There are a number of entries on HE for St. Andrew’s Church, and whilst we spent about an hour and a half here, I felt I wanted to stay longer to explore all the elements in the guide book and the architectural assessments, but Andrew was getting bored and a cup of tea in Morpeth then holy wells beckoned. There are several really interesting ‘cut outs’ of the wooden panel in the chancel that give viewing access to a remnant of medieval plasterwork, an old tombstone reused as a lintel, and an old wooden door. The cut outs were quite small, which made photographing these features a little tricky. At one point, I thought I was going to drop the camera down the small window on the south wall of the chancel, in an attempt to photograph the bottom of the lintel above! Photographing the remnant of medieval plasterwork was interesting, as Andrew had to shine the torch (kindly provided by the church in a neat holder next to the grille) whilst I manually focussed the camera. Not a great photo by any means, but I had fun trying! On the eastern and northern external walls of the church there are musket ball holes.

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : This is AS Corpus Bothal 07, part of a cross shaft built into the north wall of the chancel (towards its western end). Dated to the late tenth to early eleventh century, we initially had difficulty in picking this stone out, but once we'd seen it, could not 'unsee' it. The Corpus describes the pattern as 'formed by concentric punch outlined rectangles with a coiled centre.' (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Cross in Northumberland

The church guide tells us there has been a church on the site of St Andrew's Church in Bothal for over 1,000 years, evidence having been found in the form of a number of Anglo Saxon stone fragments which have been incorporated into the present building. Six of these fragments, AS Corpus Bothal 01 to AS Corpus Bothal 06 can be found in the Great North Museum in Newcastle upon Tyne. The latter was on display in May 2018 - see our photograph for the Great North Museum (Anglo Saxon Stones), Bothal.

An archaeological assessment of the church, dated March 2006, produced by Peter Ryder, Historic Buildings Consultant, can be found at the Diocese of Newcastle website - see their entry for St Andrew's, Bothal.

In addition to the one remaining Anglo Saxon cross shaft fragment built into the north wall of the chancel, there are two fragments of chevron-decorated stones (popular in Norman times), some very old gravestones and a small fragment of medieval plasterwork. The plaster and a couple of the gravestones have been cleverly left 'on view' by holes cut in the wooden panelling of the chancel.

For those interested in churches, there is some 14th century stained glass fragments which make up part of the current windows, and the wooden roof of the nave is a rare survival from the 14th century.

For more information see:
Historic England List ID 1371383, Church of St Andrew;
Historic England List ID 1041363, group of 3 stone coffins and font bowl; and
Pastscape Monument 25369, Anglo Saxon cross (please note, Pastscape says it may have been removed during renovations in 1910, but it is still there!)
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St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : This collection of architectural fragments can be found at the north western end of the church, and forms part of the wall of a make-do vestry. Brilliant use of all the different pieces, and I loved picking out all the funny faces amongst them! (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : This is part of the wooden roof of the nave, which the church guide and the architectural assessment say is a rare survival from the 14th century. Whilst one of the roof timbers bears a date of 1576, this is believed to be a repair to an original timber. The architectural assessment recommends a dendrochronological analysis, which would confirm the date of the timbers. (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : I spotted this stone in the small garden area to the left of the path when walking from the south porch to the churchyard gate. It looks suspiciously like a small cross base, although no mention is made of it in the architectural assessment or the church guide book, this might be because the hole in the stone was covered up by another thin sub-circular block, so looked just like a garden ornament... (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : Very difficult to photograph through a tiny, wire-grille covered opening in the dado in the wooden panelling at the western end of the south wall of the chancel. This is the remains of some of the medieval plasterwork, showing carved, stiff-leafed foliage. There is also a masonry pattern painted in red, although this does not come out on the photo. Easier to see with the naked eye, I was fascinat... (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : This is Ryder 05, a cross slab reused as a lintel in the western most of three fifteenth century windows in the north wall of the north aisle. It shows traces of a cross and shaft, which we found difficult to see, even looking in different lighting conditions. (Vote or comment on this photo)

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : Not recorded in Ryder's listing of Bothal's cross slabs, this stone can be seen through a viewing hole in the wooden panel in the south wall of the chancel. It was not possible (for me) to wriggle far enough into the hole to photograph the entire length of this cross incised grave slab, reused as a lintel, but there is part of a sword, with the faint remains of an incised cross enclosed with a c...

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : This is the second of the two 'chevron-moulded voussoirs' (a wedge shaped stone used to construct an arch), which is now incorporated into the south wall of the nave, just east of the south door. The design was popular in Norman times.

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : This is one of the two 'chevron-moulded voussoirs' (a wedge shaped stone used to construct an arch), which is now incorporated into the south wall of the nave, just west of the south door.

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : This is Ryder 04, its design now only faint, built into the north eastern corner of the nave. Whilst the cross in its circle is visible, there are some shears to the left of the cross shaft, to the top left hand side of the stone. Ryder dates it to the twelfth century, by the style.

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : These cross slabs are set at the eastern end of the north aisle, and are references as Ryder 01 and Ryder 02. Ryder 01, now flaking badly, is dated to the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. Ryder 02, a tapering sandstone slab with relief design, is dated to probably the thirteenth century. Part of "it's unusually bulbous base" is concealed by the radiator.

St Andrew's Church (Bothal)
St Andrew's Church (Bothal) submitted by Anne T : These coffins and the font bowl are separately scheduled as Historic England List ID 1041363. All date to the medieval period. The child's coffin is unusual as not many people could afford them, and was found beneath the south chancel wall in the restoration of the church in 1887.

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