<< Our Photo Pages >> St Andrew's Church (Bolam) - Ancient Cross in England in Northumberland
Submitted by Anne T on Saturday, 13 October 2018 Page Views: 1841
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: St Andrew's Church (Bolam)Country: England County: Northumberland Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Morpeth Nearest Village: Bolam / Belsay
Map Ref: NZ0924482601
Latitude: 55.137685N Longitude: 1.856538W
Condition:
5 | Perfect |
4 | Almost Perfect |
3 | Reasonable but with some damage |
2 | Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site |
1 | Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks |
0 | No data. |
-1 | Completely destroyed |
5 | Superb |
4 | Good |
3 | Ordinary |
2 | Not Good |
1 | Awful |
0 | No data. |
5 | Can be driven to, probably with disabled access |
4 | Short walk on a footpath |
3 | Requiring a bit more of a walk |
2 | A long walk |
1 | In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find |
0 | No data. |
5 | co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates |
4 | co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map |
3 | co-ordinates scaled from a bad map |
2 | co-ordinates of the nearest village |
1 | co-ordinates of the nearest town |
0 | no data |
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Anne T visited on 11th Oct 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 St. Andrew's Church, Bolam: Hogback, Ancient Crosses and Sculptured Stones: It is almost four years to the day when I first visited this church (15th October 2014), but had only just started making contributions to the Portal and thought the cut-off date for any entries was 1,000AD. That visit took place on a beautiful sunny day with no wind; the church was peaceful and tranquil, and I sat and read the guide book, enjoying the atmosphere of ages. Today, the wind rattled the door with great frequency, and the wind whistled through the crack, making it sound like there was a cat howling outside. I was glad of company today!
As well as the AS fragments in the church, a hogback and other grave markers built into the porch, there is also the remains of a cross and cross base.
This is the church where a German bomb came through the south wall but did not explore. The pilot later visited the church to apologise and arranged for a window to be inserted into the east wall of the south aisle – an angel holding a candle.
The information sheet ‘Earth’ says “the oldest part of the church is the Saxon tower, and you can find traces of a sundial inside the porch.” We spent ages looking for this, but couldn’t find it.
The saltire marked stones on either side of the chancel arch were fascinating, as was the arch between the nave and the chancel.
Above the south door, in the porch, are the remains of two triangular inscribed grave slabs (mentioned in the architectural assessment).
There is an archaeological assessment available for this stunning little church; originally carried out in 2000, by Peter Ryder, Historic Buildings Consultant, it was updated in September 2015. See The Diocese of Newcastle assessment for the Church of St Andrew, Bolam.
There are three sculptured stones recorded by the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture in the church. Two can be found against the south wall of the tower, the other is in two pieces, high up in the west and east wall of the south porch. In addition, there are interesting fragments left of the old sanctuary arch and the remains of an old cross in the churchyard.
This church is perhaps more famous for the bomb which came through the south wall of the church during WWII, but did not explode. After the war, the pilot came to the church to apologise, and commissioned a stained glass window of an angel holding a candle, to be seen in the east wall of the south chapel.
The church is recorded as Pastscape Monument No. 21068 and Historic England List ID 1304102. The carved stones are recorded as:
Bolam 01 (eleventh century grave marker);
Bolam 02 (eleventh century graver cover); and
Bolam 03 (eleventh century Saxon-Norman impost in two pieces).
The remains of the cross are scheduled as Historic England List ID 1042815, but there is no mention on Pastscape or the Corpus.
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