<< Our Photo Pages >> Holy Trinity (Old Bewick) - Ancient Cross in England in Northumberland
Submitted by Anne T on Monday, 24 September 2018 Page Views: 2212
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Holy Trinity (Old Bewick)Country: England
NOTE: This site is 0.647 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Northumberland Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Alnwick Nearest Village: Old Bewick / Eglingham
Map Ref: NU0679022152
Latitude: 55.493116N Longitude: 1.894091W
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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I have visited· I would like to visit
Anne T visited on 23rd Sep 2018 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 5 Access: 4 Ancient crosses, Holy Trinity Church, Old Bewick: This is truly a real gem of a church, with great historical notes in a binder in the church. I took these temporarily out of the folder and read out from them as we went round and saw the individual features identified. There was another set of notes, from a talk given in 2017 which I also photographed and will transcribe into my walk journal when time allows.
In some ways, this church is more enigmatic than Escombe Saxon Church, and is smaller. It comprises a nave, a chancel and a semi-circular apse which has been beautifully decorated.
There is so much to look at – original Norman windows. A 14th century effigy. Huge slabs in the west wall. There is what is described as a cross shaft in corner of porch. There is a lovely consecration cross on south pillar of sanctuary. The carvings on north pillar of chancel are particularly nice.
The cross base (?) in the churchyard that I photographed on 13th April 2014 no longer appeared to be there.
This enigmatic church is a real gem, on a par with (if not, in my humble opinion, better than) Escombe Saxon Church. The church has a south porch, an aisleless nave, a short chancel and a curiously apsidal sanctuary, the latter of which has been beautifully decorated. There is an architectural assessment for this church, dated January 2018 - see the Newcastle Diocese website: Holy Trinity, Old Bewick for a copy of the document.
Peter Ryder, Historic Buildings Consultant describes the early stonework as "verging on the megalithic, with some blocks in the nave in excess of 1m long; a number have oblong slots that may well be Lewis holes, suggesting re-use from some Roman structure."
Pastscape describes this bullding as "the most perfect surviving small early Norman church in Northumberland" - see their entry for Pastscape Monument No 5845, and also Historic England List ID 1042412 for more information.
The south porch contains a small collection of grave markers and part of what is described in Pastscape Monument 5796 as "a cross shaft with triple beads at each angle and a socket joint. It is now a badly weathered stone 0.4 metres square in section, and 0.65 metres high, with a shallow basin in the top. If it is a cross shaft fragment, as seems likely, it was probably later utilized as a plague stone." On the southern pillar between the chancel and the sanctuary is a well preserved consecration cross. Of particular note is the north capital of the chancel arch, which has two grinning faces separated by a tree, with a row of saltires above; this is said to be of late 11th or early 12th century date, and is said may have been carved by the same hands who made a capital in the chapel of Durham Castle.
Inside the church is a folder with really good historical notes and a guide of the features of note within the church. The architectural assessment concludes: "the level of the putative piscina and ambry in the sanctuary suggests that the medieval floor level was at least 30cms below the present one" and adds that the sub-floor deposits are likely to have survived with relatively little disturbance.
A visit is highly recommended!
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