<< Our Photo Pages >> St. Gregory's The Great (Kirknewton) - Sculptured Stone in England in Northumberland
Submitted by Anne T on Thursday, 31 August 2017 Page Views: 2480
Multi-periodSite Name: St. Gregory's The Great (Kirknewton)Country: England
NOTE: This site is 0.138 km away from the location you searched for.
County: Northumberland Type: Sculptured Stone
Nearest Town: Wooler Nearest Village: Kirknewton
Map Ref: NT9134630251
Latitude: 55.565856N Longitude: 2.138778W
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 26th Aug 2017 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 The Adoration of the Magi (in Roman tunics): St. Gregory's The Great, Kirknewton: I confess to not being ready to go back home as it was such a nice evening, and this church looked very welcoming, so we stopped off for a look.
The main entrance to the church yard leads over a small, nicely landscaped stream. Immediately facing you to the left hand side of the path are some Commonwealth War Graves, very nicely tended, and all of air force pilots from 1943, mostly in their early 20s; one man was from Brazil. Inside the church there is a lovely sculpture and stained glass dedicated to these men.
There was no church guide to take away, but there were notices all over the church with explanations. There was a stone carving -The Adoration of the Magi, sited in the wall to the north side of the chancel.. The interpretation board near it reads: “The carving is quite amazing as it appear to show the Magi in kilts (but probably Roman tunics). The ancient stone relief is a great treasure of the church, being at least 12th century and could be earlier. There is some evidence to suggest that the style of the Magi “caps” is similar to an example in the Roman catacombs, so there could be the influence of St. Paulinus, himself a Roman (who supposedly preached at Kirknewton) and would date the carving at several centuries earlier, pre-dating the church (where was it prior to that?).”
The chancel and sanctuary look as if they have been fortified and used for defensive purposes (barrel vaulted ceiling and thick walls). I enjoyed walking round this church. It had a very friendly feel and was very well looked after.
Modern-neolithic visited on 31st Oct 2014 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 5 Access: 5
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.5 Ambience: 4.5 Access: 5
This stone is located on the north eastern wall of the nave, just before entering the chancel. The interpretation board reads: “The carving is quite amazing as it appear to show the Magi in kilts (but probably Roman tunics). The ancient stone relief is a great treasure of the church, being at least 12th century and could be earlier. There is some evidence to suggest that the style of the Magi “caps” is similar to an example in the Roman catacombs, so there could be the influence of St. Paulinus, himself a Roman (who supposedly preached at Kirknewton) and would date the carving at several centuries earlier, pre-dating the church (where was it prior to that?)."
No mention of the carving is given on Pastscape Monument No. 1583324, although it is dated as 12th century in Historic England List ID 1153604.
There is a strange entry on the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture, see their entry for Kirknewton, which obviously classes this as not being Anglo-Saxon.
The church is only 6 miles from the Scottish Border, right besides the B6351, Akeld to Yetholm road, and is normally open during daylight hours. The church has some interesting monuments to social reformer Josephine Butler, an unusual family mausoleum) and Commonwealth War graves of young airman flying out of Milfield airbase.
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