<< Our Photo Pages >> Escomb Cross - Ancient Cross in England in County Durham
Submitted by Anne T on Sunday, 21 September 2014 Page Views: 8513
Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Escomb CrossCountry: England County: County Durham Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: West Auckland Nearest Village: Escomb
Map Ref: NZ1892830139 Landranger Map Number: 92
Latitude: 54.665979N Longitude: 1.708064W
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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Marko visited on 18th Nov 2023 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 3 Access: 5
Anne T visited on 18th Sep 2014 - their rating: Cond: 5 Amb: 5 Access: 5 Escomb Saxon Church, Saxon Green, Escomb, Northumberland: This church is well worth a visit as it is a showcase for simple, understated architecture with an enormous ambience of history and worship. Peaceful, cool and reflective, Escomb is said to be ‘the most complete Anglo-Saxon Church in England’ and I’d agree with this. The site is said to date from between 650 to 690 AD and is sited at the heart of this tiny village 2km west of Bishop Auckland. The church is kept locked, but the key is kept on a hook outside the door of a property immediately behind the church and is readily accessible.
I’ve been here twice before in 2007; once just to say I’d been here; the second time to meet a colleague at The Saxon Inn across the road for a pre-meeting on the way to a conference in Durham, and popped in. But until today, I’ve never really stopped to look, sit and take in the atmosphere and the simplicity and beauty that goes back to Saxon times (and perhaps beyond?).
Having found a brilliant resource on the internet (The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture on Durham University’s web site), today’s visit was particularly to look at the Anglo-Saxon cross shafts in the porch and re-visit the rest of the Anglo-Saxon artefacts I’d seen, but not really appreciated on previous visits - the inscribed Saxon cross on the wall between the nave and the sanctuary (just behind the pulpit), the Saxon grave marker behind the altar, the Roman inscriptions and the Saxon architecture and the sundial on the exterior south wall.
Having spent well over an hour here, I drove over to St Andrew’s Church in Aycliffe village for another ‘feast’ of Anglo-Saxon artefacts.
kelpie kelpie have visited here
Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 4 Ambience: 4 Access: 5
Pictured left: A fragment described as either the corner of a shrine or a cross-shaft dating from the late seventh to early eighth century. Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture reference: Escombe 04.
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