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Anne T visited on 1st May 2019 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 4 St Michael and All Saints, Warden: Anglo Saxon Sculptured Stones, including The Warden Man and Hammerhead Churchyard Cross: I last visited this church on 3rd September 2014, when I was almost new to the Portal, and hadn’t yet come across Pastscape, Historic England or the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculpture databases, so taking Andrew back here was a very pleasant surprise, as I learned an awful lot about these stones. Well worth a repeat visit!

Anne T visited on 3rd Sep 2014 - their rating: Cond: 4 Amb: 4 Access: 5 St Michael's Church, Warden, Northumberland: On the way back from Robin Hoods' Holy Well at Colwell, I detoured via Warden, a church we’ve visited before whilst visiting the Roman enclosure on the hill above Warden, but not really seen. On this last visit, on approaching St Michael’s, we heard a saxophone being played nearby – the same tune repeated over and over (and very badly (sorry, player!)). As we were going into the church, another couple were coming out. The noise of the saxophone got louder and louder, and a man appeared to serenade us. He proved a bit of a nuisance, so we escaped to the Boat pub for a drink, only to be closely followed by the saxophone and it’s player who then sat next to us. The current church is 18th century, but built on much older foundations, originally thought to be the site of the oratory of the Anglo-Saxon saint St. John of Beverley. On today's visit, I met a lady going into the church with some leaflets, and got chatting to her. She told me the same man still lives in the village, and she’d just come from his house. She also told me the Parish had just had the church restored and how proud they were of it now, pointing out the 7th century cross at the south side of the tower, by the porch. The lady didn’t know anything about the Warden Man, so as we went into the porch, I spotted it and pointed it out. “Perhaps we should scrape the moss of it”, she exclaimed. I gulped loudly. “I think you should leave it as it is – you need to ask a professional before doing that”. There are some fascinating features within the church – the 11th century arch at the base of the tower includes a roman stone, and the Saxon gravestone which is on the floor in the chancel (northern wall, next to the choir stalls, just before the altar rails). The Saxon gravestone, in the right light, shows tegulations (a word I hadn’t heard of before I picked up the guide book for the church! – “use light and shade to create a distinctive appearance”) to look like a tiled roof. Outside, there is the 7th century cross (which the Keys To The Past record says is 7th to 11th century), gravestones with iron hoops over them to prevent body-snatchers taking the bodies and a Saxon tower. In the porch, opposite the Warden Man, is a collection of grave stones. There was a really interesting small roundel, with what looked like knot-work on it. I was unable to find out any more about the date of these.



Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Condition: 3.5 Ambience: 4 Access: 4.5

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