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<< Our Photo Pages >> Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) - Ancient Cross in England in Cumbria

Submitted by Anne T on Monday, 27 October 2014  Page Views: 3478

Early Medieval (Dark Age)Site Name: Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) Alternative Name: Beckermet St John Ancient Crosses, Beckermet St John Crosses
Country: England
NOTE: This site is 0.103 km away from the location you searched for.

County: Cumbria Type: Ancient Cross
Nearest Town: Whitehaven  Nearest Village: Beckermet
Map Ref: NY01890671
Latitude: 54.446284N  Longitude: 3.51448W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
5 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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Anne T visited on 24th Oct 2014 - their rating: Cond: 3 Amb: 4 Access: 5 Ancient crosses: St John’s Church, Beckermet, Cumbria: As we arrived, I could hear the buzz of voices coming from inside the church and thought there might be a service on. Sort of. Children kept coming out of the church, and out, and out. It turned out the whole local school had come for a Harvest Festival service so we waited whilst they filed out. The vicar and another lady were standing in the church porch. I said “I think we’ve arrived at the right time (or the wrong time!). We’ve come to see the Anglo Saxon cross remains” and waved my pages from the ASCorpus at them. The vicar told us the church was left open all day so we weren’t disturbing everyone. He then asked us if we were going to the ‘low church’ and gave vague directions. The lady also mentioned Gosforth. After having cleared up in the vestry, they disappeared and left us to it. We had to move (carefully) all the flowers from the stones to photograph them, and carefully replaced them. There were also three old fonts in the church yard. I managed to photograph 2 of them; the third was less ornate red sandstone, very near the west door to the church. All the Anglo Saxon cross shaft fragments were on the window ledges in the north aisle; grave covers on the window ledges in the south aisle. One additional fragment, not listed on ASCorpus. Could this be fragment 09 returned to the church? The notes in the church read: “There is evidence of at least 4 churches having been built on this site. The earliest is thought to have been built by Irish monks. We know that in 1262 Sir John le Fleming gave the church to Calder Abbey and tithes were paid to the Abbey. We know of the existence of a 13th century church. Fragments of a crocketed canopy and cross can be found outside the porch doorway. This was ‘a small church with square headed windows and a South Porch approached by steps beginning near the bridge and a little belfry between the chancel and nave’ (The Gosforth District by Dr. C.A. Parker). This was the position of the Sanctus Bell by means of a rope hanging down intot he church at the raising of the host during Mass. This church had an earthen floor with seats being oak forms. It had no door, but there was a hurdle to keep out animals. It also had no ceiling. In January 1811 a faculty was granted to pul down this building which had served as a church for over 600 years. All parishioners had to pay a Compulsory Church Rate and they wished to keep the rate as low as possible. But this church had no foundations!!! They were seen as an unnecessary expense. The walls were whitewashed and the ivy climbing up the outer walls was said to have covered up the cracks and supported the building. It had to be demolished and was rebuilt in 1878. The present church is built of St. Bees sandstone from Bigrigg Quarry and has a roof of Coniston slate. It holds 250. The pews and all other woodwork are made of pitch pine. This church cost £2,406 mainly raised by subscription .... inside the porch are 2 remnants of white freestone crosses thought to be Anglo-Saxon, 700 to 1100 AD. There is also a large graveslab which probably marked the tomb of a le Fleming (Norman) ..... along the south window ledges are the remains of ancient grave slabs dating from 1230 AD.”

Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church)
Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) submitted by Anne T : This is part of a cross-shaft which was recut into part of a medieval window (ref Beckermet St John 07). (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient crosses in Cumbria

St John’s Church, Beckermet holds the remains of 8 cross-shafts. Located within the porch of the church and on the window sills of the northern aisle, church notes say these fragments date from 700 AD onwards; the Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculptures catalogue dates them as tenth to eleventh century.

There are other cross shafts to be found at nearby St. Bridget’s Church, see our page on the Beckermet Ancient Crosses. The vicar of St. John’s refers to St. Bridget’s as ‘the low church’ which is sited some half a mile outside the village as it is today.

The earliest church built on the site of St. John’s was believed to have been built by Irish monks in the earliest days of Christianity in Cumbria; in 1262 the church was given to Calder Abbey, and fragments of a stone canopy and finial cross from this time are stored just outside the church porch. This church was understood to have no ceiling or door, but did have a hurdle to keep out animals.

The cross shafts within the church are made from both grey and red sandstone, the grey believed to be St. Bee’s sandstone which has been bleached.

For more details about the cross shafts at St. John's Church see the University of Durham Corpus of Anglo Saxon Stone Sculptures catalogue for Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire.

There is parking on the road immediately outside the church, which is on the main road through the village, although there are a few steps up a bank to reach the porch of the church.
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Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church)
Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) submitted by Anne T : This is Beckermet St John 05, a partial cross-shaft which was found amongst building rubble at the church during its restoration in the 1870s. The broad face shown here is said to show two interlaced strands ending in hanging animal heads. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church)
Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) submitted by Anne T : I think this is Beckermet St John 07, part of a cross base showing ring-twists with bar terminals. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church)
Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) submitted by Anne T : This photograph shows (on the left hand side) a small fragment of cross shaft, possibly just extending into the circular head (Beckermet St John 06). It sits next to Beckermet St John 04 (on the right hand side of the photograph), an incomplete cross shaft with an interlacing pattern with knot designs. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church)
Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) submitted by Anne T : Beckermet St. John cross shaft 03 is broken into two parts. This is part 03b, which has an undecorated strip at the bottom. The other half lies next to it, on the eastern side of the same window ledge. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church)
Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) submitted by Anne T : This cross-shaft (ASCorpus ref: Beckermet St John 02) is also stored in the porch of the church. Made of the same bleached red sandstone as the cross shaft and head nearby, the spiral-scroll ornament is arranged in tree-scroll form.

Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church)
Beckermet Ancient Crosses (St John's Church) submitted by Anne T : This cross-shaft and cross head are to be found in the church porch. It is made from medium-grained grey sandstone (red St. Bees sandstone which has been bleached). The head is broken, and there is no border separating the patterns on the cross head and cross shaft.

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