St Luke's Church (Townhead)

Trip No.66  Entry No.1  Date Added: 10th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 9th Feb 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Ancient cross, St. Luke's Church, Townhead, near Ousby. OK, so the weather was supposed to be better the further west we went, so we took the option of travelling to this site via Alston and the high moors. A bit of a mistake, as there was much more snow here than at home, but it was lovely, if a bit of a slow drive. The roads within Ousby village were quite complex for such a small village, and we managed twice to take the wrong turn, but finally ended up at this very small hamlet.

Parking is available just to the west of the church, where the road widens, although walking to the gate of the church was tricky as it was quite a busy road, with farm traffic and lorries (considering the road is a dead end, I wondered where the traffic went).

No-one had been in the churchyard since the snow had fallen, so we picked our way up to the north door. The church is relatively plain inside, until you walk up to the chancel, where there is the most fantastic carved effigy, made out of wood and now encased in a glass/plastic case to preserve it. Half of this has broken off, but I was glad we'd gone inside the church to see this. There was no church guide, or any notes for visitors, and I haven't been able to find out much about this since.

The cross base and remnant of cross shaft are to the south of the nave/chancel, almost on top of a tall, red sandstone grave stone. We could see no markings or carvings on the cross shaft or base, apart from a shallow carved cross on top of the shaft, with small 'cups' as terminals.

The snowy hills in the background made this quite an atmospheric place.

St Lawrence's Church (Kirkland)

Trip No.66  Entry No.2  Date Added: 10th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 9th Feb 2018. My rating: Condition 3 Ambience 4 Access 4

Log Text: Ancient Cross, St Lawrence's Church, Kirkland, Cumbria: The church itself is unremarkable, although a pretty stream runs just outside the southern wall of the churchyard. Parking is available just outside the church, on the grass, although on the day of our visit it was snowy and the ground was boggy, so we parked just over the bridge, just east of the T-junction.

The church was being renovated, so to avoid the scaffolding and a muddy walk right round the churchyard from the gate at the north-western edge of the church, we hopped across the small wire fence, meant for containing the sheep.

The cross is tall and slender, but with broken arms. We observed two channels in the base, where the cross shaft meets the base, from which melting snow water was running. On another cross base near Cairnpapple, Canmore recorded that similar channels were thought to be from the base being used as a drinking trough at some time in its past. Here, the channels seemed to serve as a way of getting rid of water which might run down between the cross shaft and its base.

Certainly a remote spot here, although plenty of farm traffic.

St Cuthbert's Church (Milburn)

Trip No.66  Entry No.3  Date Added: 10th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 9th Feb 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Ancient cross and pre-Conquest sundial, Milburn, Cumbria: We scouted all around the churchyard for this cross, only to realise it was at the head of the access road from the village, so back-tracked to find it. It sits right by the northern gate post and we had mistaken it for part of the gate/fence structure, then we checked the grid reference and saw the hole in the top of the shaft, presumably either for another section or a smaller cross.

Going back down to the church, I found the pre-Conquest sundial, which is low down on the exterior stone door jamb of the western side of the south door. Thankfully I was able to pull up the Corpus of Anglo Saxon stone sculpture photograph to help me in the growing dusk.

The churchyard is really nicely kept and the Crowdundle Beck/Milburn Beck runs by the western side of the churchyard. A remote, by lovely spot.

St Edmund's Church (Newbeggin)

Trip No.66  Entry No.5  Date Added: 10th Feb 2018
Site Type: Ancient Cross Country: England (Cumbria)
Visited: Yes on 9th Feb 2018. My rating: Condition 2 Ambience 4 Access 5

Log Text: Cross base and remains of cross shaft, St. Edmunds Church, Newbeggin (Culgaith): We arrived here as dusk was dropping fast, so all my photos had to be taken with flash. Surprisingly, the church was still open, so we popped inside, but apart from a reading light near the pulpit, couldn't find any light switches. The church is a lot larger than it looks, and the grave yard is very full, so we had to pick our way over the graves and host of snowdrops to get to the cross.

The sundial nearer to the western churchyard wall was also interesting, although part of its lead gnomon had been pulled off.

It was very heavily encrusted in moss, and not wanting to damage it, left it without seeing if there were any carvings or features on it. Another church next to Crowdundle Burn (as is St. Cuthbert's in Milburn). A pretty spot. By the time we'd finished here, it was almost dark, so reluctantly had to set off back home.