My clever daughter directs the Bailiffgate Singers at Alnwick – www.bailiffgatesingers.org – and we had a concert to sing in at SS Peter and Paul, Longhoughton (NU243151) on Saturday 23 October.
A drive up the A1 with my learner-driver-daughter and we parked by School Green Sculpture, erected by the Parish Council in 2004. Carved by Gilbert Ward of Fourstones, Hexham, it suggests a Celtic Cross whose shaft is broken, leading the eye ever upwards.
It is a fascinating and beautiful church, with a very large graveyard – and a modern bier parked by the wheelie bin.
The walls of the nave and west part of the chancel are probably mid 11th century – it is a lovely chancel arch with a wonderful squint (I suggested the choir should stand behind the arch and watch the conductor through the squint).
The tower is slightly later – and I like the comment they painted on the arch when they re-painted the interior – the south aisle, lengthening of the chancel and the upper part of the tower a bit later still.
The mosaic behind the altar is rather nice, and I like the pot plants in this window.
The concert was excellent too.
There is a station at Longhoughton, but I didn’t get to photo it. http://www.northumbrian-railways.co.uk/index.php?page=longhoughton – opened 1 July 1847, closed during World War II, then closed permanently on 18 June 1962. There was a church just down the road at St Andrew Boulmer, but this has just been closed – that’s one less to visit!
Good magazine – good jokes … “When you think about it, God has to be the best inventor of all time. He took a rib from Adam and made a loudspeaker.”