The Northern Vicar Blog

  A few miles north of Edlingham lies Bolton Chapel – we followed the wonderful metal signs (the one photographed is just opposite the church). Grid ref = NU106137. If you look carefully at this friendly noticeboard you will see it tells you to ring the bell for access. Bolton Chapel is a chapel of ease to Edlingham, and they’re now in a group based on Whittingham. In 1855 a burial cist containing an urn was found on the north side of the church which, along with the circular enclosure, suggests that this may have been a sacred pre-Christian...

On Monday 4 March we used a nice sunny morning to drive north to Barter Books at Alnwick. Several pounds lighter – but with some nice books – we went for a drive. Edlingham first. I last came here two years ago, slightly later in the year when the daffodils were out. Today the snowdrops were looking lovely. (There are lovely snowdrops in Ponteland too).  

I had a meeting here – it is a long way north up the A1, onto the Berwick OS map NU164202. Pevsner gives the church two lines: “1862 by James Deason of London for the Duke of Northumberland. Small but good quality church in E.E. style”. Entering the churchyard on the north side, having parked on the road through the hamlet, I passed the war memorial, and was surprised to see that the only WW2 name is that of a woman.                   Inside the church is another memorial plaque to the...

Having been to Hepple we drove home via the top on the B6341 and I stopped and photoed the snow. Then down into Elsdon, one of my favourite little churches. It is beautifully situated in the middle of the village and we like the cyclists’ tea room next door. They are very friendly. I won’t write anything about the church – you can look back and see what I wrote last time – but I’m quite chuffed with these photos.  

We had been away for a fortnight down South – Hampton Court is splendid. We met Anne Boleyn – she stood and waited while I pushed Julie through a door in her wheelchair. I apologised for keeping her waiting. “The king has kept me waiting for six years”, she replied, “a couple of minutes waiting for you makes no difference.” She was a beautiful young lady – I can understand why the king broke from Rome. On Saturday 2 February we went for a drive, and parked in Rothbury. As I got out of the car I slid down...

Matfen church is in the next benefice and I took a service there a couple of years ago. We drive through the village quite regularly, and there is a village shop and cafe we have patronised – so why haven’t I blogged the church? Sorry my blogging has slowed – it has been a pretty difficult few months, and the weather has been horrendous. Add in a lot of busyness – 26 weddings in 2012 means that quite a few Saturdays get used up. I’ve also started a distance learning “Certificate in Railway Studies” from the University of York...

It was ages ago when I visited Cramlington for a meeting (so long since I have blogged that wordpress have changed the way the website looks). Normally the church is locked. The village centre is quite old and attractive – they started building the new town in the 1960s. Pevsner says that “the huge area of c1961-1980 low-rise housing is of the normal type … no better and no worse than many others of this time” and the most recent buildings are the most interesting, especially “the British Gas Line Inspection Dept of 1979”. If you are sad there...