The Northern Vicar Blog

I had been to Heddon (NZ135669) before, on a trip with our Coffee Club, and this time visited with dad. The Wardens were sitting in the meeting room they’ve inserted at the west end, and gave us a guided tour and a cup of coffee. They have done a lot of work on the tourist potential of the church – realising that all visitors are welcome visitors. It would be lovely to think that Roman Christians worshipped on this site, the Wall is only a few hundred yards to the north. The original church is Saxon, with a suggested...

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...

A shopping trip to Morpeth, and we headed north out of the town simply because that was the way the car was pointing. We turned left for Hebron although I didn’t know if there was an Anglican church there – it sounds like the sort of settlement which was named after a non-conformist chapel. I was wrong – the village was called Heburn in 1242 and, like Hebburn in Durham, its name comes from the Old English (pre 7th century) “byrgen” meaning a mound, especially a burial mound. St Cuthbert’s church is in the centre of the hamlet at...