Miscellaneous

Barbara Hepworth

We had to take a trip to Cornwall. During our short stay I was able to fulfill a long-held ambition by visiting Barbara Hepworth’s studio in St. Ives. Her work has always been important to me so this was a joyful and emotional visit.

There is no landscape without the human figure: it is impossible for me to contemplate prehistory in abstraction. A sculpture might, and sculptures do, reside in emptiness but nothing happens until the living human encounters the image

Barbara Hepworth 1951

Stillingfleet

I arrived at Stillingfleet late afternoon, my last site of the day. I’d visited some lovely places during my journey but I wasn’t really prepared for this. On a balmy summer’s evening, crossing the water meadow that bisects the village and then encountering this beautiful entrance, all combined to make the moment feel quite magical.

I tried the door, given the time I wasn’t surprised that it was locked. I took a walk around the outside of the church.

The church warden emerged from the north door, she told me that she was just locking up, she asked me if I was here to see the door. I said I was and she kindly let me into the church.

‘The door’ is this incredible, massive, ancient oak door with iron fittings. It has been dated to around 1150. This was the main door of the church until 2002 when it was removed for conservation and then re-sited within the church.

I left the village and travelled a couple of miles west to where I was staying. I sat in the garden of a pub beside the River Ouse, drank a couple of lovely pints of locally-brewed beer and felt elated. We really don’t have to journey far from our doorsteps to experience something truly exotic.

Why be bleak

When you could be Blake?

John Balance 1996

Auckland St. Andrew

I was recently browsing through the Keys To The Past website and came across a brief reference to a possible Iron Age hillfort at St. Andrew’s church on the outskirts of Bishop Auckland at a place known locally as South Church. Churches built upon Prehistoric sites are always of interest, sadly I couldn’t find any more information on the hillfort. I knew that there was an ancient cross in the church so I decided to go and have a look.

St Andrew Auckland, or South Church, the ancient mother church of Bishop Auckland. Approaching it, the church stands dominatingly above mean houses in a churchyard raised above the level of the road, a long impressive building with transepts and two storied porch. It is one of the great churches of County Durham, founded as a collegiate church, and is almost entirely of the late 13th century…The greatest treasure is the Anglo-Saxon Cross.

H Thorold

Walking around the church grounds I could find no evidence of the hillfort. I was met at the church door by the Warden who asked me if I was there for the funeral? I told him that I was there to have a look at the ancient cross, he hesitated and told me that the church was usually locked but had opened for a funeral, he said that the funeral wasn’t due to start for half an hour so I could have a quick look around.

The cross is is essentially a reproduction incorporating a number of fragments that were discovered during building work in 1891. The Cross fragments have been dated to the late 8th – early 9th century. I’ve visited a number of churches where various fragments have been stuck onto the walls or displayed on window ledges, this three dimensional reproduction is far more powerful.

The carvings are beautiful

This panel is rather strange, the sculptor was obviously very skilled, look at the beautiful drape of the robes, …the fingers!

The current church of St. Andrew’s was founded by Bishop Carileph who was also known as William of Calais, he was the second Norman Bishop of Durham and a close advisor to William the Conqueror and his successor William Rufus. Bishop Carileph was responsible for the re-building of Durham Cathedral.

He also was responsible for removing the existing ‘non celibate’ monks from Durham and replacing them with Benedictine Monks from the monasteries at Jarrow and Wearmouth. To achieve this he had seek the approval of the King, a French Archbishop and finally the Pope, which to me implies that removing the monks was a matter of great importance to both the church and the state. The monks were sent to communities throughout the County including Auckland, Billingham and Darlington.

The ‘non-celibate’ aspect of the description of the monks implies that they were somehow disorderly but I don’t think that this was the case. I suspect that the Durham monks followed the ancient Celtic tradition of Christianity, they were the keepers of the shrine of St. Cuthbert, a group known as The Culdees.

The Culdees were a monastic group who followed the Celtic Christian tradition. I first read about them many years ago in Lewis Spence’s book The Mysteries of Britain published in 1905. The book is of its time, Spence was interested in the occult, folklore and Scottish Nationalism, the book covers a whole range of topics from megaliths to druids, bards, Arthurian legend, grail myths and the Egyptian cult of the dead. Spence viewed the Culdees as direct descendants of the Druids.

‘They married, and their abbots held high office by hereditary right, so that in Armagh fifteen generations held the episcopate successively. They dwelt in colleges, practicing music as well as the mechanical arts…They condemned the mass, paid no respect to holy relics and refused to offer up prayers for the dead. In fact any less resembling Roman practice than theirs can scarcely be imagined.’

L Spence

I suspect that the removal of the Culdees from Durham allowed the Bishop to surround himself with a trustworthy administration who were followers of the Roman church and loyal to the County Palatine of Durham where the Prince Bishop’s powers were almost equal to that of the Norman King.

Sources

The Keys to the Past

County Durham. A Shell Guide. Henry Thorold. 1980. Faber & Faber.

The Mysteries of Britain. Secret Rites & Traditions of Ancient Britain. Lewis Spence. 1905 reprinted 1994. Senate

Welcome the Lucky Bird

To-night it is the New Year’s night, to-morrow is the day, And we are come for our right and for our ray, As we used to do in old King Henry’s day. Sing, fellows, sing Hagman heigh !

If you go to the bacon-flitch, cut me a good bit, Cut, cut and low, beware of your man ; Cut, and cut round, beware of your thumb, That I and my merry men may haye some. Sing, fellows, sing Hagman heigh !

If you go to the black ark, bring me ten mark, Ten mark, ten pound, throw it down upon the ground, That I and my merry men may have some. Sing, fellows, sing Hagman heigh !

If New Year’s Eve night wind blows south,

it betokenth warmth and growth;

If west, much mild and fish in the sea;

If north, more cold and storms there will be;

If east, will bear much fruit;

If north-east, flee it, man and brute.

Happy New Year Everyone