Rey Cross ii

OE stan ‘stone, stones’ is a very common pl. el. It is used alone as a pl. n. in STAINES, STEANE, STONE, where a Roman milestone or some prominant stone of another kindmay be referred to.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Place Names. Eilert Ekwall. 1959

I recently took a trip over the Pennines to Cumbria. On the way home I stopped on Stainmore to have a look at Rey’s Cross. The Cross is located in a lay-by beside the A66. The A66 crosses the Pennines through the Stainmore Gap, a Pennine pass that was created by the flow of ice sheets during past glacial periods.

Historically, This part of Stainmore has always been important. The moor is rich in late Prehistoric remains. It was also the site of a large Roman marching camp, within the ruins of the camp is a wrecked prehistoric stone circle. Legend has it that the stone cross was raised as a memorial to Eric Bloodaxe, the last king of York, who was slain on the moor in 954.

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The cross, situated near the highest point of Stainmore, is close to an ancient county boundary, is a weathered shaft set into a substantial stone base and is thought to date to the early anglo saxon period. The name`Rey’ is thought to have been derived from the Old Norse element `hreyrr’ which can be taken to mean a heap of stones forming a boundary.

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One of the earliest references to the stone is from The Chronicle of Lanercost where it is call ” Rer Cros in Staynmor ” The chronicler states that it was set up as a boundary marker. The boundary was between the Westmoringas and the Northumbrians, the Glasgow diocesan border, before that it marked the border between the Cumbrians and the Northumbrians.

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The antiquarian William Camden tells us ” This stone was set up as a boundary between England and Scotland, when William (the Conqueror) first gave Cumberland to the Scots.”  Camden was incorrect, at the time of the Norman conquest much of Cumberland was already under Scot’s rule. The historic county of Cumberland was not established until 1177, however the stone could still have marked the boundary of the territory.

The A99 was widened in the early 1990’s so in 1990 the stone was moved from the south side of the road to its present site on the north side. An archaeological survey and excavation was undertaken as part of a wider archaeological project, sadly no burial was found beneath or around the stone.

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What fascinates me about this stone is that it marks a place that has been significant to the people of our islands for thousands of years. The people of the Neolithic period used this as route way between the east and west coasts. Later, the people bronze age erected a stone circle close to the site. Later still, the Romans heavily fortified road to guard the legions marching between Catterick and Penrith and it has remained the primary northern trans-pennine link ever since.  A hundred or so metres west of the stone is the modern east/west boundary between Cumbria and Durham and the route was also once the medieval border between Scotland and England. East meets west, north meets south all within sight of the weather-beaten old stone.

The Pickled Parson of Sedgefield

Sedgefield

The Rev. John Garnage, A.M., rector of Sedgefield, died in the second week of December 1747, about a week before the tithes became due; and it is said that his widow, who was a woman with all her wits about her, resorted to the old expedient of laying his body in salt, and keeping it in a private room, till after the 20th of the month, the day on which the tithe-farmers came to pay their rents. Her scheme succeeded. She received the payments for that year, which would otherwise have gone into the Bishop of Durham’s hands, as patron. And after she had got the money safe, she made public the fact of her husband’s decease.

This clever piece of trickery does not seem to have been pleasing, however, to the ghost of the departed, who was doubtless an honourable as well as a reverend man, and therefore, the parsonage for many years became a haunted house. “The Pickled Parson,” as he was irreverently termed, infested the neighbourhood for the better part of half a century, ” making night hideous.” At length on the morning of the year 1792, a fire broke out in one of the lodging-rooms of the rectory-house, and before it could be extinguished the greater part of the building was destroyed. From that day and hour the apparition was never more seen.

Legends & Superstitions of the County of Durham

William Brockie 1886