St Mary's Church, Stamfordham

We had been kindly invited to the church by Rev. Mark Nash-Williams for a talk by John Grundy and Peter Ryder on Tuesday 7 May 2013 about recent research which showed that the church is 300 years older than anyone realised, and probably vastly more significant.

Church of St Mary, Stamfordham. Photo A Curtis (2012).

We had previously had talks locally from both John and Peter and they are always entertaining, so I wasn't going to miss a double act, especially on their expert subject of old and, in particular, church buildings. The evening certainly lived up to expectations but my note keeping was far from accurate as the acoustics in the church were not ideal and I was sitting near the back. Thus I apologise in advance for the mistakes I have undoubtedly made in this brief report.

Interior, St Mary's Church, Stamfordham.

Altar, St Mary's Church, Stamfordham.

Interior, St Mary's Church, Stamfordham.

Above photos (2012) © Copyright Alexander P Kapp and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

Both John Grundy and Peter Ryder had been involved with describing the old buildings of Northumberland for the revision of Nikolaus Pevsner's Buildings of England, the architectural guide published in 1992. Because of the way the county was divided, Stamfordham was 'Grundy country', as he described it. His account of the church starts:

Possibly Saxon quoins at the SW corner of the nave, a blocked Saxon or early Norman arch in the W wall of the tower, and a round rere-arch to the tower ground-floor lancet. Otherwise the church is C13, must restored, in fact partly taken down and rebuilt by Benjamin Ferrey in 1848.

Despite the C19th rebuild of much of the church, John clearly finds it a wonderful building, something that comes out in his long account in Pevsner and reiterated again in his talk. It certainly includes many interesting relics both in the structure and in monuments, of both the C13th church, and later times.

For instance, the exterior detail of both the nave and chancel are from 1848, although the lancet windows and masonry of the south wall includes much reused C13th material. The inside of the tower arch is of interesting construction and there is a finely carved, waterleaf capital to one of the columns at the west end that appears to have been reused.

John mentioned other things inside the church including the large trefoiled piscina in an elaborately carved surround on the south wall, and a roughly carved Crucifixion with two saints in a frame of decorative tracery almost hidden beside the organ in a reredos in the south aisle. A C13th effigy of a priest sits in a low, dog-tooth arched recess in the north wall of the chancel. There are two damaged medieval effigies of knights, one is believed to be of Sir John de Felton, who was lord of the manor of Matfen and Sheriff of Northumberland during the reign of Richard II. He may have died at the Battle of Otterburn in August, 1388. The porch has three cross slabs and two wooden panels of angels with shields.

Dixon Memorial, St Mary's Church, Stamfordham.

Swinburne Memorial, St Mary's Church, Stamfordham.

Above photos (2012) © Copyright Alexander P Kapp and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

In the north aisle there is a large tomb chest to John Swinburne of Blackheddon (1623), a brightly painted memorial to the Dixon family of 1721, and in the south aisle, a painted cartouche of 1776 to William Akenside. Hanging in the aisles are large armorial banners of Lord Stamfordham and Lord Adeane. More recently, the three eastern lancet windows have finely-made stained glass by Charles Eamer Kempe dated to 1886 and there are striking Victorian floor tiles in the sanctuary.

Following John's account, the talk moved to Peter Ryder. He has just completed a full archaeological evaluation of the church in the course of which some new findings were made leading him to a possible new interpretation. John and Peter decided to have this joint meeting in the church to inform and educate the local community. Often the official reports are little available and not widely read.

Peter described the foundation of the church, hinted at by John Grundy in his account above, as firmly rooted in the C8th or C9th on the basis of four lines of evidence:

• Those Saxon quoins seen externally on the south east corner of the tower in the angle where it joins the nave
• Anglo-Saxon architectural details hidden within the tower including
  a blocked Saxon, early Romanesque arch in the west wall
• The 4:1 ratio in the length to width of the nave - a Saxon feature
  
• The setting of the church within the village

The name Stamfordham (‘the place of the Stoney Ford’), is clearly of Anglo-Saxon origin, and the village still retains its characteristic shape. The church lies on a prominent bluff just east of what was, before draining, a large lake (see photo below). This is a characteristic location for a monastery.

Graveyard west of St Mary's Church, Stamfordham. Photo by A Curtis (2012).

Thus, St Mary's Church at Stamfordham joins a group of churches in Northumberland and Durham founded by the Anglo-Saxons. Locally this includes our own St Andrew's Church of Heddon on the Wall, those at Newburn, Ovingham, the two churches at Bywell, Corbridge, Warden and Hexham. Further afield, there were the important early sites of St Mary's Church on Holy Island, and the great monastic centre defined by St Paul's at Jarrow and St Peter's at Wearmouth.

Some of these buildings show high level blocked doorways that hint to high floor levels within some of these early churches. No one knows what these were used for but they could have provided accommodation for monastic communities.

Although the first recorded reference to a church at Stamfordham only dates back to 1220 it was thought that there was an early medieval Saxon church here in the eighth century. As John said, the conquering Normans wrote the historical account - they wanted to be known as the founders of the great churches, not the defeated Saxons. It can now be seen that at least some of the fabric of the earlier church building at Stamfordham was actually incorporated into the Norman church.

A fragment of an Anglo-Saxon cross shaft, 63.5 cm in height, was found during the rebuilding in 1848. The motifs of plant leaves and berries (probably part of a grape vine) is linked with similar sculptures from Hexham and is dated to the second half of the 8th century. It is now in the former monks' dormitory of Durham Cathedral.

Stamfordham Church has been described as a probable 'fortified Ecclesiastical site', somewhere the villagers could have gone for safety in times of danger. Peter also found evidence that a fire had been set by the entrance into the tower, possibly by Scottish raiders. In 1374 livestock belonging to the vicar of Stamfordham was stolen and his servants were attacked.

A clear implication of the new findings is that the early Anglo-Saxon church foundation may have been part of a monastic site. Nearby fish ponds or a lake would provide an important food source for such a community and elaborate and fine stone carving was commonly done by monks.

The Jarrow lecture by Rev G.W.O. Addleshaw in 1963 described the early Christian landscape as one of minsters, that is church settlements, each of which served a large parochia or territory. Out of this landscape of widely scattered minsters grew the landscape of parish churches that we are familiar with today. A recent article in the Morpeth Herald discusses the search for the missing minster among  the known Anglo-Saxon churches of the area, including Stamfordham. The chief line of evidence given in its favour being the cross shaft.

After a break, the final part of John and Peter's talk was a short film, to be made available on DVD at low cost. Nicely filmed and a good summary of the points already covered.

Links

Stamfordham in Nothernvicar's blog

Stamfordham Cross in The Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture

Church of St Mary, Stamfordham on Pastscape

Church of St Mary Stamfordham Grade I Listed Building

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