Church Architecture - Crosses of the 7th-10th Centuries

On a freezing day in January 2022 I stood by Hadrian’s Wall at Birdoswald, meditating on the many people who once lived here. I watched the sheep doing their site maintenance job, grazing the area of the fort and then looked northwards, into the barbarian lands north of the Wall.

It’s a common misconception that the Wall was a fixed frontier; it was more a method of control and taxation. Soldiers were regularly posted forward of the Wall, and a number of miles away, invisible to my eyes, was my next destination – an old fort with a spectacular Christian relic attached.

There had been a Roman road which headed north, you can just see it in parts, but it had long since fallen into disuse so the modern road was the only way to get there. It was a kind of twisty-turny, upsy-downsy road through the sparsely populated country. Out of interest, when writing this piece I checked my driving history and I find it took 23 minutes to cover the 9.6 miles to get to the destination. A destination, I should add, without any phone signal whatsoever. This is why you should always have a map in the car!

Anyway the place is Bewcastle, in Cumbria (the left side of the country) and this is the reason for the journey. This cross is the oldest I have seen; it may date from around 675 and is believed to have been commissioned by St Benedict Biscop, way over the other side of the country, though it is fair to say that opinions vary on this. It’s missing its head but is otherwise complete; at the top is John the Baptist, below him is Christ, his right hand raised in a blessing and his left hand holding a scroll, and below that is a figure which is much debated but could be John the Evangelist. In the church the image of Christ has been replicated in Stained Glass.

There is also a section of that very rare thing – runic text – which reads possibly as follows:

This slender pillar of Hwaetred, Waethgar and Alwfwold, set up in memory of Alefrid, a king and son of Oswy. Pray for them, their sins, and their souls.