Beltingham G.M. Miller, ''BBC Pronouncing Dictionary of British Names'' (Oxford UP, 1971), p. 13. is a small village on the

River South Tyne The River Tyne is a river in North East England. Its length (excluding tributaries) is . It is formed by the North Tyne and the South Tyne, which converge at Warden, Northumberland, Warden Rock near Hexham in Northumberland at a place dubbed ' ...

in Northumberland, in England. It is situated southeast of

Bardon Mill Bardon Mill is a small village in Northumberland, within the vicinity of the ancient Hadrian's Wall. It is located around from Hexham, from Carlisle, and from Newcastle upon Tyne. Nearby landmarks include Allen Banks & Staward Gorge, Sycamor ...

and to the west of

Hexham Hexham ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, on the south bank of the River Tyne, formed by the confluence of the North Tyne and the South Tyne at Warden nearby, and close to Hadrian's Wall. Hexham was the administra ...

. In the village, stone houses surround a small green with flowering gardens. There is a Georgian house near the church, and another nearby looks as if it was once a

bastle house Bastel, bastle, or bastille houses are a type of construction found along the Anglo-Scottish border, in the areas formerly plagued by border reivers. They are fortified farmhouses, characterised by security measures against raids. Their name i ...

Governance

Beltingham is in the

parliamentary A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

constituency of

Religious sites

The church is dedicated to

St. Cuthbert Cuthbert of Lindisfarne ( – 20 March 687) was an Anglo-Saxon saint of the early Northumbrian church in the Celtic tradition. He was a monk, bishop and hermit, associated with the monasteries of Melrose and Lindisfarne in the Kingdom of Nor ...

and stands in a churchyard containing three massive yew trees, which are more than 700 years old,^{(see below)} and may well have been used for the making of longbows before guns came. Bishop Nicholas Ridley was keen on archery, which was compulsory school sport in the days of

Henry VIII Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...

. The yew tree indicates an old church, but the present church was built about 1500 in

Perpendicular In elementary geometry, two geometric objects are perpendicular if they intersect at a right angle (90 degrees or π/2 radians). The condition of perpendicularity may be represented graphically using the '' perpendicular symbol'', ⟂. It c ...

style. There is no division between nave and chancel, and the roof carries a little bell tower. There is an old cross shaft at the west end. In 1883-4 the church was very much restored, and some of the old memorials were destroyed. One, recorded by John Hodgson, requested prayers for the soul of Nicholas Ridley, who died in the fifteenth century (1490). There is a memorial now in the church to the Revd. Anthony Hedley of

Chesterholm Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort (''castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated.British windo- 'fair, white, blessed', landa 'enclosure/meadow/prairie/grassy plain' (the modern Welsh word woul ...

, friend of Hodgson, who died 17 January 1835, having caught a fatal chill in going out to supervise an excavation at

Vindolanda Vindolanda was a Roman auxiliary fort ('' castrum'') just south of Hadrian's Wall in northern England, which it originally pre-dated.British windo- 'fair, white, blessed', landa 'enclosure/meadow/prairie/grassy plain' (the modern Welsh word ...

fort. He was born near Otterburn and related to

Capability Brown Lancelot Brown (born c. 1715–16, baptised 30 August 1716 – 6 February 1783), more commonly known as Capability Brown, was an English gardener and landscape architect, who remains the most famous figure in the history of the English lan ...

. Both had served the Marquis of Bath at

Longleat Longleat is an English stately home and the seat of the Marquess of Bath, Marquesses of Bath. A leading and early example of the Elizabethan era, Elizabethan prodigy house, it is adjacent to the village of Horningsham and near the towns of War ...

. Hedley was inspired to improve vicarage gardens as well as to search for antiquities. Standing halfway between Ridley bridge and Willimoteswick, the little church stands above a burn, making it look like an island, and clustered round the green and the lych-gate are the few houses and the village school. This church, another dedicated to St. Cuthbert, was founded in Saxon days but little of the Saxon building remains. The church we know today was restored at the end of Queen Victoria's reign by Francis Bowes-Lyon, who was an uncle of

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon (4 August 1900 – 30 March 2002) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 to 6 February 1952 as the wife of King George VI. She was th ...

. The yew tree in the churchyard would be young when Nicholas Ridley died and the forefathers of men who sleep beneath its shade may well have cut their bows from it to draw at Flodden. The almost perfect leper's squint is still there, to remind us that in the Dark Ages the outcasts were banned from the house of God. "Churchyards can be little havens for wildlife, as they are often quiet and undisturbed." Ancient yews offered a sanctuary for the region's wildlife, one of which n St Cuthbert's churchyardis believed to be up to 2,000 years old.

References

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{{authority control Villages in Northumberland

Governance

Religious sites

See also

References

External links