About our Saxon Church
The Tower
The church tower was built just over a thousand years ago by the Saxons.
It appears to have four levels, but the top two windows open into the belfry.
The main belfry window opening has a classic Saxon rounded shaft in the middle, said to be made by applying wood turning techniques.
The solitary bell is dated 1732, with a diameter of 17 inches and weighs about 140lbs. It is thought to have been cast at the Phoenix foundry in Byker, one of only nine made there (opposite what is now the City Farm). It was bought by the PCC on 11th December 1732 for £11.10s.3d.
The stonework varies as you go up the tower, but it is thought not to mean that it was built in stages, except the parapet at the very top which is a later renewal.
South Isle
The door to the church opens into the south aisle, which was added as a sort of lean to arrangement in the twelfth century,
with the arcades and piers created in the nave wall to join the two spaces together.
Around the door is a pattern called dogtooth carved into the stone. The alignment of the pattern on the stones is not very
tidy and this is a clue to the fact that the south aisle was widened, probably when the Shortflatt chapel was added in the
14th century.
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The south aisle with its Norman windows.
The Chancel Arch
The arch from the nave into the chancel appears to have been rebuilt when the nave was enlarged, but not symmetrically.
You can see in the picture below how the shield shaped carvings are not evenly spaced. These used to feature grotesque faces, but they were hacked off by an irate Reverend Meggison around 1818 after the Sunday School children persisted in pulling faces to match
But there are two faces remaining, one is just visible in the picture above, at the top of the inner, left hand pillar of the arch.
This one is just a face with a solemn expression, whereas the other carving, which looks into the chancel, has arms and legs, sports a mischievous grin and is clearly up to no good: our sole reminder of persisting Anglo-Saxon pagan belief.
The Shortflatt Chapel
The chapel, currently referred to as the Shortflatt Chapel or sometimes Dent chapel, is now so named because it was built by Robert de Reymes, who had inherited half the barony of Bolam. He was a knight and lived at Shortflatt, as did his descendants for the following three hundred years. Shortflatt eventually passed to the Dent and now the Hedley-Dent family.
acquired Shortflatt in 1296, the same year that war broke out with Scotland. He rebuilt Shortflatt Tower in stone with a
licence to crenellate in 1305, after it had been burnt down. The town of Bolam
was granted a market and a fair the same year, but Bolam castle was described as dilapidated. He died in 1324 and there is
an effigy of him (without legs) in the chapel. It is thought the effigy was shortened to fit in the niche, which originally almost certainly would have contained a statue of Our Lady.
The chapel was clearly a chantry, owing to the recess still visible in the north wall that would have been used as an aumbry. Our Lady was held in a central position in medieval worship. She was the primary intercessor and hence integral to liturgy. For example, the wording of the Gloria, which we still use today, was different then. For example:
...thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer, to the glory of Mary.
Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us.
For thou only art holy, sanctifying Mary;...
Further evidence that it was a Lady Chapel can be found in the will, dated 20th May 1544, of Thomas Middleton of Belsay, who 'desire to be buried in the south side of Our Lady porch in Bollom Church as near to my father's grave as conveniently may be'. The existing porch wasn't built then, so he meant the chapel.
It is also no surprise that there is a medieval vault in the chapel, since these were always dedicated to Our Lady. It contains, amongst others much older perhaps, several members of the Dent / Hedley Dent family: