more about the church building
The Churchyard
The churchyard is open for burials .
You don't have to be a churchgoer to have a church funeral.
The wall around the churchyard was built in 1754.
Believe it or not, there are sixteen listed monuments in the churchyard, including the gate!
The oldest legible inscription on a headstone is dated 1697 and reads:
Hic jacet corpus Marci Ansley de Gallow-hill. Obiit II de Aprilis anno etatis......: salutis humanae 1697.
In the north west corner behind the church there is a War Grave:
Hugh Jeffrey Middleton Lt. R.N. 1879 - 1914.
Having been in the RNVR he was assigned to HMS Columbine (previously named HMS Wild Swan),
which was a depot ship in Rosyth.
Two further casualties of World War I are also commemorated on headstones:
John Henry Surtees killed in action in France October 13th 1914
Rifleman John William Ellison killed in action Sept 15th 1916.
The Porch
The porch of medieval churches was a busy place, because several important
community activities would have taken place here including baptisms, weddings,
perhaps Sunday School and some business deals. Apart from by the occasional hiker
or biker the seats are hardly used these days, but they would have been essential then.
The round arched doorway has 13th century dogtooth carving around it and reaching
all the way down to the ground, a feature it shares with Hartburn church. The pattern
at its best is usually shaped like four flower petals. The outermost nutmeg carving is
more a 12th century style. Above it in the church wall is a reused gravestone.
To the right of the door is evidence of a mass dial.
Stained Glass
Our stained glass windows are all in the chapel.
The almond shaped memorial window is featured on our home page.
Below it is a scene depicting the resurrection.
And on the south wall there is an angel holding a banner, which is the work of William Wailes of Gateshead, about 1892.
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New War memorial
This new War Memorial was built in time for Remembrance Sunday 2019, the centenary anniversary of the signing of the peace treaties that finally ended World War I.
The memorial firstly honours the fallen from our Parish, their names shown on the plaque at the hub of the right hand wheel.
It also marks the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, traditional Remembrance, by acting as a sundial. If the sun is shining at 11am, then its rays pass through the hole in the centre of the cog on the shepherd's crook and light up the yellow centre of the poppy in front of the left hand wheel.
The poppy flower denotes the present and there are buds denoting the future and seedheads denoting the past. Because WWI was in the past, but we know there are people suffering in wars today and there will inevitably be war in the future. So we think and pray for all those people too. The plate has three sides and opposite each will be a concrete bench with a Morse Code message from Belsay children: 'Belsay children' (denoting the present) 'remember the past' (denoting the past) 'and greet the future' (denoting the future).
The plate is contoured, like on a map, reflecting the surrounding hills.
The plinth of rough sandstone is designed to reflect the local dry stone walls surrounding sheep pastures. It is deliberately not the usual grand and expensive stepped ashlar.
Shepherds raise their flocks on these hills, feeding us in times of peace and times of trouble. So the memorial also honours all those who work on the land and kept people fed during WWI. This also helps us to remember that civilians also suffer terribly and die in war in large numbers. War is not just about soldiers.
The wheels are around a century old, evoking shepherd's hut wheels, or perhaps a farm thresher, or even a military wagon.
The song Turn of the Plough was written by Clair Le Couteur specifically for the Bolam War Memorial and is performed by Clair with Carli Jefferson as Lunatraktors, their broken folk duo:
The memorial was designed by Tony Thick and built by Colin Wilkinson (metalwork) and Kate Thick (sandstone work) assisted by Simon Roberson.
We are very grateful to all those individuals, Trusts and Charities who donated so that we could build this War Memorial.
The Kneelers
The 70 kneelers in the congregation pews were embroidered in 1992-1994 by parishioners and friends from further afield, ranging in age from 8 to 80. One sewer, Mary Atkinson of Belsay, completed about half of them. The project was organised by Rosemarie Murrells who then was living at Gallowhill. Rosemarie designed a number of personalised canvasses for some of the sewers, such as school crests, a peacock, a beehive, Northumbrian pipes and other hobby-inspired themes. The kneelers were dedicated in the Church by Rev. Alder Gofton on September 4th 1994 and remain an enduring legacy of those who sewed them.
