Heddon-on-the-Wall is only 9 miles from Newcastle and is the first of several churches on the road from Newcastle to Hexham that have Anglo-Saxon origins - Ovingham, Bywell (two!) and Corbridge are amongst them. This nexus of churches - and many others in this area - follows a quite distinct pattern: Anglo-Saxon origins with heavy reconstruction during the Early English period (1189-1280 approx). There is surprisingly little Norman work. Heddon-on-the-Wall, however, is an exception. Here, there are fragments of a seventh century Anglo-Saxon church with a Norman sanctuary.
The original church was probably built in the late 600s AD. Only in the old Kingdom of Northumbria are such dates relatively commonplace! The original nave occupied space now taken up by the two easternmost bays of the present nave. The apsidal chancel occupied what is the now the choir and a little of the Norman chancel. Just visible on the gable of the south aisle the old roof line can be seen. Finally, there is evidence of blocked Anglo-Saxon windows within the choir fabric.
In 1165 the monks of Blanchland Abbey were given the lands around Heddon and assumed responsibility for its church. They demolished the apse and built the existing sanctuary over its east end. The rest of the apse became part of the existing choir, thus the church became a three-celled one, although both choir and sanctuary are very short. A Norman window survives on the north wall of the sanctuary. It cannot have been very long before the aisles were added and church extended westwards because the rest of the church is decidedly Early English in character.
That seems to have been about it until as recently as the 1840s when the there was further extension westwards with a fourth bay being added to the nave. The windows in the North aisle were replaced in 1839 in a pseudo Early English style that did nothing to damage the pleasing appearance of this church. There has never been a tower here.
Beneath the Norman window in the sanctuary is the head of a stone cross that was found beneath the vestry floor. It is now believed to be an Anglo-Saxon “preaching cross” around which people would gather when churches were few. The Celtic form of Christianity as evinced by St Aidan was much less hung up on the availability of sacred buildings than the Roman version championed by St Wilfred. Escomb in County Durham has a very different example behind its altar of what also might have been a preaching cross. All in all, there is a lot to see here in a church that seems to be in the shadow of other churches nearby with Anglo-Saxon provenance.
There are just the three waypoints from which you can gather all the information you need to resolve the final coordinates which are N54 5J.FBN W001 4G.BLN
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