The man who . . .

A beginning and an end

St Aidan (1)

It’s hard to travel about Northumberland without finding some reference to St Cuthbert, the bishop of Lindisfarne, but John Connell in his book, The Man Who Gave His Horse to a Beggar, makes the case for regarding St Aidan, Cuthbert’s predecessor, as the more important person, as far as bringing Christianity to England anyway. So, we decided to search out the references to St Aidan, as we head north.

A beginning
We started at Heavenfield, the little church close to the Roman Wall, which I have visited several times and probably blipped before, but it is the cross at the gateway (see first extra) I am focusing on today. The original cross was placed here around 634 by Oswald just before a battle in which Cadwallon was killed and Oswald became ‘King of the North’. The reason it is the start of this journey is that it was Oswald who asked Aidan to go to Lindisfarne as a missionary to bring Christianity to the north.

Then we went down to the church of St John Lee, Acomb, just outside Hexham (see second extra). In the church are some lovely stained glass windows and my picture shows part of one of them - the image of Oswald raising the cross and then Aidan giving his horse to a Beggar. The latter is the picture that Connell uses for the cover of his book. The significance of the act I will enlarge on later, as this is going to get rather long as it is. 

An end
So why ‘an end’. Well, last year, almost to the day, we set out on a journey following Gordon’s ancestors, as they made their way from Ireland to Scotland. We started the journey at Portpatrick, as we are pretty certain that is where they would have arrived. Then we followed the family through Scotland, eventually finding the farm where his grandfather was born. The family moved around a bit and I may fill in the gaps at a later date, but eventually they settled in Acomb. Gordon’s grandfather lived here, was married and it is where Gordon’s mother and her siblings were born. It is also where Gordon used to spend holidays when a child, staying with various relatives. And it is at St John Lee that the family are buried. There are many gravestones relating to the family and today we visited the lovely stone dedicated to his grandparents. So, the end of the journey really. 

And now we are settled into the very familiar house in Craster, with the sea at the foot of the garden. 

No words tomorrow!!