Escomb Church, County Durham
Escomb is a special place. The village lies at the end of a narrow country lane on the banks of the River Wear, close to the seat of the Prince Bishops in Bishop Auckland, but hidden away behind a hill. This isolation is one reason why it now contains England's earliest complete church. Little is known of the date the church began, and no saint is associated with it, but it is at least as old as the better-known Anglo-Saxon remains at Monkwearmouth (674) and Jarrow (681), and gives a better feel for what such buildings would originally have been like. The church is situated in a circular enclosure recalling an Irish rath, and the sloping walls also suggest a foundation prior to the Synod of Whitby in 664, when Celtic influence bowed to Rome. King Oswald had gained control of Northumbria thirty-one years earlier and had turned to the Irish monastery founded on Iona for missionaries, having spent time there in exile, so the architectural style used at Escomb could date to this period when the North East was becoming the centre of English Bretwalda rule.
Another reason the church has remained intact since the 7th century is the massive stonework. At a time when extensive use would have been made of wood, it is initially puzzling that an out-of-the-way building should have had such an elaborate construction. Again, situation is critical, as already hewn stones were readily available at the abandoned Roman fort of Vinovia which lay a few miles east on Dere Street. Many of the stones in the church have inscriptions that identify their origin and the huge chancel arch is Roman, reworked by Saxon hand so well that no mortar was necessary to hold the massive stones together. In the centre of the south wall shown on the cover, between the two small Saxon windows, is the earliest known sundial still in situ in the UK. It is simply divided to indicate the important daylight hours of prayer kept by monks: Terce, Sext and None. There are also several carved crosses in the church, and this elaborate stonework suggests either that there was a small religious community at Escomb or that the church was built as an impressive private chapel a powerful owner anxious to show off his status.
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