Historical Account of Bedlington, 1894

BEDLINGTON

THE ancient village of Bedlington can also be easily reached, and is worthy of the visitors, attention. It has the honour of being one of the places where the sacred body of St. Cuthbert had a temporary resting place; since that time it has had some of the most learned men in the "Church as its vicars, and what is most remarkable, during the last two hundred years it has only had five vicars, with an average incumbency of forty years each, the present worthy vicar, the Rev. Canon Whitley, having now reached the average of his four predecessors. It was one of the former Vicars of Bedlington who, by by his long sermons, taxed the patience of a rhyming parishioner, and one morning on entering the vestry found on his tablet he following expostulation :

— I pray, Mr.Vicar, do try to be quicker, In teaching usmiserable sinners, Our bellies are croaking, andi ts truly provoking, To be kept so long from our dinners."

From Bedlington back to Blyth the Church of St.Mary's, Horton, ought to be visited. The present building has no architectural beauties, yet it stands on the site of a very ancient chapel. Built into the south wall of the Church is an old grave-cover, with an illustration of a pair of shears and the inscription— " Orate pro anima anne barbowl S.I.O."— Pray for the Soul of Anne Barbowl. Beneath the tower in a recess, are two stone coffins, one large, no doubt the above-named Anne Bar-bowl's, and the other the smallest perhaps in Europe, being only about18 inches inside. An ancient British Quern, or hand corn mill, is also preserved here, which was found in the graveyard. The history of the Quern, as told by the Sexton, is worthy of the ignorance of the so-called dark ages; he gravely informed the writer that he did not know what part of the churchyard it had been found, as it was before his time; but it was one of the stone hammers used by the masons when the old Church was built hundreds of years ago. It is only just to say the Sexton is not a Northumbrian. About a mile from the Church stood Horton Castle ;the deep moat still encircles part of Low Horton Farm buildings. This Castle was licensed by Edward I. in 1292 ;it was of much importance in the middle ages, and was defended by a double fosse and rampart of earth. It was pulled down in the beginning of this century; the two maiden sisters of Admiral Delaval were the last of that family who resided in it.

A pleasant walk down by Plessy old waggon-way leads on to Blyth. It was by this road that before the days of steam locomotive power, coals were brought from Plessy Colliery to Blyth for shipment. Horses being employed in regular distances to drag the coal waggons. Now colliery and waggon-horses alike are things of the past.