Tales from the crypt
HERITAGE CENTRE WILL TELL STORY OF VILLAGE’S ROYAL PAST
BAMBURGH, with its dramatic castle and Grace Darling legend, has many stories to tell.
But the most compelling is how what is now a village on the Northumberland coast was for many years the royal capital of the ancient kingdom of Northumbria. And through its links with St Aidan, King Oswald and Lindisfarne, it also held a key position in the Christian Golden Age of Northumbria.
Archaeological work over the last 20 years by the Bamburgh Research Project has enriched these twin historic stories, showing that people travelled to the royal and religious centre from the west coast of Scotland, Ireland, Scandinavia, Italy, Spain and perhaps even North Africa – underlying its international importance.
Now the wheels have been set in motion to tell this extraordinary tale.
Bamburgh Heritage Trust has been awarded a £43,800 grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund to develop its aim of using the crypt of the village’s medieval St Aidan’s Church as a community and interpretation space where the history of Bamburgh can be told.
This will lead to a later bid for a full grant of £399,300.
In 2016, 110 skeletons from archaeological excavations by the Bamburgh Research Project at the Bowl Hole cemetery in dunes near Bamburgh Castle were reburied in the crypt, after being the subject of research at Durham University.
The Bowl Hole Ossuary – a place where bones are stored – is now the last resting place of these individuals who lived in the area 1,400 years ago. Over the next eight months the trust will work to develop its vision into a deliverable project.
It is the trust’s ambition to use projection and interactive technology to tell the hugely important story of Bamburgh as well as create a 21st Century digital ossuary which will make the wealth of data recovered from the early Anglo-Saxon Bowl Hole cemetery available to the public for the first time.
Sam Morton, chairman of Bamburgh Heritage Trust, said: “We are thrilled with our lottery award. This will enable us to showcase Bamburgh’s fantastic heritage in an innovative and exciting way.
“We will be working in partnership with Bamburgh Research Project, Durham University, Bamburgh Castle and St Aidan’s Church to provide amazing insight into the lives of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors.”
St Aidan’s Reverend Canon Brian Hurst said: “It is an amazing opportunity to reopen the beautiful 12th Century crypt to the public once again. Not only will we celebrate St Aidan and his Anglo-Saxon brothers and sisters but also tell the remarkable story of the Forsters whose memorials are in the crypt.”
Ivor Crowther, head of HLF North East, said: “We are pleased to support plans to transform access to Bamburgh’s Anglo Saxon heritage and story as the heart of the Golden Age of Northumbria. With crucial support from volunteers and partnerships, the project will use 21st Century techniques to reveal the secrets of a centuries-old story for even more people to enjoy. We look forward to seeing the plans develop.”
The early medieval church occupies the area where St Aidan’s original timber place of worship – founded in 635AD – would have stood. Examination of the men and women and children from the dunes cemetery – in use between the Seventh and Ninth Centuries – revealed they were robust and healthy, suggesting that the cemetery was associated with the royal court at Bamburgh. The Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty Partnership has funded new tests on five graves. One of the graves has been dated to 555-650 AD, while other dates are two from the Seventh Century and two from the Eighth – Ninth Centuries. Isotope analysis at Durham of teeth from the burials has shown that some individuals travelled to Bamburgh from far away, probably on trade, diplomatic or religious missions. Archaeologist Graeme Young, one of the directors of the Bamburgh Research Project, says: “Bamburgh is the focal point which draws these people. Today is a quiet place but then it was as close to the centre of things as you could get. “Bamburgh then was what Edinburgh is now.” The dunes excavations uncovered 91 graves, although bones were found from more than that number. It’s believed the cemetery could contain more than a thousand more burials. Graeme says: “We look at the past as a parochial place where people didn’t move around much, but scientific analysis of the cemetery shows that people were very mobile. Bamburgh was a cosmopolitan hub which reached out to Continental Europe. The heritage plan for the crypt is a step forward to putting Bamburgh back on the map.”