The Gatehouse website record for Bywell Church of St Peter

In the civil parish of Bywell. In the historic county of Northumberland (Modern Authority of Northumberland, 1974 county of Northumberland).

St Peter's Church is one of two churches in Bywell, both with Anglo-Saxon origins. It originally belonged to the Benedictine monastery of Durham and was the location of Bishop Egbert's consecration as 12th Bishop of Lindisfarne in AD803. The oldest parts of the church are the north wall of the nave and the western parts of the chancel walls. The present chancel was built at the beginning of C13, but the church is reported to have been burnt down in 1285. It was rebuilt in C14 and C15 and restored in C19. The Anglo-Saxon church is thought to have been a major building with a nave over 19m long. C13 tower is built on and partly within the original nave and overlies some Anglo-Saxon foundations. Built into the walls of the church are many Roman stones which has in part lead to the suggestion that the church may stand on a Roman site. Excavations in 1995 discovered the massive foundations of the Saxon chancel. Tower is defensible.

The Ordnance Survey Map Grid Reference is NZ04926142

Sources of information, references and further reading

This site's English Heritage (PastScape) Defra or Monument number is 20672
This site's County Historic Environment Record (formerly Sites and Monuments Record) number is N10072 'grey' literature, such as watching brief reports, held by H.E.R.s is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded in this website.

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The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of English Heritage and other individuals and organisations. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes. I do not receive any income from this site and I fund it myself.
The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.