Today's Northumbrian Church Project visit was St Andrew's Bolam; which is magicfully atmospheric.
It includes a Saxon tower, mostly Norman-style otherwise (round arches), with some rebuilding (pointed arches) done in the 1200s, and some more later.
The church is located in a gorgeous and secluded churchyard; we spent well over an hour looking around and picnicking, and had the place entirely to ourselves.
However, the ancient church was very nearly blown-up late on on 1st May 1942, when a Dornier 217, being chased by fighters, ejected its four bombs - one of which burst through the wall of the church.
What happened next, and the happy conclusion some fifty years later, is described in a video interview with an eye witness.
It may be of interest to foreigners that this lady speaks with a North Northumbrian dialect - which is spoken by only perhaps a few thousand inhabitants of this least-densely populated part of England.
It is surely one of the gentlest, most soothing and entrancing, of English accents.
That was a neat video.
ReplyDeleteI haven't been here for a little while, ageing lives and the illnesses thereof have a way of distracting us, but I've loved the nature of your posts about Christianity since the first one I met.
ReplyDeleteI want to let you know the lady on the video spoke in much the same dialect as my dad and grandparents. It was a treat to hear again and I was delighted to know the story and to witness the natural forgiveness of the people there.
Thank you
@susan.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your kind words.
My relatives (including my father, when he was young) had the *Mid*-Northumbrian ("Pitmatic") dialect, which is a great accent, but much less poetic than your relatives.
Pitmatic has the gurgling, guttural, uvular "r" of North-Northumbrian, but a tendency to make diphthongs - so that van and man become more like vairn and mairn but with the gargled r.