Saint Aidan's forked timber - Bamburgh church

Saint Aidan's church in Bamburgh is an exceptionally beautiful and interesting building; dedicated to one of the most significant of British Saints: Aidan; who came from Iona in the middle 600s to found the monastery on Lindisfarne, the Holy Island. 

This stimulated the Golden Age of Northumbria; during which the kingdom dominated Anglo Saxon England and was the centre of sanctity (especially Saint Cuthbert) learning (especially Saint Bede) and arts (esepcially the Lindisfarne Gospels). 

At this time, what is now the village and castle of Bamburgh was the capital of Northumbria and Anglo-Saxon civilization, it has since become mostly prized for its picturesque seaside setting, and the tourist attraction of the (much later built, and enormous) castle - regarded as being the site of Sir Lancelot's Joyous Garde in Le Morte d'Arthur. 

Anyway; it seems that Aidan was visiting Bamburgh and staying in a wooden hut situated against the church wall where he became ill and died while leaning against a large forked beam. 

His body was returned to the Holy Island for burial, but the beam was preserved as a relic and inserted into the church fabric, from which splinters were often abstracted by pilgrims. 

In 793 AD; nearby Lindisfarne was the very first place in England that was sacked by the Vikings. The beam apparently survived at least two church burnings (whether by Vikings or Scots) - and was eventually included into the current fabric of what had become St Aidan's in medieval times...

Where it remains: raised far above the depredations of pilgrims. 

Well, such is the story - more or less. 

As a bizarre relic; St Aidan's Y-shaped beam makes a nice companion to St Kentigern's Holy Stain. 

The foreground is the nave, from the 1300s ("Decorated" Gothic period, with an early and simple version of the typical curving tracery at the tops of windows) - through the arch is the chancel (below) from the 1200s ("Early English" style, with its tall, narrow lancet windows). 

From pictured from the outside on the west; the nave and transepts are to the left, the chancel (with a steep pitched roof) to the right. 

Later restorations and modifications include the top layer of the tower, the pointed shape over the side door of the chancel - originally to allow monks direct access to the chancel. 

Also from Victorian times is a memorial window and statue of the national heroine Grace Darling holding an oar (it used to be outside, explaining the erosion) - which at our visit had been considerably adorned with many shells, pebbles, and a fishing weight - presumably placed by modern pilgrims.