Kevin Dowling explores the fascinating story of the Ulgham window head
A visitor to the church of St. John the Baptist in the ancient Northumberland village of Ulgham (locally pronounced ‘Uffam’) will find a curious stone set into a wall inside the church. It is an old sandstone window head which is thought to have been a part of the exterior of an earlier chapel which occupied the same site in the 12th Century.
Patrick Norris, of Footsteps guided walks based in Northumberland, sent us this magnificent photograph of The Erratic alongside a poem he has written. As an introduction, he writes:
The Erratic in question sits high on Bewick Moor deep in rural Northumberland. It is listed on the British Geological Survey website and their literature preceding the internet. In a curious twist, the moor is mis-named in the listing as Berwick Moor, rather than Bewick Moor. The photograph that accompanies the listing on the BGS website was taken in 1925 and nothing much has changed. The poem reflects on the landscape and that we are just passing through, the erratic though has sat in the same place for about 10,000 years and watched us pass by.
Ian Burdon reflects on the article in The Northumbrian issue 181 focusing on Lord Haldane and his Newcastle roots. The article was written by Malcolm Campbell, based on the book Haldane, by John Campbell.