It is known that a church has existed here since AD 737. King Ceowulf of Northumbria gave the village – then “Wercewode” – and the Church of St Lawrence to the monks of Holy Island. Northumbria bore much of the brunt of the early Viking raids. Holy Island itself was reputedly the first victim in AD 793 and this first, almost certainly wooden, church at Warkworth surely perished during that period. The beach near the mouth of the Coquet at Amble is still known as Birling – the Danish for longships.

A stone church replaced it and the altar was underneath today’s chancel arch. There are no visible remains of this church. It was built between 1132 and 1140, at around the probable time of the first motte and bailey castle built here by Henry, son of King David of Scotland in around 1139. There is no certainty in any of this.

The nave and chancel are more or less unchanged since that time. The lower levels of the west tower as far as the belfry were added in around 1200. The belfry and the spire were added in the fourteenth century. It was not until the fifteenth century that the fabric of the Norman church was tampered with through the addition of a perpendicular style south aisle and arcade. A south porch with a parvise room above was added at the same time and, is so often the case, this parvise room became in time the home of the village’s first school. The south aisle had a clerestory that was removed during restoration in 1860 when the original nave and chancel rooflines seem to have been reinstated. The church has needed considerable buttressing over the centuries and one might speculate that the clerestory was removed to reduce the weight of masonry bearing down on the side walls. A pre-restoration etching also shows a perpendicular style window at the south west of the chancel and this has been restored to a Norman profile that matches the original window to the east of it. The east window was also in the gothic style and has been replaced by a Norman style triple lancet arrangement. A circular window was built into the gables of both the chancel and the nave. Thus, rather remarkably, the church now looks more Norman than it did for half a millennium!

The nave is the longest Norman nave in Northumberland. It still has its original windows on the aisle-less north side. The west wall was the original extent of the church prior to the later addition of the tower. It is a fine Norman composition. The chancel arch too is original Norman. Like the rest of the church – indeed, like most Norman work in Northumberland – it is rather austere with none of the riots of chevron mouldings, beakheads and extravagantly carved capitals that adorn many Norman chancel arches elsewhere. There is a course of palmette carvings and and another of pellet moulding. It is the chancel itself, however, that is the gem of this church. The ceiling comprises two separate quadripartite vaults, each with ribs richly adorned by zig-zag moulding.

More details can be found in the Church guide or Great English Churches.

For breakfast I chose the continental option which was delicious. Afterwards, we returned to the Cathedral to appreciate some of the things that I had learned about in the guidebook I purchased the previous day. Some of the Cathedral’s features were now temporarily covered over for a student graduation event. It was lucky that we had visited the day before because I would have missed out on the new guidebook and getting my pilgrim passport stamped.

We drove to Alnwick. Mr C wanted to visit the castle because of current interest in the Wars of the Roses. Despite having to book a time slot, the castle seemed a lot busier that I remembered it on previous visits. Visitors were asked to keep a respectable distance from others but many people ignored this. One woman was herding me along, almost in my pocket. I stepped to one side to let her go in front. She muttered an apology and someone else got herded along.

Mr C visited the military museum in one of the castle’s turrets. I chose to wait outside soaking up the rays. The castle shop turned out to be disappointing and Mr C didn’t find any books on his subject. We had hoped to have lunch in the café but it was shut due to staff shortages. The only food outlet at the castle was a concession that sold Greek kebabs. The teashop next to Alnwick Garden was limited to mostly cake, the main café being inside the garden which we had decided not to visit. We had a quick look around the shop before heading into town for lunch. We found a takeaway sandwich bar where I chose a chicken and stuffing roll, which when it arrived was enormous. I enjoyed the delicious sandwich sitting on a bench next to the market square.

By the time we had finished our lunch it was too late to visit Cragside (as I had hoped) for its formal garden and pleasure drive. Instead we headed off along the ‘coastal route’, eventually stopping at Warkworth where we found a teashop that had a piece of raspberry Bakewell tart with my name on it. Before leaving Warkworth, we visited St Lawrence Church and explored its treasures.

The carparking area around the hotel was in utter chaos when we arrived. Mr C grabbed the last pay and display space rather than struggle to see if a space could be found on the hotel carpark. After we had parked we learned that the reason for the chaos was due to some students having their graduation celebration in one of the hotel’s function rooms.

Safely back in the room, we freshened up before dining in The French Quarter, Arch 6, the arch being one of the arches under the railway viaduct. We found that the French cuisine was served in a Spanish Tapas style and whilst we perused the menu we enjoyed a glass of bubbly Prosecco.