It took an hour and a half to drive to the village. When I saw the church tower I was reminded of the theory that the northern arc of villages in the country was protected by "fortress churches" built to provide emergency refuge. The double-arched windows in the top section of the tower are Saxon (although restored).
The main object of interest in the village is this truncated pillar in the churchyard. It is the stub of a Saxon preaching cross where local people would gather for services in the days before the church was built (7th century). The church is dedicated to St Chad so this cross could mark one of the stopping points of the missionary saint in his circuits around the county.
It is sobering to consider that when St Chad began his mission the country was largely pagan and worshipped false gods - exactly the situation we face today. Within a generation the whole population (very largely) was converted. Is the Anglican church capable of producing a new St Chad, a new St Augustine, a new Venerable Bede?
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