Early Medieval Stonework : St Peter's Churchyard Falstone Chapel

If Hroethbert’s memorial stone was actually found in an old field boundary bank as now seems likely on the basis of Wood’s description and the topographic details he supplies, the stone had probably been removed from its original site for reuse and may originally have derived from the same site as the other carved cross shaft, as seems inherently probable in any case.

The most promising candidate is represented by the immediate environs of St Peter's Church. This was probably the site of the original chapel which is mentioned in 1318 and again in 1541. A century and a half later the chapel was said by Warburton to have fallen into ruins, but had been repaired and adopted by the Presbyterian congregation, probably in 1709 (Hodgson 1916, 14). The Presbyterians were still occupying the building in 1725 when the Church of England decided to re-establish a place of worship at Falstone.

With the original chapel no longer available, the Anglicans apparently erected their new chapel of ease immediately to the north (PSAN2, IV, (1889), 10; NCH XV (1940), 257-8 n.2). This building was rebuilt on the same site in 1824, following promotion to the status of a full parish church, and again in 1891, after fire had severely damaged the building.

The Presbyterians moved to a new building to the west of the present parish church in 1735, after which the original medieval chapel must have been abandoned. It apparently stood for a time in a state of increasing disrepair since it is represented by the symbol for a ‘chapel in ruins’ beside that for a ‘chapel of ease’ (i.e. the 1725 chapel) on Thomas Kitchin's map of 1750 (fig. 16). The County History records the reported rediscovery of the building's south wall to the south of the later church during the early 19th century (NCH XV (1940), 257-8 n.2). The original chapel must therefore have been demolished at some time between 1750 and c. 1820. The site of the chapel had probably remained in use as a burial ground after the medieval chapel had first fallen into decay, with a group of splendid early 18th century carved gravestones marking the beginning of the religious revival at Falstone.

It is of course possible that the early medieval stonework had been moved from elsewhere for use in the construction of the medieval chapel, but it is more plausible that the presence of this assemblage indicates a long term ecclesiastical presence at Falstone in one form or another from at least the 8th/9th centuries AD. The location of the churchyard on a knoll demarcated on three sides by a bend in the Falstone Burn forms a naturally bound location which might have proved attractive for an early Christian monastic community, for instance.

Evidently this site is of the highest sensitivity in terms of the significance of the information it might yield regarding the earliest history of Falstone, in particular, and of North Tynedale and Northumberland in general.