St Aidan's Church, Bamburgh

St Aidan’s Church stands on the edge of Bamburgh village, just outside the castle walls. It is a Grade I listed building in the Diocese of Newcastle and occupies the site where the wooden church of St Aidan was built in AD 635. The present stone church dates mainly from the late 12th century, though parts of the north aisle survive from before the Norman Conquest. Inside, the chancel is the second longest in England at 60 feet and was added in 1230. A wooden beam preserved near the altar is said to be the one on which St Aidan rested at his death. The church’s long history includes neglect after the Dissolution and later restorations in the 19th century. Archaeologists found the remains of 110 people from the 7th and 8th centuries in the castle’s Bowl Hole graveyard between 1998 and 2007. These bones were moved into the church’s crypt in 2016 and can now be viewed through a small gate. An interpretive display and digital ossuary called “Accessing Aidan” explain the discoveries and are run by the Bamburgh Bones consortium. Inside, visitors see a 14th-century tomb recess with a knight’s effigy and wall monuments to the Forster family and others. The north aisle holds a 1844 effigy of Grace Darling, originally part of a churchyard monument. Outside, the churchyard contains a Commonwealth war grave from the Second World War. The building also houses a brass plaque to the historian Arthur Lionel Smith and a memorial to Major General George Younghusband.