Heavenly Heavenfield, Holy Hexham, Bamburgh Green and Shakespeare

Thank you so much for joining me as I traipse around the wondrous north east of Britain; land holy wherever one treads.  Today I travelled from Langley Castle to Hexham Abbey and then to Heavenfeld, finally arriving this evening at the foot of Bamburgh village.  Thank you for your support, generosity and kindness.  

Love Gretel 🕯️🫖🤍

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:39

Good morning, it's Monday morning, and this is the sound of a fountain at Langley Castle where we had a good night's sleep, and it's much cooler than we're used to. It's about maybe 18 degrees, so the sort of weather where you need a little bit of a jersey, but it's still lovely, beautiful weather. As I look up to the castle where I'm standing, there are martens with their little white bellies whizzing about above my head, and I've just had the most delicious porridge for breakfast and a pot of tea. The place is full of peacocks, which is gorgeous, and now we're off to see a million and one things. Heavenfield and Corbridge, Hexham, Yevering. I think they're gonna fit in today. Lots and lots of things. So are you ready for it? Buckle up and prepare for a big day of adventure. So I'm we haven't even left Langley Castle, and I've noticed that the peacock that's got its feathers out is protecting a little peacock baby. I think there might be is there one peacock baby? He really doesn't want me to get any closer, so I won't. There are two peacock babies. I'm gonna just kneel down so I look less, hopefully less what's the word? worrisome for him. So he's putting out his feathers as though to say, don't come any nearer. There are two other peacocks and then two pea hens and then two peacock babies. I've never seen anything so adorable. And it's also adorable that you know there's the father not using his feathers to attract, but using his feathers to repel, which is a brilliant part of nature, isn't it? They're they're actually a little bit closer to me, so they're quite tame, they're used to people, and there are also some goldfinch babies around. So what a wonderful thing. So we're now in Hexham at the very dark interior, apart from the stained glass windows, which are really the explosions of colour, lots and lots of vibrant colours, and the lovely chatter of people behind. There's been a funeral this morning, and um I've been listening in not you know respectfully to the conversations of people walking past saying things like, you know, he was lovely with children, and he always sorted out arguments and you knew people chatting kindly about whoever it was that passed. And I was standing in front of a sign saying Hexham Abbey founded AD 674, rulers of Hexham Abbey Church. Interesting word, rulers. Okay, so it says founder, St. Wilfred, 674. And if you remember, Wilfrid was quite controversial. And then it says bishops Trambreth, 681 to 684, and St. Cuthbert, 684, St. Aata, 685, St. John of Beverly, 685, St. Wilfred, 686 to 692, but then he was exiled, and then he was Bishop 605 to 709. 705, if you remember, was when Old Helm founded Cherbourne, and then St. Acher, St. Fruit Fruthbert, St. Alkmund, St. Tilbert, Ethelbert, Adred, Enbert, Tidfrith. And then it carries on. Amazing. Until you get people like John de Lazenby, 1242, Thomas of Fenneck, 1293, and then who do you have at interesting times? Up to the Reformation, Edward J. And then a big gap between 1536 and 1567. And then it continues. Lovely. I'll take a picture for you. I'm gonna leave it on so you hear the sound of chattering, I guess. As as I walk through, I'm walking through to the uh naith, and as a wonderful crossing point. Ah, now I think I'm at the part where there's a Roman plinth.

SPEAKER_03 5:33

And uh I think it's 25 feet, which is what that tells you about. Yeah, so there must have been a lot of night because a brilliant map it's quite a large monument. So it's a monument to be when you're looking at the model, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Um it's the picture of a Roman on a horse with a spear with some kind of thing on the end. And he's got feather in his hat, his helmet, and his feet is a bowing, looks like a bowing man with a lion's mask. It's amazing. I'm gonna take a picture. Amazing. What do we know about him? So may I just say your name? I'm Katie. Katie, okay, I'm Gretel, and I do a little kind of not-for-profit podcast. So if you're do tell me about him, that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 6:31

So he, as I said, his name was Flavinus. He died at the age of 25. Yeah. He had served for seven years in his Roman um cavalry regiment. Yeah. By that we know he was an auxiliary and not a Roman citizen. Yeah. Because the Roman legions were made up of infantrymen. Okay. They were Roman citizens. Yeah. But if he was a cavalryman, that means he was a barbarian. So not considered like you and me.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Which is amazing because cavalry became considered a sort of posh part of the army, didn't it?

SPEAKER_02 7:01

Yeah, but as I said, only only the auxiliaries were cavalrymen. Obviously, if he'd lived to serve long enough, he would have become a Roman citizen. That was one of the attractions of joining the army. But a wealthy family, do you think? We know nothing about him beyond we've got, as I said, if you look at the inscription there, everything we know about him is down here. And you are you able to read the Latin for me or no? Dismanibus, not terribly well because it's full of um contractions and abbreviations which they use quite a lot. But dismanibus was what they all it's essentially to the spirits of the departed. Oh, okay. So it's a dedication.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Right. Dismanibus. Oh yes, I can see that. Are you allowed to touch it, are you? Oh yes. Yeah, but it's the real thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Oh yes. Yes, but you're allowed to touch it. Don't forget, the whole of St. Wilfred's original abbey in the 7th century was built of what we will politely call recycled Roman stone. Yeah. And not from the wall. People tend to glibly assume the wall, but the wall's actually inconveniently far away. A lot of it came from Corea, now Corbridge. Okay. Have you been to the Roman stone? We're going there next, yes. Yes. They have uh they have a re replica of this in the original colours, because this would have been highly.

SPEAKER_00 8:04

Oh, I've seen that online, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:06

Amazing. But this was actually found down in the foundations during one of the Victorian restorations. Yes, I read that. It's just amazing we can touch it, I think, isn't it? That's why he's in such beautiful condition. Um if he'd been left in his Roman graveyard exposed to wind and rain, he would have been worn flat by now. Yes, that's because he was down in the foundations. He's been you're unseen, untouched. And who is he booting here with his one of our ancestors who is a contemptible naked barbarian who has got his back turned to the noble Roman in a con cowardly fashion. And is but is that a lion's mask? No, it's it's his head, his bearded, of course. So I it looked like there was a No, it's his bearded.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

So his bearded is that way round. Yes. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

It is possible and there is one school of thought that thinks that possibly this is how he was actually bringing Flavinus down. Uh in the upward jobbing thrust. So he died ah. But this is quite a standard depiction of Cavalryman on tombstones, so it's not necessarily reflecting how Flavinus individually dies.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

And it doesn't say there how he died, so okay, but it it could be perhaps so that's the way that they would have. But but it's i perhaps they're saying that even though that's the way they brought them down, that was a cowardly way to bring them down.

SPEAKER_02 9:21

Well, indeed. And as I said, he's he's naked, which is you know he's not properly dressed like a someone's certainly. Although you can see, look, they've given him muscles and but they've made him look animal-like, haven't they? I suppose they'd I haven't thought about that. Yeah, maybe. But what about what he's wearing for Venus? I can't tell you very much about that at all, I'm afraid. If you go to Chester's, yeah, um, that was a cavalry fort. So they you they will probably have a certain amount of information about that.

SPEAKER_00 9:48

Oh well, thank you for coming over. I really appreciate it. It's just it's if people are interested.

SPEAKER_02 9:53

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

It's all right.

SPEAKER_02 9:54

You've described it so well, thank you. I really appreciate it. And the of course the irony is that if it hadn't been for St. Wilfred's Masons recycling him from Corbridge, we would know nothing about him. It's only because they took him and helped themselves that we're still talking about him 1900 years after his death.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

And of course they would have done it because they were t they were tickled by it, weren't they?

SPEAKER_02 10:14

They I think to them it was just a good piece of building stone. Um have you been down in the crypt? I'm about to go with my husband. Because that, of course, that is there you can see how Wilfred's Masons made a jigsaw of the Roman stone that they took. And you have in the um in the roof of the north passageway, yeah. You have a sample of what's called a Gaeta Stone. Right. Have you heard of the Emperor Septimius Severus? No. We sort of know about him because he's one of the few that ever got this far north. Okay. He had two sons, Caracalla, the older one, and Geta, the younger one. On his deathbed, he left the empire to be jointly ruled by his two sons, which went just about as well as you'd expect it would. Shortly after Caracalla had Geta murdered. Right. And not content with that, he tried to he went to second century cancellation. Right. Um, what they called the Damnatio Memoriae, condemnation of memory, when the name of the offending person was chiseled out of all official inscriptions. So we have a sample of stone where that has been rather clumsily done. You can still see the name underneath. But of course, Wilfrid's Masons uh almost certainly couldn't read it. And they couldn't read Latin, they couldn't read any language, probably. Yeah. And they weren't interested anyway. For them, it was just a nice oblong piece of stone that was a good part of their um jigsaw. So as I said, it's actually above your head in the roof. I'll go and have a look. So you'd rather have to you know limbo dance. Thank you. But see, the the there from their point of view, you didn't waste good building material.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

You had all these derelict supplements lying around. Yeah, a nice big chunk of stone. Yes. Yeah, it saved them time. That's it. They say to the boss, look what I've got here. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:59

Well quite why quarry new stone. Yes. Um when you have all this good dress stone, I mean it's the same. Have you ever been to Middleham Castle, for example? No, no. If you go there in the the keep, which is a very fine, and it's not merely a fortified castle, it's a gentleman's residence, you will see that the dress stone has been chiseled off to about ten, twelve feet in height. And I once asked the custodian why, and he looked me in the eye and said, because that's as far that's as high as a farmer in it standing on an oxcot could reach. In other words, once the um earls moved out, the local people moved in and white. But that's a nice bit of dress stone, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:40

Yes, yes, no, that's very interesting. I mean I live in Cherbourne, and everywhere you go you can just see the Roman tiles and uh well not everywhere you go, but you can you could see it all in the in in the little uh buildings around and about. And what's that graffiti I can see there?

SPEAKER_02 12:55

We know RS. I don't, but I think quite a lot of it you originally indicated you people were buried, but yeah, all these all we had quite a lot of human remains, all of which were removed during the 1908 restoration.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

Okay, right. So that's not graffiti, it suggests someone might be actually buried. Might originally have been there. Yeah, because they're quite large letters, aren't they? All right, lovely. I'll better move on. Thank you so much. Bye bye. Well, how delightful. It's always nice to hear the voice of someone who knows what they're talking about. Now it's time to take you to the crypt. I'm about to go in the crypt, and this lovely lady called Margie, Margie, what a nice name, is going to just tell us a little bit about it, although I have read about it. I'd love to hear your voice.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

I'll tell you quickly then. Um built in 674 by Wilfred, who was uh started off as a Saxon nobleman with potential, and so he was trained with the church. He didn't like the simplicity of the way church was done in Northumberland. He wanted grandeur. He travelled in France and Rome, and he saw their big stone-built white glass cathedrals, galleries, and the choirs and the chapels, and they always had a crypt. And it wasn't a burial, it was an underground place of worship, and they would always have the relics of a saint in there. And the idea was you would come in on pilgrimage, you would worship by the relics of the saint. It was a big commitment to go down the little dark twisty tunnels and get there, and it they felt it drew them closer to God. So Wilfrid came home and he wanted that. He got his chance when he arranged an annulment for the King and Queen of Northumbria. The Queen never wanted to be a queen in the first place. She wanted to be a nun, but her family wouldn't let her, and she absolutely refused to consummate her marriage. Wilfred arranged an annulment. She was most grateful. So before she shot back home to really to be a nun, she gave Wilford a lot of money and all of her land. So he was able to start building his pet project. You don't quarry for fresh stone when there's a Roman army town falling down three miles away. So all the stone was taken from Gusto Peter. If it had bits of Caesar was ear or whatever written on the side, that didn't matter because it was all going to be whitewashed, plastered over and whitewashed and decorated. It was famous all over Europe. He had relics of St. Andrew down there, and it was famous all over Europe for 200 years. And then the Vikings came, took what was worth taking, left it in disrepair, and everything in Hexham declined. 1113, an order of monks from Yorkshire came and started rebuilding. And that was its heyday, and it was the herb of the town. The monks were the doctors and the social workers and the teachers of the town. But 1296, we were at war with the Scots. Robert the Brussels army came over here, set the roof on fire, and everything at this end caved in. So at that point the war would have been, well, sorry for a broadcast, but where the red carpet is, would have been the rest of war. This was outside. Timber and rubble and rain fell into the crypt, uh, and within two generations people had forgotten where it was. They knew there had been a crypt, but it was lost. Until 1725, when a workman doing some maintenance on a pillar, which is just to the north, how to work it out, northeast of the crypt, was doing his job and fell down a hole. And it turned out he'd fallen into one of the ways into the crypt. So that was when it was all excavated. So as you see it now, it's pretty much as they rediscovered it in 1725. It's lost all of its beauty, it's lost all of its decoration. But because of that, you can see Roman inscriptions and the stone. Yeah, she's having to unlock the gate, and it's busy. Somebody could just fall down the hole and you have to lose the form. So yes, it's lost all this decoration, but you can see the carvings, some of which are quite significant. And you can see as we said we won't, you can see where the lights went, but there are no lights in the tunnels. There's as you come down the stairs, you go down about a hundred years with every step. There's a tunnel off to the left, which leads into the antechamber, and there's a tunnel to the right, which would have led up to where it has to be on the southeast, or the tapestry is on the wall. There are no lights in the tunnel, so coming down was a big act of bait. They had to be blocked off for safety, but you can go quite a way along. The thing that you really, really need to know is the steps. These first ones are extremely steep. The rest are all right, but these ones are very, very steep, so please take care and hold on to the handles.

SPEAKER_03 18:37

Thank you so much, that's wonderful. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 18:42

Thank you, Margie. Thank you. Right, we went then went down the crypt and there's a separate recording on the next episode that I record from the crypt, but now I'm getting out of the car because we've arrived at Heavenfield, and Heavenfield I've been looking forward to coming to so much because even though there's nothing here, it's just so important. I stepped out of the car and there's a stone wall in front of me, and St Oswald's Church by the wall is in front of us in a little cops of trees. It's very beautiful weather, it's a bit windy though, so I've got to protect the phone. And I'm just about to go to a sign board, but Heavenfield is where Oswald planted his cross and he won his battle and he dedicated his life to God. So this is the sign. I've decided it's too uh windy to read out the sign, but I just want to quickly say before we go to the church that there's the wooden cross here, there's a pub there are footpaths in all directions, and in front of us stretches the line of Hadrian's Wall, and also in front of us is the church that we're just going to walk up to. But it's extraordinary to be here, and yeah, it's absolutely wonderful. And I'll take photos for you which I'll I'll upload as usual. So the church is closed, but that's fine. We've been we sat in the sun in the church gardens and enjoyed the view. And interestingly, I I mean around here a lot of the names of people that lived in the border. I don't know if you remember the reavers, people who lived in this kind of area and were given the task of defending the border against this Scottish, but one of the reaver names is Armstrong, and there is a cross here for GW Armstrong. So that's a very old family that belong that belongs to this part of the world. And we've got someone who is buried here only 11 years ago, Margaret, the loved wife, Mam. So Mam's a Geordie way of saying mum. Grandma and great-grand died 4th of June 2015, aged 86 years, and she was the wife of Leslie Gilby, who died, gosh, died 1969. So she then had 45 years as a widow. And this is another Reaver name, Arnold, in memory of our beloved Richard Frances. Ah no, but it's Arnold Wheatley, Commander Royal Navy, born 3rd of October 1914, died 1968, and his wife, Mary Winship Whaiteley, born 1st of February 1926, died 2009. I've just seen I think I've seen it fly fly off. I shouldn't have spoken. Now I'm really excited because I speak. I am leaning out, well not leaning out, but looking out of a lovely sash bottom of a sash window as a beautiful old Victorian lamp page. And behind that are trees of all sorts, actually, a real variety, I could see oak trees, horse chestnut, actually just those two at the moment, and a lovely little common area of green, some cars going by, I can see a couple of backpackers with a little dog. Lots of rooks that were making a racket a minute ago, but they knew I was about to record, so they've stopped. And we arrived about an hour ago, and we've done we've done what we always do. My husband just elongates on the sofa and sort of looks at his phone and does things like word or and I unpack everything immaculately into my wardrobe and good military drills there, everything folded beautifully and hung up, so that I'm all in order for the week. And I'm feeling very poignant. I had a huge overwhelming of grief a couple of hours ago, a bit of a cry and missing my mum. And that was actually when we were driving through Almouth, which looked beautiful. We drove through sea houses and lots of places on our route up here. And we've got a good plan for the week. Tomorrow we're going on a boat and we're going to be taken around the Farn Islands, and we're getting off on the island that Cuthbert died on. And I I I you know I find that all rather overwhelming. There's so much about this area of Northumberland that's just it's overwhelming. There's there's so much history packed into it. It's almost like when you go to some areas of London, and you you have to be disciplined as to what you look at in case you exhaust yourself because there it just is so much. And we had to be disciplined today. There were we I we had to turn away from a place that had a church with a 9th century tower and uh a nearby 9th century Saxon church because we just ran out of time, and normally that would have been a sort of main event on a day like today, but I was determined to go to Heavenfield and I was really glad I did. I didn't mind particularly that the church was shut. It was nice because we we sat together on the on on the grass in the churchyard, and and you know, sometimes you know, whether it's with your friends or in a marriage or with perhaps a parent or a child, you have moments where you unplanned moments of sitting in the sunshine, perhaps overlooking the sea, or I don't know, sitting on a train, chatting together, whatever it is, it's the unplanned moments together on holiday that make make it magic, I think. And when I look back on holidays, it's those moments actually that I remember the most, those little moments of of contemplation and going back to the title of the podcast of pondering things in in one's heart. And as I talk, the rooks are coming home to roast. There's one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. There's ten. I'm laughing because as I spoke, three of them, three of them sort of lined up together as though they knew I was counting them. Sort of lined up neatly in a row. Very funny, very cute. They're gorgeous birds, so bright, so brilliant. And they're just living their independent lives. They don't care about us humans, they don't need us, they don't want us, they just laugh at us and our ridiculous heaviness stuck to the crust of the earth while they're up there with all the amazing views, feeling the wind under their wingtips, and feeling the wind against their their forelock feathers and just doing whatever they want, going from tree to tree, living a beautiful free life. And we plod along. We need to put clothes on, we need shelter, we we like to go into these awful buildings to go and buy our food and yeah. To live a life as a rook, eh? I don't know how long we live. I'm guessing 30 years. Do you think that's too long? Maybe, maybe 20, 20 to 30. I'll try and find out. Maybe sometimes it's good to find out all you know about one particular species of animal. Do you not think so maybe we'll maybe we'll we'll go go there with rooks at some point because they are so marvellous. Husband's gone down to have a pint of lager, and I do I do miss drinking at times like this. It's not that I crave the alcohol. That's that's many years since I've I've craved alcohol. But I I like the sort of sense of purpose that right, I'm gonna go and have a drink. And I've perhaps made the mistake of making myself a pot of tea here. I should have not done that so I could look forward to doing it in the pub. But what I'm gonna do instead to sort of build up the desire for a nine and soda and a pot of tea, is I'm gonna go for a little walk about, take some photos, maybe, although it's very cloudy now, and I I try and wait for for good light if I can. But I want to get a feel for the place, and then I'll go and join husband and talk through the plan for tomorrow. And more than anything else, this time of the evening, I need to keep away feelings of poignancy because I'm not with my children, not with the animals. It's funny actually, we had a phone call when we were in the uh churchyard, and I was in the middle of speaking to you actually. I got a phone call through from son, and he was feeling poignant and lonely, sitting in the garden. He said, I'm sitting in the garden eating an apple. And he said, and Lucy, as in my daughter, she's just upstairs with her boyfriend. I haven't seen her, and you know, and she could you ask her to make more of an effort to clear up in the kitchen? And then I got a message through from my daughter saying actually she she was at the station and she was catching a train to see my stepdaughter, i.e., her half-sister, and her little nephew. And so she was actually out of the house, and my son, who thought that his lazy sister and boyfriend were in the house, uh, were actually he was alone in the house just with Doggo, just him and Doggo. Even even the cats gone to the caterery, and the little pups with it's so funny because the puppy's with her mummy and her sister. But what I didn't know is that the puppy's also with her grandma because the grandma dog lives with the mummy, and so they've got all generations of dogs. And I got a message for you from the lovely lady. You know, the lady I interviewed called Claire, who's lost her husband, and I talked to her a while ago, maybe three months ago, and I love her very much. Uh and I just talked to her a little bit about grief, and she talked about the loneliness she feels without her husband. So I'm just putting my feet up as we speak. And my feet I'm on a window seat by the sash window. My feet are up on cushions, and I love this sitting like this, so happy looking out. And so she sent a message through saying that the puppy's with her great uncle, and so obviously the grandma's brother was also staying. I mean, goodness knows what I didn't get to the bottom of it all. And she said the puppy's great uncle is collecting stones, that's what he you know he's obsessed with, and scouts helping him do this. And and husband, as usual, was only ever half listening as I read out this story from my phone. And you know, he was baffled, and a little while later there was sort of a lapse of time, and he was asking questions about it, and what he thought had happened was that my friend Claire, her great uncle, was some kind of geologist, was obsessed with collect with collecting stones, and that our puppy was helping him collect stones. So he was imagining this scene of like an old guy, you know, grizzled white hair, you know, bent over a stick in the wilds of Wessex, geologist, you know, in a blighton character called Quentin or something, looking for fossils and our dog helping. And then when it emerged, actually it was a dog. The whole thing got very comic and ridiculous, and we had some hysterical laughter for a while. Right. How bored are you? How many, how many people have I lost just in the last five minutes? Right, off I go. I'm gonna take you on an explore, but I'm not sure whether you'll hear from me. It depends if we find anything. I mean, obviously, there is just the small matter of a castle around the corner, i.e., Bambra Castle. And what we haven't got to the bottom of, I speak quietly, is do we call this Bamba? Because it's spelled B-U-R-G. I mean, if I were really ignorant, and perhaps from a different country, I might say Bamberg, but I at least I know it's not that. Or is it Bambra, like a lot of these places, even though if they're not spelt like it. And we think it's Bambra. I just need to find that. I'm gonna ask a local and just say, come on, what is how what what is it? I had to go to I was desperate to go to the loo and we stopped, finally found a garage. I realised they didn't have a loo, so I pitifully said to this lady, Is it possible I can use the staff loo? And I, you know, tried to look pitiful. I mean, I it's not wasn't put on in the sense that, you know, I really did need to go. And she said, Do you have a medical card? And I said, No, but you know, I am going through the menopause. And she looked at me. There was a a second as she made her decision, and she said, Follow me. And she took me through to the most revolting back office loo you'd ever find. But she was very kind and had a strong Geordie accent, or it wasn't-I mean Geordie. I think to be Geordie, it's Newcastle itself. I think so. I need to check that. I don't think you could be called Geordie if you're from Sunderland or Durham. I think you have to be Newcastle or the outskirts. And so we're outside of that, but certainly North East accent. And I told her how kind she was. And I don't know whether you know this, but if you half close, you know how people say half close your eyes and look out and see some see a scene. Well, imagine if you could do the same with your ears. So half close your ears and listen to the tyne side accent, listen to the northeast accent. And if you if you sort of half close your ears, then you you can imagine you're listening to someone from Norway. It's so that's exactly where the Geordie accent is is from. It's it's a strong Norwegian accent. And when I learnt Norwegian a couple of years ago, it was fascinating just to hear how many words that that that actually, if you said them, you know, were written as though they're Norwegian, but if you said them, it just sounds like you're speaking English in in Geordi accent. Really interesting. And on that note, I will now scurry off round the town. Out on a walk in Bamber, and this is the evening blackbird. Try and get out in the evenings if we can. Or two or three or not. I'm trying to talk in the gaps. It's like a really authentic place, you know, not touristy at all. Although tourists are here. And it's got lots of lovely old shops and it's all done. It feels that it's got its it's kept its soul, you know, in a way that lots of places haven't. Beautiful. Hello, and a very good evening. It's Monday evening, it's five past ten. I'm sitting in bed, and I thought I'd finish this episode by reading some information out about Hexam Abbey Crypt. The North Passage of the Crypt and this is their their leaflet that they provide. The north passage, actually facing east, turns into a stairwell leading to the surface. The passage is covered with slabs with important Roman inscriptions. One slab forms an arched vault above the door, on which is engraved a dedication to Apollo of Maponus written by a centurion of the Sixth Legion Victrix. Another, the so called Gator Stone, acts as a roof slab at the eastern end of the passage. I took a photo of one of those slabs. The main chamber of the crypt. This used to be a small chapel in which the monks would display the holy relics for pilgrims to view. Wilfrid and his fellow monks travelled widely in Europe and would have collected the relics whilst on their travels. It is possible that some of these relics could have belonged to Saint Andrew, to whom the Abbey Church is dedicated. The South Passage. In this passage you can find amazing examples of Roman stone, which was used to build the whole crypt in 674 AD. It's so old, it's just so old. All stone came from Corebridge four miles downstream and includes parts taken from the Roman bridge and an extravagant funeral monument. It is possible the Anglo Saxon builders plastered over the beautifully carved stone art and then painted with depictions of Bible stories as it almost certainly was in the main chamber. The Gator Stone. The roof slab in the North Passage is also known as the Gator Stone. Gator was a Roman emperor, or maybe Gita, who ruled jointly with his brother Caracalla between 205 and 207. Caracalla later murdered Gator and all re Oh remember the lady was talking about them, and all references to Gator were crossed out in a rather rudimentary way. You'll see the evidence on the stonework uh here. So they've shown us on the leaflet. I wonder if I can see if I can find it on the photograph. I'll have a little look. The Roman carvings, the pattern you see in the in the stone is called a leaf and berry pattern. But when the crypt was built, it is likely the walls of the crypt would have been plastered and decorated with paintings of saints and Bible scenes, so you wouldn't have seen them. There we are. The ladies though who worked there, the volunteers, they were great, weren't they? They really there was Katie and Margie, and they knew so much about it. Very impressive. Now as the recordings this week are a bit are going to be a bit intensely focused on where I am, and because I couldn't bring all the books that I would normally read, although I've got some of them in the car, so I'll dig those out tomorrow. I'm going to end with something completely different tonight, just to balance out what I've been talking about, and so I'm going to end with a few of Shakespeare's sonnets. And there's going to be now a little pause while I find them. Here we go. From fairest creatures we desire increase, that thereby beauty's rose might never die, but as the riper should by time decrease, his tender air might bear his memory, but thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, feedst thy light's flame with self substantial fuel, making a famine where abundance lies, thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel. Thou that art now the world's fresh ornament, and only herald to the gaudy spring, within thine own bud thy content, and tender churl makes waste in niggarding. Pity the world or else this glutton bee To eat the world's dew by the grave and thee two When forty winters shall besiege thy brow and dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, thy youth's proud livery so gazed on now, Will be a tattered weed of small worth held, then being asked where all thy beauty lies, where all the treasure of thy lusty days, To say within thine own deep sunken eyes, Were an all eating shame and thriftless praise, how much more praise deserved thy beauty's use if thou couldst answer This fair child of mine shall sum my count and make my old excuse, proving his beauty by succession thine. This were to be new made when thou art old, and see thy blood warm when thou feelest it cold. Look in thy glass and tell the face thou viewest, now is the time that face should form another, whose fresh repair, if now thou not renewest, thou dost beguile the world, and bless some mother, for where is she so fair, whose uneared womb disdains the tillage of thy husbandry? Or who is he so fond will be the tomb of his self love to stop posterity? Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee calls back the lovely April of her prime, so thou through windows of thine age shalt see, despite of wrinkles this thy golden time, but if thou live, remembered not to be, die single and thine image dies with thee. Unthrifty loveliness, why dost thou spend upon thyself thy beauty's legacy? Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend, and being frank, she lends to those of free. Then beauteous niggard, why dost thou abuse the bounteous largesse given thee to give? Profitless usurer, why dost thou use so great a sum of sums, yet canst not live? For having traffic with thyself alone, thou of thyself, thy sweet self dost deceive, then how when nature calls thee to be gone, what acceptable audit canst thou leave thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee, which used, lives the executor to be. Thank you so much for joining me today, and lots of love to you. A very good night.