Longhorsely Old Church.

Longhorsely is a small village on the A679 halfway between Rothbury and Morpeth: one that you might miss if you blink as you pass. A pub, a bend, crossroads, a green and you are through and well on the way to Coquetdale. In the last few years Longhorsely has expanded with many new houses just off the main road. There is a good pub. a pele tower, a couple of churches, a village green and a football pitch, whilst for those with an inquisitive bent there is a farm where llamas, wallabies, ostriches, parrots and even a camel spmetimes strut their stuff. All these can be seen from the road on a good day. And of course you know that Bero, the self raising flour was a product of local grocer Thomas Bell. So Longhorsely is an interesting place with an interesting history.

But I digress: What about Longhorsely's old church standing alone in a field well away from the village? Access to the church is via a pathway across the fields just opposite a newish development of houses in, would you believe, "Church View" and just behind the bus stop. Or for that matter a couple of hundred yards further on towards Morpeth and through a gate.

Built in 1783 on the site of a previous Norman church it boasts a battlemented bell turret at the west end, and a battlemented chimney on the east. The chancelled arch is of an odd ogee shape and has panelled sides. It is claimed that the altar table and rails were made from an oak tree found in a peat bog at Linden East Farm in the early 19th century. Behind the altar is an unusual window with transparencies of bible scenes in brown and yellow against a blue background.

An inscription states that it

"was designed and executed in diaphanie by the late Sarah Elizabeth Ames of Linden in this parish who died on the 29th of February 1868".

This rather inaccurate (today) description comes from "Northumberland, England's Farthest North" Special Coronation Edition 1953: just over 50 years ago and certainly within living memory. And whilst there has been a church here since Norman times; probably even before that, today only the remains of a few walls and inscriptions are to be found. 

So what happened?

Well, the church in one or another of its resurrections has had a chequered history:  The first building was described as having a low Norman arch with marble pillars and a bell that was installed in 1725. It was later destroyed by William Wallace during one of his cross border raids in 1293 and it is uncertain as to what happened in the following years but it was certainly rebuilt in 1783 and dedicated to Saint Helen.

In 1798 the chancel was built by Mr Wallis Ogle of Causey Park who also offered a vestry, but this latter offering was declined. The altar table and rails of black oak were added in 1826 by Charles Bigge of Linden.

The church was used continuously until the 1960's though only during the summer months toward the end of the decade. In the winter months services were held in a building known as the Parish Room in the village.

The church was remote from the village and had neither electricity nor gas. It was very cold, dark, and damp. It was lit by carbide lamps and heating was provided by an early form of calor gas heater which was scarcely sufficient to remove the chill.

The congregation was small and the expense of maintaining or improving the church building was prohibitive. It was finally decided not to continue with repairs or maintenance but to adapt the Church of England School, in use since 1751. A new school was built and the old school was consecrated as St Helen's Church.

Mr & Mrs Cairns were the last couple to be married in the old church in 1965 and the first service in the "new" church was on the 4th November 1966.

The old church was gutted and the roof removed. In 1981 the stones, slates and doors were used to build a porch in the new church (or old school).

The walls were stabilised so that the church was left, in the words of a local councillor, "as a romantic ruin".

A plaque on the wall reads

"In Memory of the Revd Joseph Middleton A.B.
Vicar of this Parish
12 years
who died the 10th December AD 1790
aged 84"

The remains of the old carbide generator may still be found, lying in the corner of the churchyard.

The roof is gone: the stained glass windows are gone: the walls are all but gone: the pews are gone: and where the congregation once gathered to worship, weeds sprout from cracks. Trees around the church have grown and it is difficult even to spot the church from the road today.

It seems a sin to have allowed such a beautiful church to have been dismantled and discarded in such a way!  Is this progress? And what happened to the stained glass windows, the pews, the altar rails, the altar table or the other interior furnishings?

And why this was allowed to happen in an age when other old buildings must be maintained and venerated. Remember the ugly but now listed 1930s styles? Even the world war pill boxes dotted around the valley have listed status.

All these are preserved for posterity: why not this once beautiful but still historic church?