Beltingham

Beltingham is a small village on the River South Tyne in Northumberland, in England. It is situated 1mi southeast of Bardon Mill and 10mi to the west of Hexham. Beltingham is a most attractive village with stone houses about a little green with pretty flowering gardens. There is a fine Georgian house near the church, and another nearby looks as if it had been a bastle.GovernanceBeltingham is in the parliamentary constituency of Hexham.Religious sitesThe church is dedicated to St. Cuthbert and stands in a churchyard containing three massive yew trees, which are more than 700 years old,(see below) and may well have been used for the making of longbows before guns came. Bishop Nicholas Ridley was keen on archery, which was compulsory school sport in the days of Henry VIII. The yew tree indicates an old church, but the present church was built about 1500 in Perpendicular style. There is no division between nave and chancel, and the roof carries a little bell tower. There is an old cross shaft at the west end. In 1883-4 the church was very much restored, and some of the old memorials were destroyed. One, recorded by John Hodgson, requested prayers for the soul of Nicholas Ridley, who died in the fifteenth century (1490). There is a memorial now in the church to the Revd. Anthony Hedley of Chesterholm, friend of Hodgson, who died 17 January 1835, having caught a fatal chill in going out to supervise an excavation at Vindolanda fort. He was born near Otterburn and related to Capability Brown. Both had served the Marquis of Bath at Longleat. Hedley was inspired to improve vicarage gardens as well as to search for antiquities.