Fire reveals secret Brancepeth church hid for 450 years

Dec 8 2009 by Neil McKay, The Journal

Throughout history cross slabs and tombstones have been recycled as building materials in churches everywhere, but in Brancepeth a large number appear to have been deliberately hidden.

Twenty have now been mounted on the walls of the church and forty more will be displayed next door in Brancepeth Castle at a later date.

As the name implies, cross slabs are blocks of stone around the size of a coffin lid and bearing a full length cross. Many carry emblems such as shears for a housewife, swords for the right to bear arms and a chalice for a priest.

Mr Ryder said: “Every cloud has a silver lining and this is Brancepeth’s. The fire was a disaster but out of it has come a major discovery. The stones are of a great variety spanning two centuries.”

The stones are being displayed in the church alongside a series of newly sculpted roof corbel stones in an ancient and modern display.

The new stones have been sculpted by artist Melanie Chmielewska, a former Brancepeth resident now living in Scotland. Made from Swaledale stone, they take the form of eight pairs of heads representing Christian life.