166 COMMITTEE’S ADDRESS. 
Notes on Bellingham Church. By Dr. Cuaruron. 
Bellingham Church is an ancient structure, consisting of 
a chancel and nave, with a chantry on the south-side. 
The nave is covered by a remarkable stone roof, of which very 
few examples existin England. It is semicircular, and traversed 
from side to side by hexagonal ribs of stone, about two feet ten 
inches apart. These ribs are covered by heavy grey stone slabs, 
and the whole is so ponderous a structure, that numerous 
buttresses are required outside to support the roof. The chancel 
has had a wooden roof, and is without buttresses. The tradition 
of the country is that the chancel was twice burnt by the Scots 
during the Border Wars, but we find no record of this outrage 
in the State papers of that period. The chancel was, however, 
unroofed and ruinous in 1609. ‘The extremely narrow windows 
of the nave, (they were formerly even narrower than at present) 
would make the nave available for purposes of defence, as in 
some of the Cumberland border churches, where the steeple was 
apparently built with this intention. The doors which were 
probably barred with iron, were secured internally by three 
massive bolts. The chantry chapel on the south side, (it is pro- 
bably the chapel of St. Catherine mentioned in old records) is 
likewise stone roofed, and contains a piscina and a bracket for a 
statue. The altar of the chantry stood under the east window of 
the chapel. Within the last few years, the floor of the church 
has been raised some few feet, to the utter destruction of its 
internal proportions, and a budding, for we can give it no other 
name, has been erected at the west end. The earth round the 
church has been raised by repeated interments, to a great height. 
An official report of the state of Bellingham Church in 1607 
is to be found among the MSS. of the library of the Dean and 
Chapter of Durham, and by it we learn, that the church in that 
year was in a deplorable condition. ; 
““The Communion is but ministered once during the year. 
They lack the book of Common Prayer, with the Calender, a 
Byble, Psalters, two books of Homilies, ye Table of Command- 
ments, a seat for their minister, a surplesse, a decent communion 
