Mr. Tate on the Geology and Archaeology of Beadnell. 109 



bare, a portion of the head of the north door was found resting 

 on its impost ; the height of the door was then ascertained to 

 be only 4 feet 8 inches. A low stone seat ran along the north 

 and south walls of the nave, and also along the west wall on 

 the north side of the opening. The Piscina of a rude form 

 still remains inserted in the south wall. 



Other characteristic portions of a chapel were seen when 

 the excavations were made, but which have since been 

 destroyed or removed. Of these, however, a minute descrip- 

 tion has been given by Mr. Albert Way, in the proceedings 

 of the Archaeological Institute. --^ In the chancel, an altar 

 formed of coarse rubble work was found nearly entire, and 

 on its north side a shallow stone trough. A small basin, 

 supposed to have been a holy-water vessel, was in the south- 

 east angle, and adjoining to it was a portion of a stone bench. 

 It is singular to notice, that though the chancel walls were 

 for the most part built with lime, yet clay has been used and 

 no lime in that part, against which the altar stood. No 

 windows nor architectural ornaments were found, from which 

 the age of the chapel might with certainty have been de- 

 termined. Among the rubbish, however, I saw several sand- 

 stone slates with the nail-holes for fastening them remaining, 

 indicating that these buildings had been covered with slate. 



This ruined chapel is now only about ten yards southward 

 from the cliff, which rises 30 feet above the sea ; the chapel, 

 however, must formerly have stood at a greater distance from 

 it ; for, as already explained, masses of limestone, time after 

 time, have tumbled down from the cliff" into the sea. 



No sepulchral monuments or swelling hillocks are now 

 around this chapel ; but here there must have been a place 

 of sepulture, for human bones are occasionally disinterred by 

 the burrowing of rabbits ; and when excavations were made 

 lately, two human skeletons were found, lying parallel with 

 each other, near to the south door of the chapel. 



When, it may be inquired, was this chapel erected, and 

 why placed on such an exposed situation ? Mr. Albert Way 

 thinks that " these remains encourage the supposition, that 

 the building may have been raised at a very early period after 

 Christianity was introduced into Northumberland." The name 

 of the promontory — Ebbs Nook — readily suggests that a 

 chapel may have been erected here by St. Ebba, sister of 

 Oswald and Oswi, kings of Northumberland, in the seventh 

 century. It was not unusual in that early age to select lonely 

 and exposed sites for chapels and cells. The sea-girt and 



* Archaeological Journal, No. 44, p. 498. 



