Anniversary Address. 823 



over those of children, one male and two females. In 

 making these assertions I am following the rules laid down 

 respecting the size and ornaments of the slabs, as shewing 

 the sex of those buried beneath. All the crosses, with one 

 exception, are of a floriated pattern. On entering the 

 Church, we at once discover that it had been curtailed of 

 its original proportions, leaving only a nave and chancel, 

 instead of having aisles north and south, the arches of which 

 are still standing. The east window is composed" of five 

 lancets without tracery, and the two windows on the south 

 side of the chancel are composed of three lancets in a 

 similar manner. One, nearest the altar, has been brought 

 down low to form a sedilia, and near to it is the piscina. 

 The Church belongs to the transitional period, when the Early 

 English was being gradually moulded into the Decorated 

 style. There was probably a more ancient church founded 

 on this or some adjacent spot, and dedicated to St Waleric ; 

 the town also passed under the same name, for there is 

 a charter granting a market by William the Lion, who was 

 Earl of Northumberland/to William de Vescy, to hold a mar- 

 ket at St Waleric, then called Newbigging. This saint is no 

 longer in the Romish Calendar, but appears to have been a 

 favourite at an early date, for the Church and Burgh of 

 Alnmouth passed also under this name. He was the first 

 Abbot of Waleric Abbey, in Picardy, and died in 622. The 

 present church is dedicated to St Bartholomew. Every 

 vestige of the old town has been swept away, and when the 

 new was built no doubt it passed under its present name of 

 Newbiggen. It had been a place of importance in former 

 days as a sea-port, so far back as 1352. Thomas Hatfield 

 granted an indulgence of forty days to all persons within his 

 diocese, who would by will or otherwise, contribute assist- 

 ance to the repairs and maintenance of the pier of New- 

 bigging, for security of the shipping resorting thither; so 

 that the pier had existed prior to that time. Some frag- 

 ments of the pier seem to have been in existence when Wallis 

 wrote his History of Northumberland. 



