Description

WARKWORTH RIVER COQUET
NU 2405

22/331 Warkworth Hermitage

31.12.69
I

Hermitage. Mid-C14, enlarged late C14 or early C15. Original part cut in
natural sandstone cliff; later parts squared stone with cut dressings. Plan:
3-bay chapel with parallel sacristy to rear cut into cliff; built against foot
of cliff later hall with solar over, and kitchen.

External elevation: front wall of hall/solar stands to 4 metres, with
projecting stepped chimney breast and remains of chamfered window openings to
left. Right remains of door to entrance lobby (beneath later stair) with left
chamfered round arch to hall and right blocked chamfered door into kitchen; only
footings remain of kitchen, with base of oven on right return. Stair from
kitchen leads up to roughly-arched chapel door in rock face above; to right a
quatrefoil loop and a window of two pointed lights under a rough enclosing
arch; to left a recessed,loop, all cut in rock. To right of chapel a rock
buttress with flight of steps rising through short tunnel to the hermit's
former garden on the cliff top.

Interior: Chapel doorway opens into small porch with worn crucifix above
small inner doorway. Chapel 6.2'x 2.3 metres, with imitation groined vaulting
on semi-octagonal wall shafts with moulded caps and bases. Rock-cut altar
with cusped recess above; south of altar worn relief carvings, perhaps a
Nativity, on inner sill of 2-light window; north 4-light traceried window
opening into sacristy. Centre bay has cusped squint on north and bowl cut
into sill of quatrefoil window on south. West bay has doorway to sacristy,
beneath shield with Emblems of Passion.

Sacristy has plain arched roof; damaged altar at east end, 2 cupboards on
north and traces of screen near west end. Remains of doorway at west end of
south wall (west end now open to cliff face) into chamber (also open to west)
with 4 slits looking into west end of chapel.

Historical Notes: first recorded in 1487 when Thomas Barker was appointed for
life by the 4th Earl of Northumberland to be 'chaplain of the chantry in
Sunderland park'. Abandoned by 1567. One of the most elaborate and well
preserved cave hermitages in the British Isles. Scheduled Ancient Monument
Northumberland 6A.
English Heritage Guide by C.B. Hunter Blair & H.L. Honeyman.

Listing NGR: NU2414605952

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Warkworth Hermitage at Wikipedia
• Warkworth Hermitage official website
• Wikidata Q7969481

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects, Supplement 2014
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)