Great Bavington United Reformed Church is
on south side of the road, behind the first row of houses, with an
entrance just ten metres east of the road turning north. Built in
1693 as Great Bavington Presbyterian Church, it is the oldest
such building in the county still to be used for worship (and the
second oldest in England after Tunley in Lancashire). It was built
by a determined local effort following the changes of the late 1600s
that allowed nonconformist worship.
St Bartholomew's Church, Kirkwhelpington,
lies between Meadowlands and The Crofts, on the left bank of the
River Wansbeck. Consisting of dressed stone and a roof of Lakeland
slate, its earliest sections were built in the twelfth century. The
chancel and nave are largely thirteenth century with fifteenth
century alterations. The west tower was started in the 1100s or
1200s, and it is low, squat, and heavily buttressed externally. The
building was restored in 1897.
All photos on this page kindly contributed by
Douglas Law via the 'History Files: Churches of the British Isles'
Flickr group.
