Brief History of the Church

The Church of the Holy Cross at Chatton stands on one of the lowest sites in the village and little above the flood line of the River Till. This renders it is unlikely that any church stood there before the eleventh century or the early Christian missionaries would not have chosen such a low site. We first hear of the church in Chatton from a document issued sometime before 1184, where William de Vesci is said to have granted the church of Chatton to Alnwick Abbey and this community of the Abbey possessed the church until the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539.

By 1681 the building was reported to be “Out of repair” and it is believed to have suffered two fires during the 18th century. The Nave, tower and choir were rebuilt in the early gothic style during 1770. Between 1822 and the end of the nineteenth century successive vicars gradually transformed this eighteenth century church into a pastiche of mediaeval detail, raiding from the thirteenth century to the fifteenth century in "periods" and producing on the whole quite a good effect.

At one time the nave would have been plastered, but this has all been removed and the rubble walling pointed.

Additional material

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