Church of St John Escomb

Church of St. John at Escomb

Image by https://escombsaxonchurch.co.uk/

Church of St. John at Escomb represents one of the oldest buildings in United Kingdom, being a Saxon church. The building materials used in building this building date back in Binchester employing the Old Roman Fort. It is evident that most of the stones comprises Romanian inscription on them, which basically describes the main source of the materials used in constructing the building (Rodwell 2013). The church date around 670 to 690 as when the building started serving as a church, without a common denomination.

The church integrates a simple layout described in an old setting. To the south, the building comprises of a porch leading to a narrow nave. To the west of this south door the building exhibits the font. On the other hand, the high alter is at the left of the nave and in between there is a high channel arch. The high alter is a small sanctuary that mainly facilitates the worshiping purposes of the believers Rodwell 2013).

Image by https://escombsaxonchurch.co.uk/

The interior side of the church comprises of a wide array wealth of Saxon. The font present in the nave is quite simple and dates at around 13th century, which is just an estimate for it could date earlier than that. On the north of the arch there exists the Chancel Arch, which mainly is built of the Binchester Roman old fort.  The south porch of the building comprises of two Saxon stone crosses (Rodwell 2013). Besides, there is the availability of other materials such as bit of carvings that contribute to attributing the origin of materials used during the construction of the building.

Image by https://escombsaxonchurch.co.uk/

Moreover, there exists the Roman stone, which is present on the north wall.  The roman stone mainly supports the Saxon window that is slightly aside of it. As stated earlier, most of the stones used in constructing the building comprises of inscribed Roman words.  The Roman stone contains “bono rei pubucae nato,” Roman words that mean to the man born good of the state (Rodwell 2013). The building further houses many paintings that are visible outside the arch. Most of these paintings are of 12th to 13th century and the shape of the cross is one of the painting present in the building.  The building and its structural layout are very ideal and well united in its own way of process. 

References

Rodwell, W. (2013). The Archaeology of Churches. Amberley Publishing Limited.

"Chapter 4: Local Party Government." Local Government Institutionalization in Hungary (n.d.): n.                         pag. Web.