North Gosforth, Roman altar from the Chapel

HER Number

169

District

Newcastle

Site Name

North Gosforth, Roman altar from the Chapel

Place

North Gosforth

Map Sheet

NZ27SW

Class

Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad

Altar

Site Type: Specific

Altar

General Period

ROMAN

Specific Period

Roman 43 to 410

Form of Evidence

Find

Description

An uninscribed altar in local buff sandstone, 185 m high x 0.71 m wide x 0.41 m deep, very much weathered. The front of the capital and the front right corner of the base have been broken away, but in the top of the capital there is a rectangular mortice hole, perhaps cut in the medieval period for use as a socket for a cross. Some relief carving survives, including a knife and an axe on the left side of the shaft and a jug and long-handled patera on the right. Said to have been found within the walls of the church and now in the Museum of Antiquities.

Easting

424630

Northing

570110

Grid Reference

NZ424630570110

Sources

<< HER 169 >> J. Bell, 1832, An Account of the Remains of a Chapel ...near Low Gosforth House... Archaeologia Aeliana, 1, II, pp. 243-45
Rev. R.E. Hooppell, 1882, On the Ruins of an Early Church at North Gosforth, near Newcastle... JBAA, Vol. 38, pp. 117-121
S. Holmes, 1883, ...Recent Investigations at the Ruimed Chapel of North Gosforth, Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, IX, pp. 205-210
B.H. Pritchard, 1968, Ordnance Survey archaeological record card
E.J. Phillips, 1977, Corpus Signorum Imperii Romani Great Britain, Vol. I, Fasc.I, no. 303, p. 110 and plate 81