St Cuthbert
Bewcastle, Cumbria
Here is one of Pevsner’s twelve most important monuments in Britain, the 8th century, Anglo Saxon Bewcastle Cross, standing free in the churchyard where it has stood for nearly 1500 years.
It is the most northerly church in the Synod, being four and a half miles from the Scottish border. It serves the local farming community many of which have old reiver family names.
Opened in 1891, the building is in the Gothic style of architecture from designs prepared from Marshall of Naworth. The current building replaces an older one dating from 1790. The church was originally the local Presbyterian Meeting House but on the formation of the United Reformed Church in 1972 it became a congregation of that denomination. The emblem of the burning bush with inscription can be seen above the entrance door. The War Memorial bears the names of the fallen from both this church and the nearby St Cuthbert's, Church of England.