Ulgham

The name, first mentioned in 1139 as Wlacam, is from the Old English ūle "owl" and hwamm "nook (of land)", and so means "owl nook". Situated about six miles north of Morpeth, Ulgham is a village combining old with new. The church of St John the Baptist stands at the top of a steep bank above the river Lyne, rebuilt in the 1800s. However, the site is Saxon and two Norman stone windows are built into the current church walls. In the north aisle is a stone relief of much earlier Viking or even pagan Anglian origin. The weathered nature of the stonework indicates that it has spent a significant length of time exposed to the elements, before being incorporated into the fabric of the present…