St Mary and St Alkelda’s Church, Middleham

St Alkelda may be obscure but she does have the honour of a three-day pilgrimage route, connecting her church at Giggleswick with her shrine at Middleham

Highlights

• St Alkelda’s relics and shrine
• Holy well (dry) and nearby water well

The relics of a martyred saint lie under the floor of Middleham’s parish church. St Alkelda was killed by two Viking women in 800, according to 18th-century records. A fragment of elaborately carved stone can be seen in the floor of the nave, perhaps part of her Saxon shrine. It is the earliest link back to this martyr, although some question whether she really existed.

A lack of early written records is the main obstacle to St Alkelda’s veneration. Apart from this fragment of her shrine, and some Anglo-Saxon fragments at another church dedicated to her at Giggleswick, all other evidence about her dates from the late middle ages onwards. A small roundel of 15th-century glass shows her being throttled by two women with mean faces, in the west window of the north aisle.

Her church and a nearby holy well, now dry, became a site of pilgrimage. She was probably a noblewoman, murdered by the two pagans because of her faith. She was undoubtedly well known in the late middle ages: a college was set up in her memory here during the reign of Edward IV (1461–1483).

The probable site of her relics is marked by a brass plaque on a column in the nave, in front of the eagle-shaped lectern. The remains of a Saxon woman were discovered beneath the nave floor here in a rudimentary coffin during restoration work in 1878. The stone fragment of her shrine, carved with Saxon knotwork, can be seen in the nave floor a couple of metres away, behind the lectern.

A display at the back of the church contains a replica of the Middleham Jewel, a 15th-century pendant discovered in the village near Middleham Castle in 1985. It shows the Trinity on the front and the Nativity on the back, and was probably a personal reliquary.

The church was built in 1280, but contains some even earlier Norman fabric. The church guide implies that the site of St Alkelda’s grave was already known before the bones were discovered. Certainly, the saint was greatly celebrated in Middleham, with an annual fair held on 5 November to mark her festival. A former holy well at the supposed site of her martyrdom was also celebrated in the village. The original spring is now dry and hidden in a stone wall, but a separate well chamber 200m lower down the hill, beside the main road, does contain water. Were any revival to take place of St Alkelda’s well, this would be the logical site since it is clearly filled by the same source.

Some think the saint is an invention, since the name Alkelda bears a close resemblance to the Anglo-Saxon word for holy well, halig kelda. Under this interpretation, the well was venerated first and a story later invented to explain the basis of its holiness. The church website has an excellent synopsis of all the available evidence, which ultimately supports the idea that a holy Saxon woman is indeed buried here. A re-examination of the relics seems the only way to know for certain.

Directions

Church of St Mary and St Alkelda, Church Street, Middleham, Leyburn DL8 4PQ

www.jervaulxchurches.co.uk

W3W: ranks.bends.wash

GPS: 54.2863N 1.8076W church

W3W: bibs.grips.risen

GPS: 54.2879N 1.8083W water well

The church is on the north side of the village, slightly hidden down a narrow lane off the A6108, 100m downhill from the centre, where you can park. It was open when I came, and busy with visitors. To find the wells, head out of Middleham along the A6108 towards Leyburn. The well trough with water is by the road near the end of the village, immediately before a left-hand turn up St Alkelda’s Road.

The original holy well is at the top of St Alkelda’s Road, along a short path on the right where the road narrows before a school. It is now just a small gap in the drystone wall, GPS: 54.2870N 1.8112W.

St Alkelda’s Church Giggleswick is at Church Street, Giggleswick, Settle BD240BE, open daily.