Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for HOLYSTONE, or HALLYSTONE

HOLYSTONE, or HALLYSTONE, a township and a parochial chapelry in Rothbury district, Northumberland. The township lies on the river Coquet, 6 miles W by N of Rothbury, and 12½ N by W of Scot's Gap r. station. Acres, 2, 906. Pop., 135. Houses, 31.—The chapelry contains also the townships of Dueshill, Barrow, Linsheeles, and Harbottle; the last of which has a post office under Morpeth. Acres, 19, 900. Pop., 426. Houses, 83. Much of the land is moor. Campville cottage is situated on the site of a Roman camp. A Benedictine convent, for eight nuns, was founded at Holystone, about 1254, by one of the Umfravilles of Harbottle Castle; and several curious fragments of sculpture, which seem to have belonged to it, are built into the walls of the present church. The Lady's well, supposed to have belonged to the nunnery, and situated in a little grove of firs at a short distance, is a square basin, with a copious spring of pure water; has, on the brink, an old moss covered statue of an ecclesiastic; and has also, rising from the water, a tall cross, with the inscription, "In this place Paulinus the Bishop baptized 3, 000 Northumbrians." A prayer station for pilgrims coming to Holystone was on the moors between it and Elsdon, and is still marked by remains of an ancient stone cross. The living is a p. curacy, annexed to the vicarage of Alwinton, in the diocese of Durham. The church was partly restored, partly rebuilt, in 1849; and has two memorial windows, of 1857, to the Dawson family.


(John Marius Wilson, Imperial Gazetteer of England and Wales (1870-72))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a township and a parochial chapelry"   (ADL Feature Type: "countries, 4th order divisions")
Administrative units: Rothbury RegD/PLU       Northumberland AncC
Place names: HALLYSTONE     |     HOLYSTONE     |     HOLYSTONE OR HALLYSTONE
Place: Holystone

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