Bede Memorial Cross

On a chilly, freezy, breezy day down at Roker we saw this tall, towering cross, cutting into the winter sky with a backdrop of waves.

This is The Bede Memorial Cross built in 1904 by G W Millburn and CC Hodges.

Milburn, born in York in 1844 went to the York School of Art and was apprenticed as a woodcarver. The image above by Keith Seabridge commemorates the workplace of Millburn.

During his life time he was renowned for much of the public art in York but also for his work of a religious nature in cathedrals across the country including Durham, Chester, York, Lincoln and Carlisle Cathedral. Some bigguns in that list!

Charles Clement Hodges was from Yorkshire and the son of a parson but moved to Consett, where he worked in the drawing office at the Ironworks. He moved to Hexham in 1876 to become the architect at Hexham Abbey, a passion he held close all his life. This photograph of him above is from The Hexham Courant.

By the end of the 1800s, the urban conurbations of Sunderland's small towns and villages were joining up. Local industries of shipbuilding and glass-making meant more prosperity for the town, and roads widened to accommodate more traffic. Roker was the prime holiday resort in Sunderland and, as such, would have needed to be appropriately adorned in public art.

This image from the Sunderland Echo shows the unveiling of The Bede Memorial Cross in 1904

We spotted The Bede Memorial Cross teetering on the seafront at Cliff Park with Roker Pier and Lighthouse in its shadow, snaking out into the blue, and licked by choppy seas.

We loved the detailed stone carving, so neat and precise, like butter curls in stone. Look at the detail in these grapes and the raised veins in the vine leaves. I was intrigued to read that Millburn was trained as a wood carver. Presumably, the materials of wood and stone are very different in terms of carving, but here, Milburn seems to make light work of the heavier of the two materials, almost as if it were wood.

The cross was made from stone hewn at Lord Armstong's Rothbury Estate at Cragside, and was a later iteration of similar work carried out by Hodges and Milburn, who had designed the grave of Lord Armstong in 1900 and which can be seen in the detached riverside graveyard of All Saints Church in Rothbury, but also the Armstrong Cross in the centre of Rothbury, installed in 1902, which commemorates the life and contributions the Armstrong's made to the town and its people.

Notice the similarities which run through all three!

Here in Roker, this similar stone cross, in the Arts and Crafts style, is dedicated to Venerable Bede.

It includes passages of his writing on the west face in beautiful, neat, carved Roman lettering.

Its tall tapered shaft towered up into the grey sky and I was fascinated to read this early review of the artwork in The Times from 1903 -

The cross is to be erected in hail of Monkwearmouth, on Roker Point, where it will be seen by the vast holiday population of Wear and Tyne. It was felt that, whatever were the natural claims of Jarrow and Durham, the church at one place and the tomb at the other were lasting monuments of the great Northumbrian we wish to honour, and that it was unwise either at Jarrow or Monkwearmouth to entrust such fine sculpture as is intended to the grime or the fume of the open air.

No grubby Jarrow or dirty Durham positioning for this piece. No fumes or plumes of black industry to cloud this cross. Just the purity of Roker by the sea!

Bede was born in Sunderland in 673 AD, so I guess that makes him a Makem.

The north face has carvings featuring a bunch of bishops (is that the collective noun)? Eleven in total. Trumbergt; Benedict Biscop; Eggfrith; John; Fosterwinn; Siggfrith; Geolfrith; Agga; Hvaegbergt; Geowulf; Eggbert with vines and leaves interlinking each head.

Scenes from Bede's life adorn the east face. Which scenes from your life would you single out to be carved in stone should the opportunity arise???

The south side is home to a whole host of birds and animals.

Not long in situ, the cross was removed in 1914 with the advent of WWI. It was replaced in 1921 and then removed again for safety during the Second World War.

2024 saw its glow-up and facelift when Sunderland Council decided to give it some TLC and it was surrounded by scaffold for a month.

They've done a great job. It looked sharp and clean and at 25 feet high, it cuts a stylish silhouette on the Sunderland seafront.