Percy Bacon & Brothers Stained Glass

Romaldkirk, St Romald

County Durham

Church of St Romald, Romaldkirk, County Durham.

Church of St Romald, Romaldkirk, County Durham

Posted 20 July 2024.

Canon Clarke in his quirky hand written notes on churches held by Lambeth Palace Library describes St Romald's Church as having "considerable interest". It is all too easy to suggest that the name of the village comes from the Saxon, "Romald's Church", and although the church has distinct pre-conquest features, there is little to no evidence to conclude this was the case. The existance of the saint in whose name the church is dedicated is also shrouded in time-worn fog. However, that does not stop some from attempting the near impossible. In early 1932 the Rev. A. Campbell Fraser read a paper in St Romald’s Church entitled, “Who Was St. Romald?”¹ His opening remarks citing the difficulty of identifying the person to whom the church in Romaldkirk is dedicated, there being three individuals who have been claimed as the saint in question, would suggest he was on a hiding to nothing. If one had sat through the whole lecture, it would have come as no surprise to the audience that he failed in his quest to answer his own question. The story of the saint is fabulous in the extreme, and probably emanates from the hagiographies penned by the Augustinian friar John Capgrave (d. 1464). Arnold-Forster takes up the story of Rumbald:²

“We come now to our English-born child-saints: S. Rumbald whose extravagant legend was so extraordinarily popular in Saxon England ; and S. Kenelm and S. "Wyston, whose pathetic stories are the counterpart one of another. The difficulties connected with the story of S. Rumbald are so great that those who have experienced them feel ready to forestall all outside criticism by appealing to the reader in the words of old Thomas Fuller, spoken regarding this same perplexing matter: ‘Reader, I request thee to take this on my credit for thy own ease, and not to buy the truth of so difficult a trifle with the trouble I paid for it.’ And furthermore, all who take in hand to write the history of this most fabulous prince may gladly avail themselves of Fuller's prefatory observation : ‘I write neither what I believe, nor what I expect should be believed, but what I find written by others.’*

The legend of S. Rumbald, such as it has been preserved for us in the collections of Friar Capgrave, shall first be briefly told in its original grotesqueness, and we may then note how extraordinarily widespread was its popularity throughout the length and breadth of England. According to the legend this infant marvel was the son of a nameless king of Northumberland by a Christian daughter of Penda, the famous heathen King of Mercia. The supposed genealogy is important as [it links] him with the North of England as well as with the Midlands. His birthplace was King's-Sutton in Buckinghamshire [now in Northamptonshire]. No sooner was he born than he found voice to declare three times, "I am a Christian." He then desired to be baptized, and with truly royal decision made choice both of his sponsors and of his own name. Unhappily, however, he omitted to give any directions as to the spelling of the said name, and hence it is to be found in some half-dozen different forms. He pointed with his infant finger to a great hollow stone, almost beyond the strength of man to lift, which should serve him as font, and being duly baptized he delivered himself of a sermon. Exhausted by all these efforts he died at the end of three days, but not before he had taken thought for the disposition of his body, bequeathing it for one year to his birthplace Sutton (thenceforth distinguished as King's-Sutton), then for two years to Brackley in Northamptonshire, and finally to 'the town of Buckingham for ever.”

It has to be said that John Capgrave, and his contemporary John Lydgate had fertile imaginations, and wrote many a tall tale from their monasteries at King's Lynn and Bury St Edmunds respectively - see my article on St Fremund for another fanciful one by Lydgate. The ludicrousness of the miracle of a new born uttering anything other than a cry was not lost on those whose critical thinking capacity exceeded that of a newt. Baring Gould in his “Lives of the Saints” suggests Rumbald was actually baptised as an adult (i.e. “new born” or "born again" as a Christian), which is altogether a more credible explanation.

However, at the end of the day we can safely conclude that we do not know who Rumbald, or Rumald, or Romald was or whether he actually existed other than in the wild fancy of reclusive friars.

St Romald's Romaldkirk Annunciation to the blessed virgin mary

North Aisle 1: Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

North Aisle 1; Angel Gabriel. He holds a golden baton with a fleur-de-lys cap symbolic of purity. On it a scroll reads "Ave Maria, Gratia plena".

North Aisle 1; BVM. Behind the scene in a church with a window depicting two saints, and the holy spirit descending.

North Aisle 1; The scene behind Mary.

North Aisle 1; Dedication to Susan Barnes Abbott.

North Aisle 1: Annunciation to the BVM, 1911/12

North Aisle 1: Annunciation to the BVM 1911/12.

This two light window in the north aisle represents the Annunciation to the Virgin,. the two principle figures standing in the usual elaborate Bacon niches. There is a good deal of white glass, which turns pale green with the backdrop of trees to the north. The window dedication reads:

"“To the Glory of God and in beloved memory of Susan Barnes Abbott
who fell asleep 8th August 1911. Her husband has erected this window”

Susan Barnes Abbott (b. 1852) was born in Teesdale and clearly had a connection with Romaldkirk. She married Henry Edward Abbott, an electrical engineer from Liverpool. In All Saints church, Childwall, Liverpool, another window by Percy Bacon depicting the Adoration of the Magi is also dedicated to Susan - also erected by her husband.³

Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of the window is the scene behind Mary. Over her left shoulder we can see a depiction of the interior of a church. In a window with a curtain below we see the figures of two saints, while above her, and seemingly opening to the outside world, a white dove descends. Also at All Saints, Childwall, Liverpool, there is a window dedicated to Alexander Shand which is almost identical to this one at Romaldkirk, and having this exact same motif. (Flicker photo).

The window is unsigned.

References: Use your browser's Back button to return to text.

Who Was St. Romald. Talk by Rev. A. Campbel Fraser, 1932 as reported in the Teesdale Mercury, 10th February 1932, p10.
Arnold-Forster, Frances Egerton: Studies in church dedications : or, England's patron saints Vol 1, 1899, p172:
Stuart-Brown, R. Notes on Childwall, Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire for the year 1913, p85.

Location Map:

NGR: NY 99521 22124
Sat Nav Post Code: DL12 9EB