Desk Based Assessment
Event ID 730583
Category Recording
Type Desk Based Assessment
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/730583
NY17SE 4.00 16678 72674
(NY 1667 7267) Hoddom Church (NR) (site of) Anglian Crosses found (NAT)
OS 1:10000 map (1973)
NY17SE 4.01 166 726 Cross-base
NY17SE 4.02 166 726 Watching Brief; Cross-slabs; Lead Objects; Architectural Fragments
NY17SE 4.03 1667 7267 Crosiers
NY17SE 4.04 1665 7265 Grave-slab
See also NY17SE 56 ('Hoddom Chapel').
For Hoddom, Former Parish Church (NY 17835 73516), see NY17SE 19.00.
For further details (including excavation reports) of the enclosure (and possible Anglian monastery) surrounding Hoddom Church, see NY17SE 56. For successor and present parish churches of Hoddom (at NY 1783 7351 and NY 1925 7454), see NY17SE 19 and 67 respectively. For sculptured stone, possibly from this church, see NY17SE 6.01 and 64.
This was the site of the 12th-13th century parish church. After the union of Hoddom with Luce and Ecclefechan in 1609 it became ruinous and was finally removed in 1815. The site is traditionally associated with St Kentigern (d. 612) who reputedly built a church at Hoddom and placed his see there for a time. (However, no finds relevant to this period have been made).
Archaeological evidence from this site would indicate the existence of an important ecclesiastical centre at this site in the 8th and subsequent centuries:
1. An early nave built of re-used Roman material (clearly from Birrens), with megalithic quoins which was excavated about 1915. The construction is like that of the Anglian churches at Jarrow and Escomb, both dating from about AD 700.
2. The finds of Early Christian monuments (listed and illustrated by Radford), including two fine 8th century crosses of Ruthwell type, and part of a 10th century staff or crozier shrine, are too numerous to be accounted for in any other way. Many of the finds are in Dumfries Museum and the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).
Information from OS.
RCAHMS 1920, visited 1915; C A R Radford 1954; I B Cowan and D E Easson 1976; A E Truckell 1964; J Williams 1969
Hoddam (Glasgow, Annandale). The lands of Hoddam pertained to the church of Glasgow in the Inquest, c. 1120 and the church itself was confirmed to the bishop of Glasgow by Pope Alexander III in 1170. This was confirmed by successive Popes while a similar confirmation was made in 1187x89 by Robert Bruce, lord of Annandale. It is obvious, however, that the patronage alone was involved in the above grants and the church remained independent within the patronage of the bishops of Glasgow until the Reformation.
I B Cowan 1967.
