Warkworth Hermitage
WARKWORTH HERMITAGE, RIVER COQUET
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1041684
- Date first listed:
- 31-Dec-1969
- List Entry Name:
- Warkworth Hermitage
- Statutory Address:
- WARKWORTH HERMITAGE, RIVER COQUET
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Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2005-01-31
- Reference:
- IOE01/13689/34
- Rights:
- © Mr Richard McDonough. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- I
- List Entry Number:
- 1041684
- Date first listed:
- 31-Dec-1969
- List Entry Name:
- Warkworth Hermitage
- Statutory Address 1:
- WARKWORTH HERMITAGE, RIVER COQUET
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- WARKWORTH HERMITAGE, RIVER COQUET
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Northumberland (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Warkworth
- National Grid Reference:
- NU 24146 05952
Details
WARKWORTH RIVER COQUET NU 2405
22/331 Warkworth Hermitage
31.12.69 I
Hermitage. Mid-C14, enlarged late C14 or early C15. Original part cut in natural sandstone cliff; later parts squared stone with cut dressings. Plan: 3-bay chapel with parallel sacristy to rear cut into cliff; built against foot of cliff later hall with solar over, and kitchen.
External elevation: front wall of hall/solar stands to 4 metres, with projecting stepped chimney breast and remains of chamfered window openings to left. Right remains of door to entrance lobby (beneath later stair) with left chamfered round arch to hall and right blocked chamfered door into kitchen; only footings remain of kitchen, with base of oven on right return. Stair from kitchen leads up to roughly-arched chapel door in rock face above; to right a quatrefoil loop and a window of two pointed lights under a rough enclosing arch; to left a recessed,loop, all cut in rock. To right of chapel a rock buttress with flight of steps rising through short tunnel to the hermit's former garden on the cliff top.
Interior: Chapel doorway opens into small porch with worn crucifix above small inner doorway. Chapel 6.2'x 2.3 metres, with imitation groined vaulting on semi-octagonal wall shafts with moulded caps and bases. Rock-cut altar with cusped recess above; south of altar worn relief carvings, perhaps a Nativity, on inner sill of 2-light window; north 4-light traceried window opening into sacristy. Centre bay has cusped squint on north and bowl cut into sill of quatrefoil window on south. West bay has doorway to sacristy, beneath shield with Emblems of Passion.
Sacristy has plain arched roof; damaged altar at east end, 2 cupboards on north and traces of screen near west end. Remains of doorway at west end of south wall (west end now open to cliff face) into chamber (also open to west) with 4 slits looking into west end of chapel.
Historical Notes: first recorded in 1487 when Thomas Barker was appointed for life by the 4th Earl of Northumberland to be 'chaplain of the chantry in Sunderland park'. Abandoned by 1567. One of the most elaborate and well preserved cave hermitages in the British Isles. Scheduled Ancient Monument Northumberland 6A. English Heritage Guide by C.B. Hunter Blair & H.L. Honeyman.
Listing NGR: NU2414605952
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 237222
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Hunter Blair, C B, Honeyman, H L, Guide to Warkworth Hermitage, ()
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 26-Jun-2026 at 07:00:30.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.