Falstone / Fæston / Falleston / Fawe Stone

No individual entry for Falstone found in the Domesday survey. Kelly's Directory of 1890 notes: "The church of St. Peter is a small edifice of stone, in the Perpendicular style […] a new font presented by Miss Picton, sister of the rector, is a memorial to his son, d. June, 1888". The parish site for this church [https://sites.google.com/site/ntyneredesdalechurches/home/team-churches/falstone-st-peter] [accessed 29 July 2019] notes: "Very little is known of the early inhabitants of the upper North Tyne region but in 1813 the discovery of a runic stone indicates that the Angles’ arrived in the area in the 7th, or 8th, century; and that Christianity may have been introduced about that time. The Revd. James Wood, the Presbyterian minister at Falstone was responsible for finding an inscribed stone fragment on the site of some ruins near Hawkhope which had previously been marked on a map of 1769. It is thought that this may be the original site of Falstone church or chapel. This roughly weathered stone with its runic and insular uncial inscriptions on opposite sides indicated it had stood out of doors for centuries. In 1885 part of a Saxon cross was found, strongly confirming that Christianity had been accepted well over a thousand years before. Little is known about the pre-reformation chapel at Falstone (Fawe Stone), although it existed prior to 1541, some time after which it appears to have fallen into disrepair. In 1650 although parliamentary commissioners recommended that ‘the Chappell at Falleston be rebuilded and made the Parish Church thereof’ this was not carried out. From 1709 onwards rebuilding was undertaken and the Chapel used by the Presbyterians. A new ‘English Chapel’ was built before 1725 within the graveyard of the present church, and probably just south of the existing St Peter’s Church. In 1824, on the advice of a Greenwich Hospital agent, an entirely new church was built". [NB: we have no information on the font from the original church]