Inside the 13th-century church near Darlington built in an ancient Iron Age fortress

A church built inside an Iron Age fortressSt John the Baptist's Church at Stanwick St John, near Darlington, stands within the earthworks of Stanwick Camp, a vast Iron Age settlement believed to have been a stronghold of Cartimandua, queen of the Brigantes tribe. Traces of an even older churchThe present building dates largely from the 13th century, but evidence suggests an earlier place of worship stood on the same spot centuries before. Several stone grave slabs incorporated into the porch even hint that the church was once under the control of the Knights Templar. Heavily restored by the VictoriansThe church later passed into the hands of the Percy family, Earls and later Dukes of Northumberland, who held the Stanwick estate until the 1920s. It's a fitting reputation for a site where people have gathered to worship for more than two millennia.