Saint Patrick's Chapel, Heysham

What links the patron saint of Ireland to the pioneers of heavy metal?

The answer is the village of Heysham in Lancashire, and specifically St Patrick's Chapel, which stands on a headland by St Peter's Church. Heysham village is a small, and rather scenic, part of Heysham town. Looking around it seems that you don't have to be an artist to live there, but it certainly helps. Next door to the south is a nuclear power station and ferry to the Isle of Man, and to the north are the endless sands of Morecambe Bay. Across the sea the mountains of the Lake District are usually looming out of the clouds. 

The church itself is older than the Doomsday Book. There's the remains of a high cross, a stone depicting Lazarus, or maybe Jesus, rising from the grave and, best of all, a wonder Viking Hogback Stone. This is a grave marker decorated with stories from Norse mythology and was outside before being brought in for safety. These are a North of England thing, although there is one in Ireland, and may be the Vikings learning to do art like the Anglo-Saxons. Unfortunately, the church is usually locked, so most people only get to see it through the window.

The chapel is round the back, perched on the crumbling headland. It supposedly marks the place where Patrick returned from Ireland after spending six years a slave there. Paddy had supposedly been kidnapped by pirates from his home, although some scholars have speculated he was simply dodging the rather onerous public service on the town council.  

There's no other evidence that this was where Paddy landed here. In his own account he landed in a  'wilderness' and had to walk 28 days to civilisation, growing faint from hunger, which doesn't say much for the welcome he received. However, he must have come ashore somewhere, and nowhere else has a serious claim. 

The chapel itself is in ruins now, but there is enough left to see what it would have been like. It's interesting enough and an important part of the history of Christianity in England. Interestingly, they found a pagan burial in its grounds when the archaeologists last had a poke around. However, what's really interesting is the unique rock cuts graves nearby; six to the west and two to the east. In the year 2000 Sanctuary Records released an 'unofficial' Best of Black Sabbath and put a moody black and white picture of the western graves on the sleeve. 

The graves are orientated east to west, which suggests they are Christian. When in use the probably had stone lids, and they have sockets by their head, which probably held crosses. Although some are roughly person shaped, they are too small to hold a whole adult. The suggestion is that they held the preserved bones of particularly venerated individuals or saints.  

So, who would be the most venerated saint that they could have got their hands on? Well, the answer is obvious, Saint Patrick himself. The Irish will tell you he died in Downpatrick, on 17 March 461CE. However, they admit he had been living in England for a number of years before then and claim he took ship across the sea because he wanted to peg out in the Emerald Isle, which seems a little far-fetched. It's rather more believable that he died at home in England, and the idea that his bones eventually made their way to the spot where the sacred spot where he had first returned to England.