Church Heritage Record 625267

6-bay nave and 2-bay chancel, south-west porch, and small annex off the north wall, second bay from the west.

Nave 12m (37ft) by 5m (15.8ft).

The church was traditionally one of the four resting places for the corpse of St Cuthbert during its translation from Holy Island (Lindisfarne) to Chester-le-Street and eventually Durham following the Viking raids of 875 onwards. Evidence that a church may have existed at this time is provided by the existence of the cross base and possible sections from wayside crosses kept within the church, the oldest with a primitively carved wheel-headed cross. The place-name Corsenside perhaps also thus derives, although it has also been suggested that it derives from “Crossa’s Place”.

The fabric of the simple two-cell church is Norman, probably late 11th- or early 12th-century, though precise dating is difficult as the only architectural feature surviving from this period is the plain chancel arch. The church is recorded as early as 1120, and again in 1311 when the Bishop of Durham granted it to the Nuns of Holystone.  A priest’s door was added or altered in the 17th century. The chancel south window, belcote and south door were added around 1735, when the font and communion rails were probably installed.

The annex and porch at the west end and the nave windows are perhaps all of the mid 19th century. It would appear that the south wall of the nave was completely rebuilt around and above the windows at this time. Most of the wooden furnishings date to an internal restoration in 1914, at which date the medieval slabs were brought inside the church. The whole building has also been thoroughly re-pointed with hard cement at some point in the recent past, and the low ceilings inserted.

The church appears at first sight a simple building, but on closer inspection proves to be of considerable interest, while the site and its historical significance are perhaps even more intriguing. Stripping away the architectural accretions of the post-medieval period, we have a simple box of a nave and a slightly lower and narrower box of a chancel. Norman and medieval windows were likely destroyed when later ones were installed. 

There is uninterrupted 12th-century masonry in the lower parts of the walls, rather obscured by copious lichen growth. There is a rather peculiar 19th-century stepped buttress of four weatherings at the east end of the nave, with a gabled finial.  The coping also probably dates to this period.

The small north annex has a lean-to roof continuing the pitch of the nave, and is featureless apart for a wide plain rectangular doorway in the east wall. The shallowly pitched roof of the nave (the lower chancel roof has a slightly steeper pitch) has a square belcote of two stages with a single bell at the west end, finished with a gabled roof and ball finial.  The west wall has a pointed window with metal framing, of the same date and style as the four rectangular sash windows in the south wall of the nave.

The east chancel window is a three-light with intersecting stone tracery, probably installed in the mid 19th century.  The porch is of the same date and architectural style, with a gabled front, pointed entrance with a hollow chamfer and a plain hood-mould.  There is a probably late 17th-century priest’s door with a chamfered surround in the eastern bay of the chancel south wall, adjacent to a single sash window of the 18th century.

There is a low inserted ceiling in the nave, painted white, which is rather oppressive and blocks the view of the nave roof.  The chancel has a similar ceiling, but higher, allowing a view of the trusses; there is a hatch for access.  The tie-beams would appear to be post-medieval, perhaps of the 17th century, and of oak.  Presumably the hidden nave roof is the same.  The floors are of stone flags mostly obscured by carpet, and it is to be expected that ledger slabs and perhaps more re-used grave slabs, cross fragments etc would be revealed were this removed.

There are a number of monuments on the walls, and early 19th-century Commandment boards flank the chancel arch. This is Norman, broad, unmoulded with radial voussoirs and plain chamfered imposts.  There are three slots in each side for a rood screen. The chancel walls again show faint traces of scars, presumably also from a barrel vault.  The only other notable feature in the chancel is a simple square aumbry in the north wall.