Church Heritage Record 613085

Nave, chancel, west tower, south aisle, vestry and basement parish room under chancel.

Nave (not inc tower) 20m x 8m. Aisle 3.5m wide. Chancel & sanctuary 9m x 8m

The church was built in 1889 – 1892 by Oliver & Leeson of Newcastle. Oliver and Leeson built a handful of churches in the late 19th and early 20th century together with other domestic and commercial premises in and around Newcastle.

The nave and chancel share one continuous roof, with a little vertical emphasis provided by the stair turret to the north and the squat west tower. The tower has diagonal buttresses to the west of the tower and angle buttresses at the junction with the nave and is of two stages with a battlemented parapet. The first stage takes up two thirds of the height and is delineated into further sections by bands of stone dressings. The north and south faces have a single thin cusped light with two mouchettes over, and the west face has a three light window with curvilinear tracery. The second stage has paired, square headed bell louvres to the north and west faces. The south face has only one opening at the second stage making way for the stair turret which also has two small slit openings. The west door is a simple arch with five steps to it. The decoration is reserved for the label with fleurons, stone detailing and slender ornamental columns to either side extending from the hood-mould.

The north elevation is the show side of the church and due to the sloping site  (allowing the lower rooms) much taller than the south. A continuous string course runs underneath the windows of the nave, vestry and chancel.  The nave is of five bays; four of which have paired, cusped lights under square heads and the fifth to the east is occupied by the two storey vestry which extends with a pitched roof as a transept. The north face of the vestry has a small paired opening on the lower floor and a two light arched window with hoodmould on the upper.

The crenellated stair turret joins the vestry with one bay of the chancel and has a taller chimney stack behind it. The turret is hexagonal and has a continuous row of small cusped lights below the parapet. The chancel is of three bays and two storeys. The lower section has a row of five domestic windows and a doorway and the chancel proper has two bays of triple cusped lights under square heads, the eastern being shorter and slightly raised above the sill.

The south elevation is stark in comparison with the north, the aisle leans against the nave (originating from the tower stair turret) and has five paired, cusped lights under square heads as seen on the north. The east and west ends each have a similar window. The chancel has only the higher lights, echoing the north side but occupying all three bays.

The east end of the church is again two storey but the four lower undercroft windows are close to the grass bank which curves around the building. The main east window is perpendicular with five equal cusped lights, the window is divided externally with a low transom to allow for a row of blank shields.

The interior is simple, decorated in blue and white and the majority of the glass is plain with square leading (although some of the aisle windows have coloured red or yellow glass crosses). What stained glass there is still retains clear glass for a background. The windows of the nave and aisle are all set back under three-centred arches.

The roof is a continuous wagon vault from nave to chancel with plaster panels and thin timber ribbing with carved bosses at intersections. There is no chancel arch and the only demarcation between nave and chancel is smaller panels in the latter and rows of Tudor bosses along the roof line.

The arcade between the nave and aisle is of pointed arches with simple octagonal columns. The fifth bay of the nave to the east has no window but a filled pointed archway to the vestry. A spiral stair from the vestry leads to the lower boiler room and parish room under the chancel. Opposite the vestry in the corresponding bay of the aisle is the organ with pipes which sits back to the corner of the aisle.

The chancel is three steps up from the nave, the sanctuary a further two and the altar raised by two more. There is a piscina set in the south wall. The tracery above the chancel lights in the north and south walls is different from one window to the next using quatrefoils, trefoils, mouchettes etc.