Description

NZ 23 SE SPENNYMOOR WHITWORTH TERRACE
(North side)

6/74 Church of
30/3/51 St. Paul

GV II

Parish church. 1856-8 by J.A. Cory; tower said to have been designed 1876-
1880 by C.H. Fowler and built without spire 1890-1899. Plans were submitted
in 1881 (Plan 178) by John Henry for tower and steeple, and in 1898 (Plan 319)
by Fowler for unnamed work; these plans cannot be found. Plaque in north
aisle records 1878 enlargement. Repaired and restored 1954 by S. Dykes Bower
after fire which destroyed interior. Coursed sandstone rubble with plinth and
ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. Nave with west
tower and south porch, north aisle and north-west choir vestry; chancel with
north vestry. Strap hinges with fleur-de-lys finials on boarded door in
triple-chamfered surround with 2-centred-arch; side buttresses support stone-
coped gable; restored sundial in gable peak. Blocked quatrefoils in porch
returns. 3-bay nave has cusped tracery in 2-light windows, on sill string
interrupted by buttresses with offests; lancets in 2-bay chancel, paired in
west bay, all with dripmoulds. Large 3-light east window has similar tracery
and sill strings; buttresses, angle at corner. North aisle similar to nave,
and with large 3-light west window under gable. Flat-roofed north-west vestry
has stone-mullioned 3-light windows and Tudor-arched north door. Tower has 3
offsets and angle buttresses with corresponding offsets; single west light in
high first stage on firstoffset; smaller lights in second stage; paired
belfry openings with louvres, under corbel table and coped parapet. New swept
pyramidal copper spire. Steeply-pitched roofs, with overlapping gable copings
and stone cross finials; aisle roof slightly lower than nave.

Interior: painted plaster with ashlar dressings; keeled ribbed boarded roof,
with chancel roof painted. Arcade of 3 wide double-chamfered 2-centred arches
and one narrow arch on octagonal piers; double-hollow-chamfered chancel arch
on shafted corbels. Elliptical-headed organ arch on north. 1954 door to
north vestry and window above. 2 tower piers with quoins support shafts to
possible arch now obscured by resited organ. Rerearches. Tower oratory.
Chancel roof richly painted. Glass: fragments of original in light over
vestry door; south chancel windows post-1954 by Goddard and Gibbs (initials
in galleon) with A.E.B. Octagonal stone pedestal font, with high-quality
swept cover, beside door. Monuments include plaque to Rosa Charlotte Duncomb
Shafto, died 1899, 'a liberal donor ... a zealous promoter of every good
work'. South African War memorial plaque by H. Eagle and Co., Newcastle, to
those who 'cheerfully responded', listing regiments.

Source: Sedgefield District Council, Spennymoor Urban District register of
submitted plans, 1876-1900.

Grants from Incorporated Church Building Society received 1856, 1879 and 1955.

Listing NGR: NZ2530433480

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26414618

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  A Buying and Owning a Listed Building: A Brief Guide
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Somerset: North and Bristol: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North (Pevsner Architectural Guides / Buildings of England)