Description

NZ 23 NE SPENNYMOOR ST CHARLES' ROAD
(South side)
Tudhoe Village

2/65 Church of St.
Charles and
presbytery attached
GV II

Roman Catholic parish church and presbytery attached. 1870 by J.A. Hansom &
Son. 1882 addition of tower and ritual west bay with west porch. Aligned
north-south. Rock-faced sandstone with plinth and ashlar dressings; Welsh
slate roof with stone gable copings. Decorated style with Perpendicular-style
additions. Nave with north porch, north-west Lady chapel and belltower, west
porch; apsidal sanctuary. Steeply-gabled north porch contains double boarded
doors in 2-centred-arched surround with dripmould. West porch has double
doors in deeply-moulded 2-centred-arch, with pinnacled dripmould, flanked by
paired small windows and outer gabled buttresses, all under steeply-pitched
pent roof flanked by high coped buttresses. Large rose window above with free
tracery. Tracery also in tall 2-light nave windows; high stepped buttresses
define bays; 2 similar windows in half-octagonal sanctuary under corbel table,
each side buttressed. Small ogee-headed lights in Lady chapel with pent roof
and in 3-stage tower. First square stage of tower broached to octagonal
second stage, which has coped set-back to octagonal belfry, with Perpendicular
tracery in 8 lights under high stone spire. Roofs steeply-pitched, that over
sanctuary lower and half-octagonal; stone cross finials. Presbytery attached
to ritual north-east is in plainer style; 2 storeys, 3 bays on return to
church. Plain sash windows, with chamfered stop-chamfered jambs and flat
stone lintels, and wide chimney-stack with offset rising from eaves in third
bay. Gable over first-floor window in first bay. Double-span roof with
chimneys at ends of side furthest from church.

Interior of church: painted plaster with ashlar dressings and boarded dado;
arch-braced panelled roof on corbelled shafts with leaf-carved capitals;
similar roof to apsidal sanctuary. Chancel arch double-chamfered, the inner
on triple shafts with leaf-patterned corbels. Similar treatment to large west
arch with wider chamfer and head-stopped dripmould. 4 round piers support
west choir gallery with Gothic-panelled balcony; similar Gothic treatment to
interior of west porch. Elaborate Gothic altar, with painted panels, brought
1880 from Munich. Well-carved Gothic-style wood pulpit 1907 commemorating
60 years of priesthood of Rev. Provost Watson, who was responsible for the
building. Glass, supplied by H.M. Barnett, Victoria Works, Westmoreland
Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne in 1870, damaged in World War Two by bomb
and restored, includes east windows showing Holy Family; west window, probably
1882, has figures from the Apocalypse. Square font with 4 Frosterley 'marble'
shafts in Lady Chapel now used as base of altar; water-leaf decoration to bowl.

Source: information from Fr. Gunning; and A.J. Coia, Tudhoe St. Charles
Parish, 1858-1983, 1983.

C20 left extension to presbytery not of interest.

Listing NGR: NZ2627135230

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26453682

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Warwickshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Gloucestershire 2: The Vale and The Forest of Dean: Vale and Forest of Dean Pt. 2 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990: Updated version
• 
  Dorset (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)