Church of St Mary, Staindrop, County Durham

Description

STAINDROP FRONT STREET
NZ 1320
(North side)
18/128 Church of St. Mary
14/9/66

GV I

Originally dedicated to St. Gregory. Parish church; Collegiate early C15 to
c.1544. Some pre-Conquest fabric in nave; early C12 arcades; aisles, tower
and chancel added; C13 transepts, nave lengthened, west tower added and chancel
extended; north vestry added. C14 aisles altered (1343 licence to Ralph Neville
for 3 chantries) and porch added. Early C15 clerestory and top stage of tower.
Circa 1849 restoration including many renewed windows by Cory. Mostly sandstone
rubble, some very coarse; south aisle dressed blocks; plinth, quoins and ashlar
dressings; roof not visible; stone-flagged porch roof. 4-bay nave with west
tower, clasping aisles, south porch and north transept; small room clasping
east corner of south aisle; 3-bay chancel with north vestry at east end.
Steeply-gabled porch has wide 2-centred chamfered arch under c.1900 sundial in
gable peak; small blocked lights in returns. C19 Decorated tracery in 3-light
aisle, 2-light north aisle, 3-light transept east windows and large 5-light
east window. 2-centred-arched north door has eroded animal finial, perhaps
lion, under short column. West window of south aisle: stepped lancets with
plate tracery in 2-centred surround. West cusped 3-light window in north aisle
with beakhead-stopped dripmould; 3 cusped lights in clerestory windows. Vestry
has elaborately-cusped 2-light windows, with carved spandrels on ground floor,
and lancets above; and Perpendicular 3-light east window. 3-stage tower has
2-centred-arched door in west stair turret; lancet in high first stage; paired
lancets in short second stage; renewed Y-tracery in corbelled-out belfry stage.
Buttresses, clasping at corners;parapets with chamfered coping except for roll-
moulded south aisle and embattled tower. First chancel buttress obscures
blocked priest's door. Gargoyles on south.

Interior: porch has side stone benches; wide-chamfered round-headed surround
to renewed double doors; stone vault on 3 wide ribs. Nave, tower and north
aisle rubble; south aisle coursed blocks; chancel painted plaster; ashlar
dressings. Roof of nave cambered beams with central pendants from low ridge,
and single purlins; horizontal brace in north-east corner; chancel roof renewed
in similar style with painted decoration and frieze. Round-arched double-
chamfered nave arcades on cylindrical piers, with moulded bases and varied C12
capitals, to 3 east bays; drip strings with one head stop on north, and nutmeg
decoration on south; some keeled end pilasters; square piers to east of fourth
bay which has fillets on pilasters supporting double-chamfered round arch;
pyramid stops on outer chamfer and on similarly-chamfered 2-centred arches to
open tower. One small round-headed pre-Conquest opening, deeply splayed,
interrupted by first pier and springing on south; blocked opening opposite of
same shape. Blocked round-headed door in west wall of tower, and 2-centred and
corbelled heads to blocked doors-above. Line of earlier steeply-pitched roof
marked by strings. Chancel has thin, wide 2-centred arch uncomfortably set on
impost string, damaged moulded capitals and pilasters with fillets, the west
face with fleur-de-lys finial on dog-tooth dripmould. 2-centred vestry door
has 2 hollow chamfers under dripmould; small cusped triple lights and squint
with re-used grave cover high above to upper vestry, possibly priest's chamber.

Triple sedilia with moulded shafts and cusped heads, all with fillets, on south,
has vigorous foliage capitals and one corbel, and one head corbel;- small blocked
2-light north opening possibly aumbry. Some windows have rere arches; lancets
have trefoil inner heads.

North transept has 2 aumbries and 2 piscinae, one cusped and one cusped and
pierced; blocked and mutilated 2-centred opening to north pier of chancel arch.
Aumbry in north wall of north aisle below large blocked square. South aisle
has cusped east piscina; possible site of aumbry obscured by fittings. 2-
centred-arched entrance to south-east room, with stone vault on 2 closely-set
ribs; triple sedilia. Monuments include tomb recess in south aisle; C13 lady
and young boy; C14 of Euphemia de Clavering under large elaborate crocketed
gable. C19 iron railings at west enclosing 1. large wooden chest, much decorated,
with effigies of Henry Neville, died 1560, and second and third wives: by John
Tarbotons; 2. large alabaster chest, much traceried, with effigies of Ralph
Neville, died 1425, and his 2 wives. At north-west, effigy of Henry Vane,
died 1792, on low relief showing Raby Castle as restored by him; his wife
Margaret, in Gothic surround, and his daughter-in-law Katharine, died 1800 and
1807, all 3 by Robert Cocke in white marble; over south door, marble bust to
John Lee, Attorney General, died 1793, and his wife Mary, died 1813, by
Nollekens.

Much C19 glass; small medieval roundel in vestry. Furnishings include Jacobean
altar table; C15 collegiate choir stalls with poppyheads, Tudor roses on arms
and on misericords, and blind traceried backs; pre-Reformation screen with
slender moulded uprights, and cusped depressed ogee arches. Octagonal C14 font
with slightly concave faces; each side of bowl with shield, blank except for
shield on east which quarters arms of Neville, with Clifford and another.

Listing NGR: NZ1309720636

External Links

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British Listed Buildings

History in Structure

Church of St Mary

A Grade I Listed Building in Staindrop, County Durham

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Description

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