Church Of St Michael And All Angels

The Church of St Michael and All Angels began as a chapel dependent on St. Oswald’s in Durham, before becoming a parish church in 1423. The core of the building dates to the 12th century, with substantial additions and alterations in 1859-60 by T. Austin. It is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with plinth and ashlar dressings, and has a roof of Welsh slate with stone gable copings.

The church features a nave with a north aisle and a west porch, along with a chancel and a north vestry. The gabled porch has double boarded doors within a 2-centred arch, a stone cross finial, and small round-headed windows. The inner 12th-century doorway has a round-headed surround with broach-stopped chamfers. The south elevation, of a similar date, has four bays, with a partly-blocked round-headed doorway in a slightly-chamfered surround in the second bay, paired round-headed windows in the first bay, a single window in the third bay, and a tall 14th-century four-light window with cusped tracery under a label mould in the fourth bay. A substantial buttress defines the chancel, which has a slender round-headed window. The east window is a large 14th-century design with cusped intersecting tracery. The north aisle has a blocked door and paired and single windows executed in a 12th-century style. A small medieval grave cover with an incised cross is set over the west aisle window. A 19th-century six-foil window is set within nookshafts under a chamfered arch and dripmould; a double-arched, gabled bellcote is also present. Stone cross finials adorn the steeply-pitched roof.

Inside, the walls are finished with painted plaster over a boarded dado, with ashlar dressings. The roof is arch-braced, supported by 19th-century stone corbels, collars, and small king posts. A 19th-century north arcade features three double-chamfered arches with octagonal capitals to round piers on moulded plinths; scallop capitals adorn the end corbels. A matching chancel arch is built on moulded corbels. A trefoil-headed piscina is also present. The south chancel window has geometric glass dating from 1858, while other windows were added in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A Jacobean-style carved wood pulpit stands on a stone plinth. The Norman font has an octagonal bowl set on a pedestal of Frosterley ‘marble’. Monumental features include a classical white marble on a black mount, signed G. Green, Newcastle, commemorating Rev. R. Richardson, who died in 1839.