Group of 5 Tombs Circa 3 Metres South of Vestry of Church of St Ebba is a Grade II listed building in the County Durham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 21 January 1987. Tombs.
Group of 5 Tombs Circa 3 Metres South of Vestry of Church of St Ebba
- WRENN ID
- muted-gallery-dawn
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- County Durham
- Constituency
- Blaydon and Consett MP: Liz Twist (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 21 January 1987
- Type
- Tombs
- OS grid reference
- NZ 103 554
- Coordinates
- 54.89362, -1.83983
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
This is a group of five tombs located approximately three metres south of the vestry of the Church of St. Ebba. The group includes one medieval grave cover and four headstones, made from sandstone ashlar.
The medieval grave cover features a roll-moulded edge and tapers slightly, but it has no inscription. The first headstone is about one metre high with a shaped top, inscribed to Thomas Smith, who died in 1743, along with family members up to 1806. The reverse side is decorated with a skull, hourglass, and crossed bones. The second headstone is a Gothic-style slab about one metre high, dedicated to Joseph Oley, who died in 1895, noted as 'The last of the Shotley Bridge swordmakers' and 'Upwards of 50 years auctioneer'.
The third headstone is a half-metre-high slab with spiral decoration at the rounded top, commemorating Richard Oley, who died in 1756. The fourth headstone is approximately 120 centimetres high, featuring a moulded shaped top and low relief urn decoration, dedicated to William Oley, who died in 1810, along with family members up to 1854.
Historically, in the 17th century, swordmakers from Germany settled in Shotley Bridge and gained a reputation for their craftsmanship.
Local climate
Group of 5 Tombs Circa 3 Metres South of Vestry of Church of St Ebba receives an average of 850 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 58% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 99% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 45 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 86% of listed buildings. Of these, 27 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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