Church Of St Ives

The Church of St. Ives is a parish church dating from 1865 to 1868, designed by C.H. Fowler, with the addition of a north vestry porch in 1879. The church is constructed of snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings and a Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. It comprises an aisled nave with a south porch, a chancel with a south aisle, and a north vestry.

The gabled porch has side buttresses flanking a two-centred arched doorway in two orders, with an impost string. Inside the porch are benches and a two-centred arch containing double oak doors with wrought iron hinges, shaped like crescents with leaf terminals. The aisles contain cusped lancet windows, paired except for groups of three at the east and west ends of the north and south aisles, respectively. Six-foil clerestory windows are set in panels. The buttressed west front features two tall cusped lancets beneath a large twelve-foil light; a three-light east window is set under a drip mould. The north aisle has a buttress and a turret at its east end. The steeply pitched roof has copings on kneelers, and a tall gabled bellcote. A lower roof covers the chancel, and it is finished with stone cross finials.

The interior has coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, and a scissor-truss nave roof, with a panelled roof in the chancel. Five-bay arcades have chamfered two-centred arches with a continuous dripmould, supported by round piers with square capitals. The chancel arch, on long flat corbelled shafts, has a chamfered inner arch on shafts with crocketed capitals. Shouldered rere-arches are found in the aisles, with segmental arches behind the triple lights and two-centred rere-arches to the clerestory and lancets. Choir stalls with Gothic tracery from St. Oswald's, Gateshead, are present, along with a rood screen and pulpit in a similar style. The altar is made of Caen stone, and the chancel floor is tiled in medieval patterns, with one step leading to the chancel, two to the sanctuary and two to the altar. A 20th-century altar stands in front of the screen. A tub font with a many-moulded base is also located within the church.

Early 20th-century glass includes war memorial windows in the south aisle depicting soldiers in battle, and windows representing Saints Hilda and Mary of Bethany. A triple window in the south aisle displays heraldic devices and the figure of St. Ives. Many of the windows are clear, with original geometrical glass.