Church Of St Cuthbert

NZ 05 SE CONSETT CHURCH BANK

(South side) Benfieldside 5/28 (inset) Church of St. 6/6/51 Cuthbert (Formerly listed as St Cuthbert's Church) GV II

Parish church. 1849-50 by John Dobson; addition of south aisle, choir vestry and organ 1881-6 by J.W. Walton Wilson; site and £450 given by Thomas Wilson of Shotley Hall, remainder by public subscription. Coursed squared sandstone with plinth, quoins and ashlar dressings; roofs of graduated thick purple slate and Welsh slate, with stone gable copings. Aligned north-south. Aisled nave with ritual north-west porch tower and south-west choir vestry; chancel with north vestry and south organ chamber. Early English style. Tower has drip-string over boarded double doors with elaborate hinges in double-shafted, many-moulded 2-centred arch; slit window and clock above; set-back belfry with high 2-light openings; full-height clasping buttresses with offsets; broach spire on nail- head corbel table has lucarnes and wrought-iron finial. Lancet windows, paired in north aisle under corbel table, triple in east and paired in west fronts, with vesica over central west buttress; large vesica also in south-west vestry; buttresses, 4 on east front; north vestry has projecting stack with offsets and round chimney. Steeply-pitched roof with gable copings on roll-moulded kneelers. Boot-scrapers flank tower door. Interior: painted plaster with ashlar dressings; arch-braced nave roof on alternate corbels and shafted corbels; scissor-truss chancel roof on corbelled wall-posts. 4-bay arcades have double-chamfered arches on round piers with octagonal plinths and capitals; continuous drip moulds. Many-moulded chancel arch on half-octagonal pilasters and corbelled Frosterley marbel shafts, with capitals recording dates of building and enlargement; head-stopped dripmould over. 2-bay chancel arcade has carved brackets and corbels. West bay has high lancet to choir vestry, and balconied doorway to first tower floor. Glass in south aisle signed by Percy and Bacon bros., ll, Newman Street, London; one medallioned window in memory of Thomas Siddell, veterinary surgeon died 1855 in the Crimean War. Tiled chancel floor, flagged nave floor. Brass foundation plaque dated 1849 names John Dobson architect. Roll-moulded square- ended pews with Roman numerals.

Listing NGR: NZ0928952608