Church Of St Mary And 2 Arches Attached To North

Church of St Mary and Two Attached Arches

This parish church was built in 1864 by the architect E.R. Robson, with a tower added in 1877 as a gift from Sir George Elliot, as recorded by a tablet inside. The building is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings beneath a Lakeland slate roof, and features a stone spire.

The church comprises a 4-bay aisled nave with a north-west tower and south porch, a 2-bay chancel with a north vestry and south aisle. The porch contains double cast-iron gates set within a 2-centred-arched surround with a saddle-back roof. The aisles display paired ogee-headed lights, while tall paired trefoil-headed clerestory lights sit beneath a dripstring. The chancel's south aisle contains a single quatrefoil window. The set-back chancel is distinguished by a corbel table and a large 2-centred-arched south window with Decorated tracery, and an even larger east window in the same style. The south aisle's east window has plate tracery with 2 lights. A large west window under a head-stopped dripmould features similar tracery. Buttresses throughout the building display varied detail: those on the south-west of the clerestory and at the corresponding point on the south aisle are topped with cusped gablets, whilst an aisle buttress supports a tall pinnacle decorated with bands of arcaded moulding. The steeply-pitched roof is crowned with stone cross finials, one of which is damaged.

The tower rises in three high stages. The north door is framed by a surround of 3 orders with shafts supporting a zig-zag 2-centred-arch beneath a high gabled panel. Paired slender lancets with dripmoulds light the second stage. The belfry stage features paired recessed louvred openings with shafts and dripmoulds, all sitting beneath a Lombardic frieze. Continuous bands encircle the angle buttresses at each stage. A broach spire with 4 large lucarnes crowns the structure.

The interior features painted plaster with ashlar dressings. The nave roof is arch-braced with king-post trusses and scissor-braced common rafters. The chancel roof is panelled. The arcades are formed of 2-centred arches with shallow chevron moulding, supported on round piers with water-leaf capitals; the east responds have paired shafts, whilst a narrower arch at the north-west has full-height shafts to the tower. Corbelled shafts define other bays of the clerestory and support roof trusses. The high chancel arch follows the style of the arcades, decorated with shallow trefoil ornament and an inner roll-moulded arch supported on Frosterley 'marble' shafts. A roll-moulded clerestory sill string continues as a ring around the shafts. Plain arches from the chancel lead to a north chapel, vestry, and south organ; a north piscina is also present. Tudor flower decoration adorns the chancel panelling. The reredos dates to 1905 and is executed in mosaic. A high-quality flat-topped wood communion rail is fitted. Medieval-style tiles cover the chancel floor. The chancel windows contain 19th century glass. The south aisle windows are of high quality and commemorate members of the Boyd family killed in the First World War, whilst the 19th century west windows commemorate Reverend Joseph Tiffin, who died in 1858. A dark red granite panel in the tower records Sir George Elliot, Baronet and Member of Parliament, and his gift to mark the baptism of his 6 children in the church; the tablet also describes an Egyptian stone panel as part of the Pyramid of Giza, obtained in 1876 by permission of Ismail Pasha and erected in 1891.

Two arches are attached to the north of the church. These are said to have come from Blackfriars, Newcastle, though they are of the wrong period for this provenance. They were resited from the grounds of the demolished Rainton Hall, a 17th century home of Sir John Duck. The paired round-headed arches are of 17th century character, with eroded stop chamfers and capitals displaying coarsely-fluted necking.