Church Of St Edmund

The Church of St Edmund is a parish church that dates back to the 12th century, with later restorations around 1859. It is constructed from sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring thin courses of squared stone on the east wall and quoins. The roof is stone-flagged with stone gable copings. The church has a four-bay nave that includes a south porch and a three-bay chancel, which has a north organ chamber and vestry.

The porch features double boarded doors set in a chamfered round-headed surround beneath a gable, supported by mask corbels that hold up the coping with a ring-cross finial. The inner doors are diagonally boarded and equipped with elaborate iron hinges. The nave has 19th-century round-headed windows with drip moulds, arranged in panels with corbel tables, and a west roundel in a round-headed panel. The slightly lower chancel has three round-headed windows of varying heights, one of which is from the 19th century, while the medieval windows are narrow and chamfered, supported by two short buttresses. The east side features similar buttresses flanking a 19th-century round-headed window with nook shafts under a billet drip mould. The roof has flat gable copings on mask corbels, with angelus and east stone cross finials, and a west gabled bellcote.

Inside, the church retains its rubble walls with ashlar dressings. The roof is made of re-used collared trusses with struts on chamfered tie-beams, while the chancel roof features 19th-century king-post trusses. The restored chancel arch is flanked by lower round-headed arches that serve as a lectern and pulpit. There is a chamfered aumbry and a round-headed piscina in the south wall. The east window contains faded glass, including a memorial in the south aisle to William Featherstonhaugh, who was Rector from 1856 to 1904, created by C.J. Baguley of Newcastle. The bench ends feature acorn and oak-leaf poppyhead designs.

At the west end, there is a wood vestry constructed in the 20th century as a memorial to members of the Marjoribanks family, incorporating 17th-century elements, including a door from Shepherds Dene House, Riding Mill; a priest's pew from Auckland Castle; an organ case from All Saints, Clifton; and fragments from Durham Castle and Cathedral.