Church Of St Paul

NZ 23 SE SPENNYMOOR WHITWORTH TERRACE (North side)

6/74 Church of 30/3/51 St. Paul

GV II

Parish church. 1856-8 by J.A. Cory; tower said to have been designed 1876- 1880 by C.H. Fowler and built without spire 1890-1899. Plans were submitted in 1881 (Plan 178) by John Henry for tower and steeple, and in 1898 (Plan 319) by Fowler for unnamed work; these plans cannot be found. Plaque in north aisle records 1878 enlargement. Repaired and restored 1954 by S. Dykes Bower after fire which destroyed interior. Coursed sandstone rubble with plinth and ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. Nave with west tower and south porch, north aisle and north-west choir vestry; chancel with north vestry. Strap hinges with fleur-de-lys finials on boarded door in triple-chamfered surround with 2-centred-arch; side buttresses support stone- coped gable; restored sundial in gable peak. Blocked quatrefoils in porch returns. 3-bay nave has cusped tracery in 2-light windows, on sill string interrupted by buttresses with offests; lancets in 2-bay chancel, paired in west bay, all with dripmoulds. Large 3-light east window has similar tracery and sill strings; buttresses, angle at corner. North aisle similar to nave, and with large 3-light west window under gable. Flat-roofed north-west vestry has stone-mullioned 3-light windows and Tudor-arched north door. Tower has 3 offsets and angle buttresses with corresponding offsets; single west light in high first stage on firstoffset; smaller lights in second stage; paired belfry openings with louvres, under corbel table and coped parapet. New swept pyramidal copper spire. Steeply-pitched roofs, with overlapping gable copings and stone cross finials; aisle roof slightly lower than nave.

Interior: painted plaster with ashlar dressings; keeled ribbed boarded roof, with chancel roof painted. Arcade of 3 wide double-chamfered 2-centred arches and one narrow arch on octagonal piers; double-hollow-chamfered chancel arch on shafted corbels. Elliptical-headed organ arch on north. 1954 door to north vestry and window above. 2 tower piers with quoins support shafts to possible arch now obscured by resited organ. Rerearches. Tower oratory. Chancel roof richly painted. Glass: fragments of original in light over vestry door; south chancel windows post-1954 by Goddard and Gibbs (initials in galleon) with A.E.B. Octagonal stone pedestal font, with high-quality swept cover, beside door. Monuments include plaque to Rosa Charlotte Duncomb Shafto, died 1899, 'a liberal donor ... a zealous promoter of every good work'. South African War memorial plaque by H. Eagle and Co., Newcastle, to those who 'cheerfully responded', listing regiments.

Source: Sedgefield District Council, Spennymoor Urban District register of submitted plans, 1876-1900.

Grants from Incorporated Church Building Society received 1856, 1879 and 1955.

Listing NGR: NZ2530433480