Church Of St Cuthbert

ETHERLEY CHURCH STREET NZ 12 NE (West side) High Etherley 5/11 Church of St. Cuthbert

GV II

Parish church. 1832, probably by William Ramshaw, for Bishop van Mildert; restored, and chancel rebuilt, 1866-7 by J. Ross of Darlington. Thin courses of squared sandstone rubble; chancel pecked coursed squared sandstone; ashlar dressings and plinth. Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. Nave with west tower; chancel with north vestry and organ chamber. Chancel Decorated style. 2-stage tower has Tudor-arched south door, with studded battens, in double-chamfered surround under dripmould; arms of Bishop van Mildert above; round-headed double-chamfered belfry louvre over clock in second stage; corbelled flat-coped parapet. 2-bay nave has label moulds over tall windows with 2 round- headed lights; similar west window. Decorated tracery in 2-centred-arched windows of 2-bay chancel, and 3-light east window; head-stopped dripmoulds. Coped buttresses with offsets define bays; angle buttresses at east and to first stage of tower. Steeply-pitched chancel roof with moulded kneelers and stone cross finials; tower has tall wind vane of scrolled wrought iron.

Interior: painted plaster with boarded dado; ashlar dressings in chancel; low-pitched panelled nave roof on bracketed tie beams; panelled chancel roof on large leaf and angel corbels; panelled tower ceiling. Head-stopped dripmould over 2-centred chamfered chancel arch without capitals; naturalistic capitals and corbels on shafts in inner arch; foliage-stopped dripmould over organ arch to north of chancel arch; wide organ arch and shouldered vestry door in chancel. Chamfered round tower arch. Stone-flagged floors in square-and-diamond pattern, and some tiles in same style, at west end; Gothic-style tiled floor in chancel. 1867 panelled pews with shaped ends; poppyheads on choir stalls. Side altar from St. Luke's, Darlington, with reredos re-using C17 panelling from Brancepeth church. Glass includes 1979 west window by Septimus Waugh; chancel windows commemorate Henry Stobart, coalowner, died 1866. Octagonal stone font gift from Bishop Thorpe.

Source: P. Kilmister, Etherley Parish Church. St. Cuthbert, 1982.

Listing NGR: NZ1651928315