Church Of St Mary

NZ 1616 - 1716 GAINFORD LOW GREEN (South side, off)

9/116 Church of St. Mary 14.9.66 I

Parish church. Early C13 with C15 north vestry and later west stair turret; organ chamber and north porch added during restoration by J.A. Cory in 1864. Dressed sandstone with graduated green slate roofs. West tower with stair turret; aisled nave with aisles engaging tower, north and south porches; chancel with north vestry and attached organ chamber to west. Mainly C19 Perpendicular-style fenestration.

3-stage tower; belfry has corbelled parapet with 4 corner pinnacles of 1786. Full-height stair turret has spiral stone stair within. 4-bay nave has tall aisles with C19 2- and 3-light windows and an original 2-light window with Perpendicular tracery on south aisle to west of porch. Porch has restored outer arch and contains 2 medieval stone benches and oak door under pointed roll-moulded arch of 2 orders; door has pair of possibly C13 iron C-hinges with elongated straps. Upper aisle windows have ogee heads of C18 appearance. East return of south aisle has lancet with vesica above. North wall has similar upper aisle windows. North porch has built-in grave slabs and similar medieval door and hinges. Narrower 2-bay chancel, heightened in 1864, has continuous chamfered sill band; south wall has 2 lancets and Cl9 priest's door; east end has 3 stepped lancets under individual hoodmoulds and restored vesica above. Single-storey north vestry has lancet in north wall and -diagonal buttress to north-east. 2-storey gabled organ chamber has truncated end chimney.

Interior: nave has wide double-chamfered pointed arches under hoodmoulds on cylindrical piers with circular moulded bases and capitals, the south-western with nailhead; octagonal north-western capital. Semicircular- east and west responds, the former with early stiff-leaf ornament. Tower on rectangular piers has similar transverse arch. Similar pointed chancel arch, on semi-octagonal mid-wall corbels with nailhead, has been raised about one metre. Cl9 nave roof. Chancel: east end has 3 lancets with splayed roll-moulded rear-arches separated by detached shafts; continuous roll-moulded band corresponds to external sill band; remnant of piscina behind wainscoting in south wall; Minton encaustic- tiled floor; C19 arch-braced roof.

Fittings: C13 circular font with Jacobean-style wood cover. 3 medieval brasses in chancel. Elaborate wall monument, in western bay of south aisle, to John Middleton died 1709: tablet in segmental pedimented aedicule with Corinthian columns, cartouche above and draped apron below, with skull and flanking putti. Two C10-ll cross shafts attached to internal west wall.

(Procedings of the Society of Antiguaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 3rd series, Vol II, 1907)

Listing NGR: NZ1697016680