Whitworth Parish Church

Whitworth Parish Church

Parish church of unknown dedication. The church was substantially rebuilt in 1808, with the nave reconstructed at this date from an earlier church of unknown date. In 1850 the chancel and vestry were added and improvements made throughout. The vestry was extended in 1930.

The building is constructed of roughly-coursed squared sandstone with rubble on the east elevation, ashlar plinth and dressings. The roof is covered with graduated Lakeland slate and has stone gable copings. The plan comprises a nave with a south porch, and a chancel with a north vestry.

The south porch has a high gable over a diagonally-boarded door with elaborate hinges. The door is set in a chamfered surround with shafts and a head-stopped dripmould. A sundial is positioned in the gable peak. The nave is of three bays and the chancel of two bays, both lit by lancet windows with dripmoulds. The nave has flat sills whilst the chancel sill string continues around the buttresses and steps up to three stepped east lancets. Bays are defined by buttresses with offsets at the corners. A two-light west window sits under a dripmould, and a gabled bellcote containing a bell and wheel within a two-centred arch rises from the west gable coping. The north vestry door is dated 1930. At the west, two pent extensions dated 1935 have open roofs on pilasters; these shelter two effigies transferred from the churchyard. The northern figure is much-eroded and shows a female form in long drapery. The southern effigy is a late 13th-century knight in chain mail, holding a shield and wearing a flat-topped cylindrical helm with eye-slits. His feet rest upon a twisted figure in a tunic, and a dog lies by his crossed legs. This knight is said to represent Humez of Brancepeth.

The interior walls are covered with painted plaster and ashlar dressings over an embattled panelled dado with blind tracery in the chancel. The roof features arch-braced collared trusses on a frieze, with wall-posts and deeply-moulded corbels. The chancel roof dates to 1888 and was designed by Ralph Hedley of Newcastle. It is panelled with Tudor-flower bosses and rich stencilled decoration, resting on an enriched frieze.

A double-chamfered two-centred chancel arch divides the spaces. The outer chamfer is pyramid-stopped and rests on stop-chamfered jambs; the inner chamfer is carried on shafts with moulded capitals and sits beneath a head-stopped dripmould. The east window has a shafted moulded reredos with a ball-flower-stopped dripmould.

The reredos, dating to 1895 and also by R. Hedley, is in Perpendicular style with gilding and a richly-painted Crucifixion. A painted Gothic-style stone pulpit and an octagonal font are present. The pews are panelled with roll-moulded square ends; the choir pews are decorated with poppyheads and Tudor-flower ornament. The chancel floor is terrazzo, and painted heraldic shields are displayed high on the chancel walls.

The stained glass includes the 1901 east windows depicting the Ascension, commissioned to the memory of Reverend E.A. Wilkinson. A 1920 west window serves as a World War I memorial to men of Binchester and Page Bank. In the north nave are high-quality windows of circa 1897 showing Christ the Good Shepherd, together with windows dated 1889, 1898, and a 1909 window depicting St. Aidan by Horton, Butler and Bayne. The south nave windows include medallion glass with a Presentation in the Temple, commissioned in memory of Catherine Duncombe Shafto, who died in 1872 aged 102. The vestry contains medallion glass. The organ is one of the first instruments built by Harrison of Durham.

Monuments include a dark grey ledger stone in the north-east corner of the nave, deeply cut with arms and crest, and inscribed to Margaret, wife of Mark Shafto of Whitworth Hall, naming her children Robert, John and Catherine. An alabaster wall monument in Art Nouveau style above this records E.A. Wilkinson, died 1900, and is by Lowes and Sons. At the west end is a circa 1723 alabaster wall monument to Mark Shafto, featuring a coat of arms in a broken segmental pediment on an aedicule; the lengthy, well-cut Latin inscription records his death from dropsy and notes that his son and heir Robert erected the monument. A classical wall monument by Denman of London commemorates R.E.D. Shafto, died 1848. A Gothic monument to Robert McFarlane, surgeon, who died in 1854 following a fall from a gig, is by W.T. Hale of London and stands at the south-west. Brass plaques are positioned beneath most windows.

According to tradition, 'Bonny Bobby Shafto' of the 19th-century children's song, who was the grandson of Margaret, is said to be buried in the family vault at the church.