Church Of St Andrew

The Church of St Andrew is a parish church dating to 1883-1884, with extensions in 1890 and 1895. It was built by C.H. Fowler on land given by the Weardale Iron and Coal Company. The church is constructed of snecked sandstone with a plinth, quoins, and ashlar dressings, topped by a Welsh slate roof with roll-moulded ridge tiles (red on the nave and grey on the chancel), and stone gable copings. The building includes a nave with a south porch, a south-east tower, and a north aisle, along with a chancel, a north memorial chapel, and a vestry.

The south porch has a boarded door within a wide-chamfered surround with a dripmould, and a Tudor-arched surround to the rear return. The nave’s exterior features four buttresses with offsets between windows – three cusped lights each, except for a two-light window next to the porch. The chancel has two-light windows under dripmoulds, separated by a buttress. Large five-light east and west windows are present, the west window incorporating Perpendicular tracery.

The square tower has a two-centred arched door on its right return, with small rectangular lights above, leading to an octagonal belfry with four lancets and an embattled parapet. An octagonal spire tops the tower, featuring a bud finial. The vestry’s east gable has a square-headed three-light window, and a two-light window in a similar style above. The steeply pitched roofs are punctuated by stone cross finials.

Inside, the walls are plastered and feature ashlar dressings. The roof is constructed of arch-braced collar- and king-post trusses on stone-corbelled wall posts, with shorter intermediate trusses set on a cornice between the posts. The chancel incorporates cusped wind-braces below two levels of purlins. Seven two-centred hollow-chamfered arches of the north aisle, the westernmost being narrower, are supported by octagonal piers with moulded capitals. A blank west arch has ogee cusping. A flower-stopped dripmould is above the east window. A delicately carved chancel screen is also present. An octagonal stone font with a pointed cover, a gift from the parish school in 1884, is a noteworthy feature. Brass plaques are located near the memorial chapel, one commemorating Thomas Charles Baring, M.A., M.P., and another William Semmens who died in a colliery accident. The memorial chapel contains a 17th-century marble altar and reredos brought from Spain by Thomas Baring. Pews have rail backs and shaped ends, and the memorial chapel kneelers date to 1959, made by Thompson of Kilburn. Stained glass includes a 1901 north window in the chapel by G.I. Baguley featuring Saints Peter, Andrew and Mark, and a World War I memorial in the east window, with names of the dead displayed on the screen at the nave’s west end.