Church Of All Saints

SOCKBURN SOCKBURN LANE NZ 3407 (South end, off)

19/39 Church of All Saints 20/3/67 I

Ruined church. Pre-Conquest nave and chancel; late C12 south aisle; chancel rebuilt early C13; C14 chantry, now Conyers, chapel was restored and re-roofed 1900 by W.H. Knowles. Squared red sandstone; Conyers chapel has stone-flagged roof. Roofless nave with fragmentary foundations of aisle on south and Conyers chapel on north; roofless chancel. Early English nave arcade and chancel; restored windows with Perpendicular-style tracery in Conyers chapel.

Tall, narrow 2-bay nave. Quoins of long-and-short work were noted in 1900 by W.H. Knowles but were concealed by vegetation at time of survey. South aisle has disappeared but 2-bay arcade remains: 2 double-chamfered pointed arches on central pier with square plinth, chamfered base and moulded octagonal capital. Foundations only of north and south chancel walls. Double-chamfered pointed chancel arch on mid-wall corbels. Flat-buttressed east end stands almost to full height and has chamfered plinth and 3 stepped lancets with chamfered reveals, linked hoodmoulds and deeply-splayed rear-arches. 2-bay Conyers chapel: chamfered plinth on north and west; largely-rebuilt, diagonally- buttressed north wall; wide double-chamfered pointed arch in south wall; 2- and 3-light square-headed windows with Perpendicular tracery; steeply- pitched roof with moulded coped gables and shaped footstones.

The Conyers chapel contains a superb collection of well-preserved sculpture including: pre-Conquest cross shafts, hog-backed and tegulated grave covers, cross heads; medieval grave covers, some with C14 and C15 inlaid brasses to members of the Conyers family, fragment of square-headed window tracery, circular font bowl and 2 carved panels possibly from an altar tomb; mid C13 effigy of a cross-legged knight.

Scheduled Ancient Monument.

(W.H. Knowles, "Sockburn Church", Transactions of the Architectural and Archaeological Society of Northumberland and Durham, Vol. 5, 1905).

(J.T. Lang, "Illustrative carvings of the Viking period at Sockburn on Tees", Archaeologia Aeliana, 4th Series, Vol. 50, 1972).

Listing NGR: NZ3497607106