Church Of St. Barnabas

The Church of St. Barnabas is a church constructed in 1888 and 1892, designed by C.H. Fowler of Durham, and located on St. Barnas Road, Middlesbrough. The building is constructed of brick with sandstone dressings, topped with Welsh slate roofs that have gable copings and gabled kneelers, with a felt roof on the north aisle. It is built in the Early English style.

The church comprises a clerestoried aisled nave, a south-west porch, a slightly lower chancel with a short south aisle, a north transept, and a vestry. The nave has six bays; the porch is gabled and slightly projecting, with boarded double doors within a moulded surround and a hoodmould that continues as a sill string. A cross finial adorns the porch. Aisle windows are hooded. Boarded doors are located in the north-west and south-east aisles. The clerestory features paired lancet windows (except at the west end), all under a continuous hoodmould. Stepped brickwork is visible at the eaves, and the west window features brick plate tracery. A south flying buttress connects the nave and the three-bay chancel. The two-bay aisle features paired lancets, and gabled clasping buttresses are present at the east end. The east window consists of two rows of five stepped lancets with engaged shafts and shaft rings, the lower row blind, set within a common recess with nook shafts under a continuous hoodmould. Cross finials are atop the gables. The vestry's east window has two rows of five stepped lancets with plate tracery. The plain, gabled north transept has a short end stack.

Inside, the six-bay pointed nave arcades have two moulded orders under a continuous hoodmould, supported by round, octagonal and compound piers with moulded capitals and bases. The westernmost bays have narrower piers that are square. The chancel arch has two roll-moulded orders, nook shafts with moulded capitals and bases, and dogtooth-moulded imposts. Similar arches are found leading to the organ chamber and Lady chapel. The nave roof is braced and collared, with a kingpost and is ceiled above braces and collars. The chancel has a pointed barrel roof and moulded wall plates. A carved wood chancel screen, created in 1928 by R.T. Snaith of Darlington, features conjoined shafts flanking the opening and at the ends, with niches containing saints under cusped canopies. It also includes Perpendicular-style tracery and cresting in the bays. Panelled choir and clergy stalls, with poppyhead bench ends and traceried panelled fronts, are also present. A mid-20th century musicians’ gallery overlooks a glazed screen, the work of Thompson of Kilburn. Wood communion rails with traceried panels and a moulded rail are found in the sanctuary, which features patterned encaustic tiled flooring. A 1904 pulpit is constructed of marble and alabaster, set on Frosterley marble angle shafts and a central stone colonnette. The matching font stands on a squat compound pier with leafy capitals and a panel carved with the baptism of Christ. Good stained glass from 1928 is in the east and west windows, and circa 1900 in the south aisle. The Lady chapel houses two windows depicting Christ by Kayll & Reed of Leeds, and two depicting St. Aidan and St. Mary by Abbott & Co. of Lancaster. A late-20th century narthex and gallery, along with a mid-20th century north chapel, are considered to be of less significance.