Church of St Mary

The Church of St Mary is a chapel of ease built in 1885 by W.S. Hicks, located in Holywell, Whitley Bay. The church features a stone chamfered plinth and quoins at the rendered lower walls, with a timber-framed structure above that includes rendered infill and a half-rail. It has a French clay tiled roof, a lead dome on the bellcote, and a brick ridge stack for the vestry. The building is a 5-bay unaisled rectangle that includes a vestry on the south-east side.

The side walls are characterized by vertical studding and contain 2- and 3-light windows with elliptical heads and leaded glazing. The west end features similar 2-light windows flanking a boarded door set in a segmental arch with carved spandrels. The roof above this section is hipped beneath a gablet, which has a 2-light window below a cove that supports a diagonally-set bellcote with slatted openings under shouldered arches, topped with an octagonal swept dome and a wrought-iron cross fleury.

At the east end, there is square panelling and a window with 5 trefoil-headed lights under a segmental arch, supported by large shaped brackets that carry moulded bargeboards with a pendant finial and a cast-iron finial cross.

Inside, the church features a brattished dado rail and a similar rail with rosettes at the sill level of the east window. The roof consists of arch-braced collar-beam trusses with strutted upper king posts and carved bosses.