Church Of St Mary Woodhorn Church Museum

Church of St Mary, Woodhorn Church Museum

This is a parish church with a Pre-Conquest nave and possibly a west tower of the same period. The north aisle dates to the early 12th century, and the south aisle to the mid-12th century. The eastern arches of the arcades and the chancel arch are 13th-century work. The external walls, with the exception of the lower part of the west end and the tower, were rebuilt in 1843 by the Newcastle architects B. & J. Green. The tower is constructed of roughly-squared stone, with 19th-century parts in tooled stone with tooled ashlar dressings. The roofs are Welsh slate, and the 19th-century parts are executed in heavy Norman style.

The south aisle features a porch with boarded double doors set in a round arch, above which is a sundial dated 1818. The porch sits beneath a coped gable with a roll-moulded finial. Four round-arched windows with hoodmoulds stand to the east of the porch, with similar windows at each end of the aisle. The north aisle displays similar fenestration. A clerestorey with four pairs of round-arched lights on each side rises above; it terminates in a coped east gable with an elaborate cross fleury finial. The west tower has low stepped diagonal buttresses and a slightly-projecting stair turret with small loops. The west window contains two trefoil-headed lights with shields of Ogle and Widdrington beneath a square head; this is probably an 1843 copy of a 15th-century original. A small built-in effigy, possibly of a priest, sits above the window. A set-back bell stage with large two-light openings and a heavy parapet featuring blind arcade and angle shafts rises above.

To the south of the tower, the south-west quoin of the Pre-Conquest nave is exposed, consisting of large irregular blocks. The chancel fenestration includes two round-headed loops and a 15th-century-style four-light window on the south, and a lancet triplet on the east, reproducing pre-1843 features. The 19th-century parts have sill strings and eaves cornices on block corbels; plaques bearing the Greens' monogram appear beneath the east and west windows.

The interior reveals internal tower walls of long roughly-shaped blocks in irregular courses. A round arch of two square orders opens from the tower, resting on restored chamfered imposts. A square-headed doorway to the tower stair sits on the south side, with a blocked square-headed opening above. The tower stair is of unusual square plan. The western bays of the north arcade contain round arches of a single square order with chamfered hoodmould, supported on squat round piers with scallop capitals. The taller eastern arch has filleted roll mouldings towards the nave, rising from a triple-shafted respond with still-leaf foliage and a mask corbel. The western bays of the south arcade have round arches of two square orders with chamfered hoodmould, on round piers with re-cut capitals and bases featuring nail-head detail. The tall double-chamfered eastern arch displays broach stops and a moulded hood. The western arch of each arcade cuts into a single-splayed Pre-Conquest window; the monolithic pseudo-arched head of that on the south bears decoration of incised concentric circles. A double-chamfered chancel arch rests on twin-shafted corbel responds, the northern of which is partly cut away.

The 19th-century nave and chancel roof is constructed with laminated round-arched trusses supported on moulded stone corbels. Patterned mid-19th-century glass fills the eastern lancets. Two medieval bells are now displayed in the chancel. A well-preserved 13th-century effigy is attributed to Agnes de Valence. The church contains 18th- and early 19th-century mural monuments, including a 1739 Walton monument in the south aisle and tablets by Davies. The font has an early 19th-century cable-moulded bowl on an older shaft and base. A collection of sculptured stones is displayed, including Pre-Conquest cross fragments, headstone crosses, and 12th- to 14th-century cross slabs. Additional unprovenanced carved stones from the Society of Antiquaries' collection in Newcastle and an inscribed cross slab from Kickhill Chapel Site, Hepple, are also shown.

Woodhorn may be the 'Wudecestre' (Woodchester) granted to the Lindisfarne community by Ceolwulf in 737.