The Priory Church

Church of an Augustinian Priory, dating from approximately 1190 to 1220. The building fell into ruins during the 17th century but was conservatively restored between 1858 and 1859 by Thomas Austin of Newcastle, working for Cadogan Hodgson Cadogan. The church is constructed of squared stone with cut dressings and has a roof of small red clay tiles.

The building follows a cruciform plan with a nave featuring a north aisle of six narrow bays, a low crossing tower, transepts with two-bay eastern aisles, and a two-bay aisleless presbytery. Fragments of ruins from the chapter house vestibule or slype remain attached to the south transept. The architecture displays Transitional style characteristics.

Exterior

The main north entrance to the nave is located in the second bay from the west, featuring a round arch of three orders decorated with beakheads, chevron, zigzag, and billet hood moulding. The doorway is framed by carved capitals on jamb shafts and incorporates large dog-tooth decoration on the jambs and outer angles of a gabled projection. Above the doorway runs an arcade of three trefoiled arches.

The north aisle wall is defined by a chamfered plinth with pilaster buttresses and broad lancet windows. Tall round-headed clerestorey windows light the nave interior. At the west end, the nave has a north-west turret with shafted angles and a pyramidal cap. The south-west turret had collapsed before restoration and was rebuilt to eaves level only. The western end displays a wall arcade of pointed arches below a taller similar arcade incorporating three tall lancets (jamb shafts are now missing) and three stepped lancets in the gable.

The south nave wall features an arcade of trefoiled arches flanking two processional doors beneath nineteenth-century pent tiled canopies. The western door has a moulded round arch on shafted jambs with dog-tooth ornament, extensively renewed. The eastern door carries a moulded and ornamented arch with a tegulated hood and carved capitals to former jamb shafts. Above this arcade is a rebate for the timbers of the cloister walk roof, followed by five tall round-headed windows.

The south transept's west wall contains a round-arched moulded doorway with waterleaf capitals to former jamb shafts, flanked by twin rebated book lockers with two tall round-headed windows above. The south wall displays clasping buttresses, a blocked door to a right-hand stair, and a nineteenth-century Romanesque wheel window in the gable. An attached transverse arch and fragments of side walls from a formerly-vaulted east-west chamber are visible. The east wall has lancets to the aisle and round-arched clerestorey windows. Within the angle between the south transept and presbytery, above the aisle roof, sits a small statue in a sixteenth-century canopied niche.

The north transept mirrors the south transept in its east elevation. Its north wall has a central projecting stair turret with small loops, flanked by lancets with round-headed windows above. The turret is capped by a gabled late nineteenth-century bellcote with cusped bargeboards. The north end of the aisle contains a small fourteenth-century trefoiled ogee window.

The presbytery walls feature lancets with round-headed windows above, with strings at sill levels. The east end has three tiers of lancets, with the uppermost stepped, divided by buttresses that transition from square to semi-octagonal to keeled section as they rise. A nineteenth-century finial cross crowns the east end. All parts of the church have nineteenth-century eaves cornicing on moulded corbels. The central tower rises little above the roof ridges and features a plain parapet.

Interior

The nave arcade comprises double-chamfered pointed arches with chamfered hoods, supported on octagonal piers with moulded capitals. Tympanum openings above the piers feature twin moulded round arches. A chamfered string runs between the arcade and tympanum, with a moulded string between the tympanum and clerestorey. The aisle contains moulded springers for a vault that was never completed.

The crossing displays tall moulded pointed arches on shafted jambs. The transepts echo the nave's detailing; their aisles, each formerly comprising a pair of chapels, have quadripartite vaults with chamfered ribs. A piscina is located in the southernmost chapel. The presbytery features string courses at sill levels and a double-arched recess with piscina on the south wall. A blocked shoulder-arched door to a former sacristy is visible on the north wall. Nineteenth-century arch-braced collar-beam roofs span all parts of the interior.

Monuments and Furnishings

The only medieval monuments are a fine cross slab inscribed for Prior William, a suffragan Bishop of Durham who died in 1484, and a few plain slabs. Several seventeenth- and eighteenth-century ledger stones are present. A pink marble slab honouring Cadogan Hodgson Cadogan, who died in 1888 and oversaw the restoration, is positioned in the centre of the presbytery. Nineteenth-century tiled floors cover throughout.

The stained glass comprises a grisaille window south of the presbytery by Austin, incorporating fragments of original glass, alongside windows by Wailes and (in the east end) Clayton and Bell. A Romanesque carved stone altar dates from 1898. Late nineteenth-century choir stalls and a panelled wood pulpit dated 1874 on a stone base are present. The organ was constructed in 1868 by William Hill. A plain medieval font stands in the presbytery.