Church of St Francis of Assisi is a Grade II listed building in the Northumberland local planning authority area, England. First listed on 10 November 1951. Church.

Church of St Francis of Assisi

WRENN ID
under-step-hyssop
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Northumberland
Constituency
Hexham MP: Joe Morris (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
10 November 1951
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Francis of Assisi, Rochester
OS grid reference
NT 770 023
Coordinates
55.31457, -2.36277
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Francis of Assisi is a parish church built in 1796, with restorations and gothic enhancements carried out in 1884 by F.R. Wilson. The church is constructed of ashlar stone and features a stone slate roof. It includes a nave, chancel, west baptistry/vestry, north porch, and a west bellcote.

The nave has two bays and a gabled porch on the right side, featuring a round-headed doorway with a keystone and impost blocks. The 18th-century round-headed nave windows are adorned with 19th-century Decorated tracery. The chancel is a single bay with a two-light Decorated east window. The roofs are gabled with flat coping, and the round-arched bellcote is topped with a ball finial.

Inside, the inner doorway is dated 1796, while the rest of the interior dates from 1884. The chancel arch is double-chamfered and rises from corbels that support colonettes with waterleaf capitals. A south window from 1903 commemorates those who died during the construction of the reservoir at Catcleugh, with a brass plate nearby listing the names of 64 individuals who perished between 1891 and 1904. The ceiling is canted with timber and features arched braces on stone corbels, along with false hammerbeams bearing crosses. The sanctuary is decorated with fine encaustic tiles that display geometric patterns and symbols of the Evangelists.

Local climate

Church of St Francis of Assisi receives an average of 900 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 68% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 60% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 63 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 99% of listed buildings. Of these, 41 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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