Church Of St Nicholas

CRAMLINGTON CRAMLINGTON VILLAGE NZ 27 NE (South side) 4/61 Church of St. Nicholas 24.1.85 GV II Parish Church, 1868 by Austin and Johnson, adapted from earlier Dobson design. Squared stone with ashlar dressings; Welsh slates except for Lakeland slates on south aisle; red tile ridge cresting. 4-bay aisled nave with west tower and north porch. 2-bay chancel with organ chamber and vestry on north. Free C13 style. Stepped buttresses, plinth and sill string. Nave has double and triple lancets on north and south, 2-light plate-tracery windows in ends of aisles, gabled north porch with boarded double doors, showing scrolly ironwork, in moulded arch; and clerestorey of sexfoiled circles. Tall 3-stage tower with north-west stair turret, 2-light west window and bell openings of 2 lights within multi-chamfered arch, in sunk panel below carved cornice. Clockface on west of 2nd stage. Chancel has wall arcade on south above high-set string, incorporating two 2-light windows; angle buttresses, and 3-light plate tracery east window. Set against south wall, headstone of Dorothy Gillespy d.1776 with hand holding book in front of arrow and trumpet; scrolled foliage at sides, good lettering.

Interior: Nave arcades show pointed arches of 2 orders on round piers with foliage-carved caps in late C12 style. Tall tower arch of 2 hollow-chamfered orders. Similar chancel arch, on responds of paired columns, has hoodmould with headstops. Arch to organ chamber on foliage-carved responds. Trefoil- headed aumbry in chancel. Roofs with arch-braced collar-beam trusses, those in nave on moulded corbels. Contemporary stone reredos with St. Cuthbert's Cross and symbols of evangelists. Rood loft of 1896 with carved pendant tracery. Romanesque font with inlaid marble panels; small C18 font in north aisle with cable-moulded bowl on octagonal shaft. Funeral hatchment of Adam Mansfield de Cardonnel-Lawson, 1820, in south aisle. Memorial to George Henry Shum-Storey, 1869, by font; marble sculpture of angel and cross. Windows by Cottier,1868 in north and south (wise and foolish virgins) aisles.

The medieval chapel of St. Nicholas, rebuilt in late C17, stood at NZ 26717688, a short distance south of the present church.

Listing NGR: NZ2671376910