Church Of Holy Cross

The Church of Holy Cross is a parish church dating back to the 13th century, with substantial restoration work carried out between 1877 and 1886. Rainwater heads are dated 1826. The church is constructed of coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings, and has a roof of graduated Lakeland slate with flat stone gable copings; a lead roof covers the broach spire. The building comprises an aisled west tower and a nave, a south porch, and a chancel with a north vestry.

The tall west tower features tall lancet windows and shouldered belfry openings, with flower-decorated corbels below the belfry. Aisles have Perpendicular windows; a blocked pointed-arched door is located in the north aisle's second bay from the west, and the parapets are battlemented at the west end. The south porch has stone seats, and its pointed-arched doorway is flanked by nook shafts. The chancel has a south priest’s door beneath a row of five lancets, with a two-light Transitional window as its sixth window. The east front features an almond-shaped window above three lancets, and three stepped buttresses. Clasping buttresses are present on the aisles and chancel, with a head-stopped-chamfered buttress located between the third and fourth lancets of the chancel. The north side of the chancel is blank.

Inside, the walls are painted rubble, with some plaster. The nave has a crown-post roof, while the chancel has a 19th-century square-panelled roof. Double-chamfered arches rise from corbels on square open tower piers – some with nail-head decoration – and octagonal and round piers supporting the nave arcades. A dado of re-used box pews with diabolo balustrade panels is present. A tree painting is visible on the plaster reveals of the west window. A carved oak pulpit stands on Frosterley marble columns and an octagonal stone pedestal. The choir stalls feature 17th-century figures, and a re-used rood screen is also present. A brass commemorates members of the Bunny family, including Francis, rector of Ryton who died in 1617. A 14th-century Stanhope marble effigy of a priest is in the chancel. There are two hatchments in the south aisle. Re-used 14th-century Flemish glass is found in the west window, the east bay of the chancel, and the south aisle – all restored by W. Wailes around 1848. The east window is by Kempe (1884), and the east window of the south aisle is by H. Holliday (1889). A spiral staircase, built in 1886, leads to the tower, constructed of slender wooden ogee-arched elements.