Church Of St Aidan

SUNDERLAND

NZ45SW RYHOPE ROAD 920-1/7/190 (East side) 08/05/50 Church of St Aidan (Formerly Listed as: RYHOPE ROAD, Grangetown (East side) Church of St Aidan)

GV II

Parish church. 1910-11. By C Hodgson Fowler, with the help of anonymous gifts from Matilda Miller; completed in 1930 with addition of S aisle, chancel, sanctuary and vestries to original designs and in matching materials, through gifts from George and Dorothy Short. Red brick with ashlar red sandstone dressings; roof of plain tiles with red ridge tiles, with stone gable copings; shingle roof on bellcote. Gothic style with plinth, stepped buttresses and perpendicular tracery. Aisled nave with N porch and vestries. EXTERIOR: gabled nave has 5-light E window flanked by gabled aisles. 5 nave bays defined by buttresses with continuous sill string; 4-light pointed-arched aisle windows recessed in chamfered surrounds of high pointed-arched panels springing from buttresses at sill string. N gabled porch has steps up to pointed arch with hollow-moulded chamfer; large band hinges on boarded door; side buttresses below gabled kneelers and stone gable coping. Similar door in W bay of S aisle. 3 E gables, separated by high buttressses, have sill strings, the central higher, to 6-light nave and 3-light aisle windows with intermittent ashlar blocks supporting coping with gabled kneelers; cross finials on aisles. 3 steeply pitched roofs; bellcote near W end of nave has tall pyramidal spirelet of shingles with swept eaves over louvres on shingle-covered plinth; gabled covering to brick-sided vent of chimney at E end of N aisle. INTERIOR light and spacious; plaster above high panelled wainscot; sandstone arcades; no formal chancel division. 4-bay nave arcades have octagonal piers with brattished capitals and double-chamfered pointed arches; narrow W baptistry bay; 2-bay chancel with compound piers; no chancel arch, but paired 2-light roof lights over E bay of nave. Corbelled arch-braced roof trusses have struts and king post on high collar; aisle roof trusses on wall posts. FITTINGS: side chapels have high-quality wood screens; low choir screen with linenfold panelling; oak choir stalls, communion rail and pulpit with perpendicular tracery; painted tryptych reredos in sanctuary and in Lady Chapel. Octagonal font of fine-grained red sandstone on compound shaft has low relief religious scenes and inscription saying it was gift of the children in 1911. High quality painted glass in E and W windows. (Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland 1814-1914: Newcastle: 1983-: 23; Milburn GE and Miller ST: Sunderland River, Town and People: Sunderland: 1988-: 158).

Listing NGR: NZ4082654568