Church Of St Paul

SUNDERLAND

NZ45SW RYHOPE STREET SOUTH, Ryhope 920-1/7/259 (North East side) Church of St Paul

GV II

Parish church. 1868-73. By TC Ebdy; chancel and N aisle 1920. First build rock-faced snecked limestone with rock-faced sandstone quoins and ashlar dressings; second build sandstone ashlar; ashlar-coped plinth throughout; Welsh slate roof first build, Lakeland slate roof second build, both with stone gable copings. Chancel with N vestry and S organ chamber; nave with N aisle and S transept, tower and aisle. EXTERIOR: stepped, coped angle buttresses of first build project more. All windows of first build have alternate-block jambs and steeply-sloping sills. 3 E lancets with roundel above in gabled chancel with Lombard frieze on N and S elevations over paired lancets, continuing along 5-bay N aisle. S transept has high 3-light window with geometric tracery; block-stopped dripmould under gable with stone cross finial. Adjacent 3-stage tower has 2 orders of nookshafts to roll-moulded pointed arch over double panelled door and soffit panel with low-relief cross; raised straight-pointed dripmould has block finial and stops; similar but smaller dripmoulds over 2 small lancet slits flanking clock above; sill and impost strings to paired tall belfry lancets, louvres renewed, with nookshafts and roll-moulded arches; cornice and pyramidal roof. Left return of tower has wide stepped buttress in front of square projection with high plinth reducing to octagonal-plan stair turret. Turret has pointed arcaded string to top slits below hipped stone roof against tower. Clerestory quatrefoils over S aisle with paired lancets. W nave gable has paired 2-light W windows with cusped quatrefoil tracery and small roundel in gable peak under stone cross finial; pent S aisle has paired cusped W lancets; gabled N aisle has triple cusped lights. INTERIOR shows shouldered arch in tower porch to stair turret. 5-bay arcades, the N of chamfered pointed arches on tall round piers with octagonal capitals; the S arcade includes 2 arches to transept and has short round piers with alternately round and square capitals and double-chamfered pointed arches, one chamfer hollow. Chancel arch and arcade ends rest on paired corbelled shafts. Arch-braced collar and kingpost roof on stone corbels; S aisle has transverse arch to tower. Glass includes high quality W window to WN Taylor, d.1875, with Old Testament figures; and S aisle W end high quality by Bacon Bros (signed 3 bees and triangle) with yellow stain. N aisle second window memorial with a portrait figure to 2nd. Lieut. Bell, D.L.I., d.1917, signed J Eadie Reed. Rood screen and painted carved reredos wood with perpendicular tracery; octagonal stone font. (Corfe T and Milburn G: Buildings and Beliefs: Sunderland: 1984-: 38; Date information from vicar).

Listing NGR: NZ4099653031