Church Of St Edward The Confessor

The Church of St. Edward the Confessor is a parish church dating from 1860, designed by John Dobson of Newcastle. It is constructed of squared limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and plain tiled roofs, featuring raised stone coped gables. The church comprises a nave with a western bellcote, a chancel with an apsidal sanctuary, a south porch, and a north vestry. The design is executed in the Norman Revival style, incorporating a plinth, string course, and corbel table.

The west end exhibits two corner buttresses and a central, stepped buttress flanked by single windows, above which are circular windows. Above the central buttress is a semi-circular headed niche. The bellcote has a single semi-circular headed bell chamber with nook shafts. The north nave wall contains three windows and the chancel has two, all with sill bands. The apse features wall shafts, a cable moulded sill band, and a figured corbel table. Its windows incorporate carved nook shafts and heads, while those in the chancel have nook shafts with scalloped capitals. The nave windows are semi-circular headed with hood moulds and figured label stops.

The south porch doorway features two orders, the lower order composed of beak heads and a dogtoothed hood mould. The pairs of nook shafts have cushioned and leafed capitals, alternating in design. The planked door is fitted with decorative ironwork hinges.

Internally, a central buttress rises full height at the west end, with a semi-circular headed niche at its base for bell tolling. The south door retains a roll moulded rear arch, indicative of a vanished inner door. Windows have ashlar rear arches. The nave roof is of crown post construction, supported on stone corbels. The chancel arch is of three orders, incorporating half engaged shafts; the scalloped capitals on the west side depict the symbols of the evangelists, surmounted by a half roll, castellation, further roll, and dogtoothed hood mould. The imposts run back to either side to form string courses. The sanctuary arch, also of three orders but with single half engaged shafts and conceptual foliage capitals, is topped by a cable moulding, a chevron, a roll, and pelleted roundels. The sanctuary features a hemispherical vault supported on five hobnail roll moulded ribs, meeting a human head vaulting boss, springing from half round wall shafts with foliate capitals. Stained glass is present in the sanctuary and chancel. The font and pulpit are also in the Norman Revival style, the pulpit featuring blank intersecting arcading. An early 13th-century capital with stiff leaf foliage is found on a drum pier within the chancel. A brass lectern, dated 1891, is also located in the chancel.

At the west end are two limestone slabs, one commemorating Jayne Beresford, who died in 1678, and Arabella Beresford, who died in 1720. A carved coat of arms is also present. Above the south door is a brass plaque recording the church’s construction in 1860.