Church of St Cuthbert is a Grade I listed building in the Northumberland National Park local planning authority area, England. First listed on 21 October 1953. A C12 Church, parish church.

Church of St Cuthbert

WRENN ID
far-corbel-furze
Grade
I
Local Planning Authority
Northumberland National Park
Constituency
North Northumberland MP: David Smith (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
21 October 1953
Type
Church, parish church
Address
Church of St Cuthbert, Elsdon
OS grid reference
NY 936 932
Coordinates
55.2337, -2.10144
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St. Cuthbert is a parish church dating back to the 12th century, with significant additions and alterations in the 14th and 16th or 17th centuries. It was restored in 1837 and again in 1877 by F.R. Wilson. The church is constructed of random rubble and squared stone, with a Welsh slate roof.

The building comprises a nave with a bellcote, aisles, transepts with west aisles, a chancel, and a vestry. The nave has a 19th-century south porch and flanking Decorated windows. A low buttress in the south-west corner likely belongs to cut-back walls of earlier, wider aisles. The west end features a large 19th-century window set within projecting walling that rises to support the bellcote; low flanking buttresses are remnants of a former tower. The aisles are later additions, evidenced by a 14th-century angle buttress with roll mouldings embedded in the north wall. The south transept has a 19th-century window, and the remains of the original window jamb are visible to its left. The chancel features a 14th-century priest's door and three windows of differing designs. The east end of the chancel is of 19th-century construction.

The church has gabled roofs with cross finials, and the elaborate bellcote, dating from around 1720, includes two tiers of ball finials and a stone spirelet.

Inside, a high blocked tower arch with a heavy square hoodmould is visible in the west wall—likely a 12th-century feature reset as a pointed arch. The nave has four-bay arcades with 12th-century west responds. Elsewhere, the arcades are 14th-century, featuring octagonal piers and moulded capitals. One south pier has foliage carving on its capital, and the arches are double-chamfered. The transept piers are square with chamfered edges; the stops are carved with tracery or figures, and the double-chamfered arches die into the imposts, with the outer order rising much higher than the inner. The chancel arch is similar. The transept arcades resemble the nave arcades. The very narrow aisle and transept aisles have quadrant tunnel vaults with thick outer walls, likely the result of a 16th or 17th-century rebuilding. Corbels supporting the roof timbers of the earlier aisles are visible below the vaults. A 14th-century sedilia exists in the chancel, alongside a trefoiled piscina in the south transept. Several medieval grave covers are located in the chancel (near the south window), south transept, above the south door, south aisle west window, and in the north transept. A Roman tombstone is found in the north aisle. The church also contains false hammer-beam roofs added by F.R. Wilson, and a cartouche from 1741 commemorating William Brown.

Local climate

Church of St Cuthbert receives an average of 860 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 61% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 90% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 48 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 90% of listed buildings. Of these, 30 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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