Church of St Hilda

Church of St Hilda

Parish church designed by R J Johnson of Newcastle-upon-Tyne and completed by G E Charnwood. Built 1884–86, with the tower completed in 1938. The church stands on Church Square, West Cliff.

The building is constructed in ashlar with ashlar dressings and plain tile roofs, designed in the Gothic Revival style. It follows a cruciform plan, comprising a nave with aisles and porches to the west, a crossing tower and transepts, and a tall chancel with vestries on either side.

The exterior features a moulded and chamfered plinth with cill band, coped gables with finials, and angle buttresses with set-offs. The west end has a projecting baptistery with two small 2-light windows above a large 6-light pointed arch window with central major mullion and reticulated tracery. Octagonal corner turrets with short stone spires flank this section. The aisles contain single 3-light pointed arch windows with similar tracery, with projecting porches beyond featuring pointed arch doorways facing east. The nave has four pointed arch windows with reticulated tracery to both aisles and five pairs of 2-light flat-headed clerestorey windows above. The crossing tower displays two similar windows to the north and south faces, above three pointed arch bell openings with tracery to each face, and battlements. The transepts have single 4-light pointed arch windows with reticulated tracery to their ends and two tall 2-light pointed arch windows with similar tracery to the sides, topped with parapet and pinnacles. The chancel, which is tall and comprises two bays, features similar 2-light windows to the sides and to the east a large 7-light pointed arch window with major mullions defining the central five lights and reticulated tracery. Low single-storey flat-roofed vestries with flat-headed mullion windows flank the chancel.

The interior contains five-bay nave arcades with octagonal piers and responds, and a triple-arched entrance to the baptistery to the west. Double chancel crossing arches with clustered responds open into the inner chancel, which is decorated with stencilled wall patterns and features triple arched stone-carved sedilia. The roof is panelled wood with carved bosses, painted and gilded in the inner chancel.

The church is furnished with exceptional Victorian and Edwardian fittings. These include carved wooden screens with rood, an elaborate octagonal carved stone font, and a matching pulpit with wooden tester. A painted and gilded reredos with high altar stands in the chancel. A wooden carved bishops throne with tall spire canopy dates to 1908. The wooden altar rail features bulbous brass balusters, and wooden choir stalls occupy the chancel. The lady chapel contains a painted and gilded wooden reredos, altar, and porch. Carved wooden dado panelling lines the nave and aisles. To the left of the north door stands a wooden-framed tripartite painted war memorial depicting the Crucifixion watched by service personnel. The west wall has two Gothic-style iron heaters.

The stained glass throughout the church is by Kempe, dating from 1887–1906, except for two windows by H W Harvey installed in 1959.

This late Victorian church represents a superb example of the late Gothic Revival style, distinguished by its particularly fine collection of Victorian and Edwardian fittings and stained glass.