Coldingham Priory Church

Coldingham Priory Church is a parish church of mixed Norman and First Pointed Gothic styles, with fabric dating back to the 11th century. The site incorporates earlier material from a 13th-century cruciform-plan priory, and the church was significantly altered in 1662 and again in 1851-55. A former hearse house, built around 1850, is situated at the west entrance to the graveyard, and the church is set within an irregular-plan graveyard. The listing excludes the scheduled monument SM383.

The church is constructed of coursed pink and red sandstone. It features full-height, square-plan towers with pyramidal caps at each corner, with plain pilasters dividing the bays of the east, north, and west elevations. The bays are characterised by round-arched, blind arcading with chevrons and engaged colonnettes, topped by pointed-arch lancet windows. The south elevation has a gabled entrance porch, a pointed-arch bellcote, and an engaged stair tower. A two-leaf timber door is set within a chevron-moulded arch. Stained-glass windows include work by Robert Home, dated 1904; other windows feature predominantly leaded diamond-pane glazing. The roof is finished with grey slates, coped skews, and a parapet, complemented by cast iron rainwater goods.

The interior, observed in 1999, includes a vestibule with a stair leading to the vestry to the northeast. The nave features a boarded timber floor, timber pews, and an open beamed roof with a boarded timber ceiling. The east end houses the altar, while a large pipe organ is located at the west end. Continuous pointed-arch arcading runs along the west, north, and east walls, supported by free-standing ashlar columns with foliate capitals, moulded arches, and spandrel motifs. An arcaded walkway with free-standing clustered columns and nook shafts framing the lancet windows is present at the clerestory level on the north and east walls.

The former hearse house and store is a single-storey, rectangular-plan, sandstone rubble building. It has a large two-leaf boarded timber door in the southwest gable, with a small pointed-arch opening above. The northeast gable features a pointed-arch window with Y-tracery. The southwest elevation has a boarded timber door in a shouldered-arch surround, alongside a small pointed-arch opening to the left. The roof is covered with grey slates and coped skews. The interior was not inspected in 1999. The sandstone gatepiers are square-plan with tiered pyramidal caps, supporting iron gates with a cross motif. The northern gatepier is adjoined by the south corner of the former hearse house.

The graveyard contains memorial stones ranging from table-top monuments and classically-detailed stones to obelisks, decorative grave slabs, and stones with carved memento-mori symbols. Post-medieval rubble boundary walls, partially rebuilt and of varying height, enclose the graveyard.