Church of St Paul 2007


Extruded Bell Tower with Spire, Church of St Paul 2007

Parish church. 1879 by Austin, Johnson and Hicks of Newcastle for patrons John and Edward Joicey. Dressed sandstone and graduated green slate roofs. Continuous, aisleless nave and chancel; north and south transepts; south porch on nave; 2 north vestries on chancel; extruded bell tower with spire between chancel and south transept. Austere Perpendicular style.

4-bay nave and 2-bay chancel under continuous roof. Chancel taller than nave owing to slope of ground. Chamfered plinth and sill bands. Windows with leaded panes, iron glazing bars and cusped trefoil-headed lights. Nave: tall pointed 4-light west window; 2 square-headed 4-light windows on north and south; pointed south doorway in porch. Chancel windows set high: 3 and 2-light square- headed windows on south; pointed 3-light window on angle-buttressed east end. Steeply-pitched roof carried down at west end of nave to form pent roof of wide porch. Porch has carved wood screen with shaped bench-ends and 3-centred arch. Lower twin-gabled and angle-buttressed transepts; each with two 3-light pointed windows under hoodmoulds. Gabled choir vestry has Tudor-arched doorway and 2-light mullioned window. Vicar's vestry to east has 5-light mullioned window and a pent roof carried directly down from the chancel roof. Tall and slender, octagonal-plan bell tower on square base: 2 stages plus belfry and spire; belfry has square-headed 2-light openings and an embattled parapet; short octagonal-plan stone spire.

Plain and plastered interior. Wide double-chamfered chancel arch dying into wall. 2-bay arcades, with similar arches and central octagonal piers, divide transepts from nave. Panelled chancel with mosaic sanctuary floor. 1892 east window by C.E. Kempe of London. Compartmented barrel roofs to nave and chancel.

Contains a number of features dedicated as war memorials (1-2).