Church of St Thomas, Stanley Crook © DCC 24/11/09


Church of St Thomas, Stanley Crook © DCC 24/11/09


Church of St Thomas, Stanley Crook © DCC 24/11/09

Parish church. 1879. Snecked sandstone with ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roof with red ridge tiles and stone gable copings. Nave with south-west tower and south aisle, the westernmost bay a porch; chancel with north vestry. Geometrical style. Steeply-gabled porch has chamfered and moulded open 2-centred arch containing steps up to trefoil-headed door. Aisle windows paired under linked drip-moulds; tall north windows; paired 2-light west windows under roundel; 2- light chancel windows and large 3-light east window in stepped 5-arch arcade. Tall round tower has stair slits in 2 lower stages and octagonal belfry has 4 stone-louvred openings under gabled drip-moulds; octagonal stone spire, the faces ribbed, has stone and iron finial. Geometric tracery in windows, those in north and south having flattened 2-centred heads under 2-centred drip-moulds; the larger windows have 2-centred heads. Continuous sill string, stepped to chancel windows, around tower and buttresses, those of nave and chancel east walls diagonal. Foundation stone dated 1875 in north-east buttress. Steeply- pitched roofs have flat gable copings and stone cross finials.

Interior: painted plaster with ashlar arcade and dressings; boarded panelled nave roof in 5 planes, chancel roof in 4, continuing to wall frieze panels. 3-bay arcade has double-chamfered 2-centred arches on round columns with moulded capitals; easternmost capital continuous with chancel sill string which is stepped to east window and forms drip-mould to large north organ arch. Foliage- stopped drip-moulds. Tall chancel arch, with chamfer and roll-moulding, rests on polished grey granite shafts with crocket capitals and stone corbels. Caen stone pulpit has blind arcade with tracery; panel facing west filled with high- relief vine carving; red marble shafts to arcade. Similar materials for quatrefoil font. Reredos has wood arcade framing painted panels of Lord's Prayer, Commandments and Creed. C19 and C20 glass includes south aisle windows by Atkinson Bros. of Newcastle. (1)

Known to contain a stained glass window dedicated as a war memorial and a roll of honour from the Mission Church at Sunniside that was run as part of this church (2-3).