Description

SUNDERLAND

NZ4057 SAINT PETER'S WAY 920-1/12/207 (East side (off)) 08/05/50 Church of St Peter (Formerly Listed as: DAME DOROTHY STREET (South side) Church of St Peter)

GV I

Formerly known as: Church of St Peter CHURCH STREET Monkwearmouth. Formerly separate churches of St Peter and St Mary. Monastic church, now parish church. 674-5 first church, of which survive west wall and 2-storey gabled W porch which is now the lower stages of the tower, for Benedict Biscop the founder. Upper stages of tower before 1000. Rest of church by end C14. Nave and chancel much altered in C19: chancel arch removed early C19, N aisle rebuilt and E window reproduced 1875-6 by Austin and Johnson. Interior and roof rebuilt 1985? after fire. Rubble with quoins and C19 ashlar dressings; renewed Lakeland slate roof with stone gable copings. Nave and N aisle; W tower; chancel with S organ chamber. EXTERIOR: E elevation has clasping buttresses and a central buttress below 5-light window with decorated tracery; small top light with ogee tracery; east front of north chancel organ chamber has pent extension with 2-light cusped tracery in pointed-arched window above. South chancel wall has 2 square-headed 2-light windows with tracery. South transept has 3-light window in style of east window under steep gable; nave has dripmoulds over 4 renewed 3-light south windows; North paired transept gables have 2 windows; north aisle has 3 3-light windows as in nave, with angle buttresses. West elevation shows single high light half-obscured by tower fourth stage. 5-stage tower has open-arched porch with 3 round-headed arches on impost blocks, the W arch with balusters supporting eroded low-relief carving of interlace-type animals. Next stage has single round-headed opening; above this, in former gable, an eroded figure; fourth stage a single plain arched light; belfry has 2 arched lights with baluster mullion; small blocked roundel above. INTERIOR: porch barrel-vaulted. West wall shows sequence of alterations including low wide arch. Nave arcade pointed arches on round piers. Chancel floor has ochre and terracotta coloured tiles repeating motif of figures at west door jambs among other medieval motifs, and inlaid bands of marble. Exhibition panels and cases of finds from excavation displayed in north transept. Organ chamber now with arch blocked to form upper meeting room. Glass includes two lights by Kempe in north transept; other glass by LC Evetts. Ground to south of church a Scheduled Ancient Monument. (Corfe T and Milburn G: Buildings and Beliefs: Sunderland: 1984-: 4-5; Medieval Archaeology: Cramp R: Article: 24-42).

Listing NGR: NZ4016857783

External Links

• St Peter's Church at Wikipedia
• St Peter's Church official website
• Wikidata Q7595266

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Somerset: South and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings, Conservation Areas and Monuments
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)