Description

NZ 5233
8/76

HARTLEPOOL
Headland
HIGH STREET (north side),
Church of St. Hilda

(formerly listed under Church Walk)

31.3.49

GV
I
Church, c.1200, incorporating remains of early C12 church, on site of C7 monastery; aisles partly rebuilt C15; restored c.1724 and mid C19 by C. Hodgson Fowler; chancel partly rebuilt c.1870 by J.B Pritchett (Darlington) and 1925-32 by W.D Caröe, in Early English style, when whole church was restored. Mid C13 tower, restored 1838, 1893 and 1930. Late C13 Galilee chapel restored 1928; south porch 1932. Dressed limestone with roofs of Westmorland slate; stone slates to porch. Clerestoried and aisled nave and chancel, Bruce chapel (ambulatory), south porch, west tower with north and south aisles, and Galilee chapel.

Three-stage tower has angle buttresses, massive late C13 shoring walls on three sides and flying buttresses to south side. Vice at southwest angle is carried up as turret. Above tower aisles with renewed windows, are blind four bay arcades. Mid C12 west doorway of four chamfered orders, flanked by earlier doorway remains: two orders of shafts with stiff-leaf capitals and dogtooth moulding between them. North, south and west faces of middle stage have paired lancets behind two bay arcades with clock faces in spandrels. East face of upper stage has two lancets, other faces have two lancets behind four bay arcades. Embattled parapet has crocketed angle pinnacles. Galilee chapel adjoining west side of tower, has late C13 doorway of four chamfered orders. Buttressed six bay nave and four bay chancel have mid C13 lancet set behind partly blind three bay arcade in each bay of clerestories. Nave aisles have mid C19 windows. Altered early C12 round-headed south doorway of two lozenge-and-chevron moulded orders, those below springing moved outwards to allow third order of nook shafts. Two bay chancel aisles are spanned by flying buttresses and have paired lancets.

Single-bay Bruce chapel has tall grouped lancets and octagonal angle turrets. Tower has quadripartite vaulting to lower stage and tower arches on three sides, that to east being shouldered and of three orders; others of two orders; all with filleted keel and roll mouldings. North arcade of nave has five rolled and keeled orders on compound piers with circular abaci and octagonal bases. South arcade has five keeled orders and compound piers, each with circular abacus and chamfered circular plinth. Round wall-shafts to clerestories.

Chancel arcades similar to nave; two east bays rebuilt and blank but for lancets. Chancel arch of c.1200 has four moulded orders and compound responds of keeled, and filleted round shafts with waterleaf capitals and square abaci. Three bay lancet arcade divides Bruce chapel from chancel.

Font of c.1728: scalloped marble basin and baluster shaft, with wood crown cover. Oak rood screen, 1894, by C. Hodgson Fowler. Piscina in south aisle of chancel, has nailhead ornament. Late C16 brass on north aisle wall, has female figure and inscription. Late C7 grave marker with runic inscription, on south wall of chancel. Worn medieval grave slab with effigy, on late C13 chest tomb in Bruce chapel. Many Saxon and medieval architectural fragments throughout church.

Listing NGR: NZ5283633682

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Hilda's Church at Wikipedia
• Wikidata Q7593376

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

• 
  Cornwall (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Listed Buildings: The Law and Practice of History Buildings, Ancient Monuments and Conservation Areas
• 
  Development and Design of Heritage Sensitive Sites: Strategies for Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Kent: West and the Weald: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)