Description

BISHOP AUCKLAND

NZ2029NE PRINCES STREET 634-1/11/111 (North side) 24/04/87 Church of St Peter

GV II

Parish church with hall, piers and railings attached. 1873-5. By RJ Johnson. MATERIALS: thin courses of squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; purple slate roofs with stone gable copings and copper-covered church tower. PLAN: church: apsidal chancel with N vestry and SE tower; aisled nave with NW choir vestry. EXTERIOR: C14 style with cusped reticulated and intersecting tracery and coped, stepped buttresses rising from deeply-sloped plinth. Windows mostly 2-centered arches, all with dripmoulds and sill strings. E apse windows, with Perpendicular tracery with daggers in top panels, separated by prominent buttresses each with 4 offsets. SE tower has 2 stages, the first very high with 2-centred windows and the 2nd with groups of 3 lancets, those on W on sloped sill. E stair turret tower cornice. N and S elevations, the S forming the principal street front, have 4-light windows formed by buttresses which define bays; square-headed windows in west bays, that on S the baptistry which projects slightly and has shallow buttresses. Roll-moulded gabled parapet. W elevation has square-headed aisle windows with reticulated tracery flanking prominent, high buttresses. Central W door in double-chamfered surround in projection under large 7-light window in gable and 2-light window in gable peak; boarded doors have wrought-iron tendril hinges. NW choir vestry projects to N of door. Steeply-pitched roof with hipped projection over SW baptistry in S aisle. Pyramidal roof to tower, gabled to vestry. INTERIOR: plaster with ashlar dressings; painted timber roof. 6-bay nave arcades have hoodstring over high, pointed, hollow-chamfered arches. Octagonal ashlar piers with moulded bases and capitals. Similar organ arch. Panelled boarded ceiling and moulded frieze painted in strong primary colours. Windows have dripmoulds and irregular block jambs. Shouldered surround to NE boarded vestry door, pointed-arched surround to NW studded vestry door, both with wrought-iron band hinges. One step to choir in E bay of arcade, one step to sanctuary and one to altar. Chancel oak-panelled to commemorate diamond jubilee of church in 1935, top panels with blind tracery, incorporating carved frieze probably earlier with radiating leaves flanking quatrefoils. Carved wood Perpendicular reredos painted in bright colours with blind tracery, pinnacles and canopies. Canopied niche to S of altar. Brass Communion rail on scrolled and tied wrought-iron balustrade. Wood pulpit has open tracery and 5 steps. Tabernacle transferred to S aisle chapel S wall. Octagonal stone pedestal font in S aisle at W end is 1875 gift from King James I Grammar School. Stained glass in E windows WWI memorial. Low relief bronze panel on N chancel wall records names of dead 1914-1918, framed by angel with flowing drapery holding a loosely-furled flag; smaller WWII panel. Boarded pews have blind quatrefoil over umbrella rails in shaped ends; churchwardens' staffs; open tracery in screen to front pew. Plaque in S aisle commemorates baptism on 21 October 1891 of Arthur Stanley Jefferson, Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy. Hall: attached to W of church by one-storey link with mullion windows. One storey, 1 x 2 windows. Gable to street has relieving arch over tall mullion and transom window of 3 stepped lights; flat stone gable coping on chamfered kneelers. Right return to yard has double panelled door and 2-pane overlight; trefoil carved in soffit of chamfered pointed arch with flower-stopped dripmould. Flanking 2-light stone mullion windows, the right partly blind and crossed by external stair with iron balustrade to attic door breaking eaves. SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: 2 tall piers to yard have coped buttresses to street, and stepped hipped coping with moulded ridge; spike railings on chamfered wall end in 3rd pier attached to church.

Listing NGR: NZ2081129684

External Links

• Wikidata Q26580167

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Recommended Books

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  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
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  Herefordshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
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  Hampshire: Winchester and the North (The Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)