Description

SUNDERLAND

NZ45SW RYHOPE ROAD
920-1/7/190 (East side)
08/05/50 Church of St Aidan
(Formerly Listed as:
RYHOPE ROAD, Grangetown
(East side)
Church of St Aidan)

GV II

Parish church. 1910-11. By C Hodgson Fowler, with the help of
anonymous gifts from Matilda Miller; completed in 1930 with
addition of S aisle, chancel, sanctuary and vestries to
original designs and in matching materials, through gifts from
George and Dorothy Short. Red brick with ashlar red sandstone
dressings; roof of plain tiles with red ridge tiles, with
stone gable copings; shingle roof on bellcote. Gothic style
with plinth, stepped buttresses and perpendicular tracery.
Aisled nave with N porch and vestries.
EXTERIOR: gabled nave has 5-light E window flanked by gabled
aisles. 5 nave bays defined by buttresses with continuous sill
string; 4-light pointed-arched aisle windows recessed in
chamfered surrounds of high pointed-arched panels springing
from buttresses at sill string. N gabled porch has steps up to
pointed arch with hollow-moulded chamfer; large band hinges on
boarded door; side buttresses below gabled kneelers and stone
gable coping. Similar door in W bay of S aisle. 3 E gables,
separated by high buttressses, have sill strings, the central
higher, to 6-light nave and 3-light aisle windows with
intermittent ashlar blocks supporting coping with gabled
kneelers; cross finials on aisles. 3 steeply pitched roofs;
bellcote near W end of nave has tall pyramidal spirelet of
shingles with swept eaves over louvres on shingle-covered
plinth; gabled covering to brick-sided vent of chimney at E
end of N aisle.
INTERIOR light and spacious; plaster above high panelled
wainscot; sandstone arcades; no formal chancel division. 4-bay
nave arcades have octagonal piers with brattished capitals and
double-chamfered pointed arches; narrow W baptistry bay; 2-bay
chancel with compound piers; no chancel arch, but paired
2-light roof lights over E bay of nave. Corbelled arch-braced
roof trusses have struts and king post on high collar; aisle
roof trusses on wall posts.
FITTINGS: side chapels have high-quality wood screens; low
choir screen with linenfold panelling; oak choir stalls,
communion rail and pulpit with perpendicular tracery; painted
tryptych reredos in sanctuary and in Lady Chapel. Octagonal
font of fine-grained red sandstone on compound shaft has low
relief religious scenes and inscription saying it was gift of
the children in 1911. High quality painted glass in E and W
windows.
(Corfe T: The Buildings of Sunderland 1814-1914: Newcastle:
1983-: 23; Milburn GE and Miller ST: Sunderland River, Town
and People: Sunderland: 1988-: 158).

Listing NGR: NZ4082654568

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26580340

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

• 
  Yorkshire: York and the East Riding (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Sussex: East with Brighton and Hove (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: West: The Buildings of England (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Old House Care and Repair