Description

BISHOP AUCKLAND

NZ22NW NEWGATE STREET
634-1/5/107 (West side)
Wesley Methodist Church and attached
railings

GV II

Wesleyan Methodist Church with railings attached. 1908-1914.
By Gordon & Gunter. Builder Thomas Hilton. Foundation stone
laid 1912.
MATERIALS: rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings. Stone from
Witton-le-Wear. Roof Lakeland slate with red ridge tiles.
PLAN: modified C14 style. Chancel with south-east boiler
house, north vestry and south organ chamber; aisled nave with
short transepts; west vestibule with north-west tower porch
and north-east meeting room. Oriented north-south.
EXTERIOR: high east window has plate tracery to 5 lights, the
central 3 transomed, with cusped tracery. 2 groups of 3
stepped lancets in clerestory, and 3 paired lights with simple
pointed tracery in long straight vestry window. Boiler house
breaks forward at left and has paired lights flanking door
under continuous lintel. Inscription from street of cottages
formerly on this site, BROUGHAM PLACE, set in boiler house
wall. Vestry to right has low pointed arch to chamfered
surround of door, and plain window to right.
Transepts of same depth as aisles, with high transept lights
similar to east window. 4 lower aisle windows, recessed in
plain surrounds, have 5 cusped lights in pointed arches with
long voussoirs extending to moulded parapets, bays defined by
diagonal pilasters with crocketed pinnacles. Transept and
vestry have similar parapets, with raised panel over vestry
and ball finial on transept gable.
Clerestory has 4 groups of 3 stepped lancets. Tower has 2
stages, the second very tall. Steps up to double boarded doors
on north with elaborate hinges and cusped overlight in pointed
triple chamfered surround with flower-stopped dripmould.
Polygonal angle buttresses to second stage flank corbel table
with Tudor flowers. Long diagonal shafts to paired louvred
belfry opneings with cusped tracery and transoms. Clock faces
above. String to parapet with high pierced battlements with
blind tracery panels and crocketed angle spirelets.
West elevation has paired arched entrances with boarded doors
deeply recessed under triple chamfered heads. Meeting room
entrance breaks forward at right with half-glazed boarded door
in double chamfered surround, 1:3:1 stone mullioned lights
above, and rainwater heads with Tudor flower decoration.
INTERIOR has ashlar arcades and arch braced hammer beam nave
roof, scissor trusses to chancel roof. Dripstring over moulded
pointed arches on chamfered piers with tongue-stopped bases.
High triple chamfered chancel arch has ballflower stops to
dripmould. Similar stops to wide Tudor arch to organ.
FITTINGS: wooden fittings include, altar with trefoil piering
and Tudor-arched reredos, pulpit and lectern carved oak. Oak
font a WWII memorial. Pews boarded with shaped ends.
STAINED GLASS: east window high quality stained glass is WWI
memorial, showing St George below Christ and the Centurion.
Other windows have central floral motifs. Vestibule has
foundation stone in west wall.
SUBSIDIARY FEATURES: walls, piers, gates and railings enclose
yard between boiler house, vestry, Newgate Street and lane on
south. Paving of yard includes inscription stone from previous
Methodist chapel: WESLEYAN CHAPEL ERECTED 1842 in well-cut
Roman capitals. Rock-faced stone walls have chamfered coping.
Wrought-iron railings and gate have panels of Art Nouveau
style with bud and leaf patterns. Some railings damaged at
time of survey (1991).

Listing NGR: NZ2099829461

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26491100

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

• 
  Hampshire: South (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  This Old House: Restoring, Rehabilitating, and Renovating an Older House
• 
  Wiltshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Devon (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Northumberland (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)