St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street
St Mary and St Cuthbert | |
---|---|
Parish church of St Mary and St Cuthbert | |
Bishop of Lindisfarne | |
Administration | |
Diocese | Durham |
Clergy | |
Rector | Matthew Strand |
Assistant priest(s) | Dave Edmondson |
Curate(s) | Miriam Wakefield |
The parish church of St Mary and St Cuthbert is a Church of England church in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, England. The site has been used for worship for over 1100 years; elements of the current building are over 950 years old. The oldest surviving translation of the Gospels into English was done here, by Aldred between 947 and 968, at a time when it served as the centre of Christianity from Lothian to Teesside.
St Cuthbert's community
The church was established to house the body of
They built a wooden church and shrine for St Cuthbert's relics, dedicating it to St Mary and St Cuthbert. Though there was no shortage of stone in the ruins of Concangis they did not build a stone church; it has been suggested they did not intend to stay for as long as they eventually did. It was built within the Roman fort, which although abandoned over five hundred years before may have still offered some protection,[4] as well as access north and south along Cade's Road and to the sea by the River Wear.
This was also a
Most notable among their treasures were the
Church building
The oldest parts of the building that can be dated, to 1056 when a stone church was built to replace the wooden shrine to St Cuthbert, are the walls of the chancel and the two largest pillars now near the centre of the nave. The church then would have been a third shorter and much narrower, as wide as the chancel today. Lewis holes visible in two stones on a front buttress show that Roman stone was used in later construction.[11]
The church was extended around 1267 with the
The collegiate church was dissolved during the
In 1862 major
List of Incumbents
Bishops
- Eardulf (883-900)
- Cutheard (900-915)
- Tilred (915-928)
- Wigred
- Utchred
- Sexhelm (947)
- Aldred
- Elfsig
- Aldune
Deans
- Mervin
- Waleran
- Iolanus
- Robert
- Waleran
- Robert le Bursar
- Walter de Clifford
- Magister Alan de Esingwalde
Rectors
- William de Marclan
- Roger de Gillyng
- John de Sculthorpe
- John de Kyngeston
- John de Derby
- Thomas de Hexham
- John de Ashbourn
- John de Newton
- John Bawdwyn
- John Balswell
- Robert Chamber
- Thomas Keye
- Richard Layton
- William Warren
Perpetual Curates
- George Brome
- William Massey
- Bryan Adamson
- Thomas Lyddall
- Robert Willis
- Robert Hunter
- William Hume
- Edmund Browne
- Nicholas Conyers
- Nathaniel Chilton
- William Lambe
- Francis Milbanke
- Lewis Powell
- John Nelson
- William Nesfield (1789-1828)
- Thomas Hyde Ripley (1828-1865)
- Robert Kirwood (1865-1872)
- Canon William Octavius Blunt (1872-1895)
- Alrued Bayford de Moleyns (1895-1919)
- Canon Frank Hilton Jackson (1919-1936)
- Hubert Seed Wilkinson (1936-1940)
- Canon Charles Reginald Appleton (1940-1958)
- Anthony Spurr (1959-1971)
- Patrick Allen Blair (1971-1977)
- Ian Bunting (1978-1987)
Burials
- John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham
- Ralph de Lumley, 1st Baron Lumley
In Art and Literature
The Lumley effigies are reflected upon in Letitia Elizabeth Landon's poetical illustration The Aisle of Tombs to an engraving of a painting by Thomas Allom in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836: 'All their meaner part hath perished, In the earth at rest; And the present hour hath cherished What of them was best.'[16]
Millenary Festival
A thousand years! What a crowd of associations are suggested by these words. What thronging memories of the past, what solemn reflections of the present, what anxious hopes and fears for the future. A thousand years! What changes have taken place in this long lapse of time. How many nations have risen and fallen; how many tongues have died out; how many famous names have been forgotten. A thousand years ago!
In 1883 the thousandth anniversary of the founding of the church was celebrated, from 18 July to 5 August. To mark the occasion the church was given a major facelift, with some new oak stalls and an oak screen for the chancel, a new
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The interior before renovations done in 1883.
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The church from the northwest.
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A view over Chester-le-Street towards Lumley Castle.
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Stones found at the church and nearby, now at The Ankers House.
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The shaft of anAnglo-Saxoncross, now at The Ankers house.
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Two of the original bells (cast in 1409).
Bells
The belfry at the church dates back over 600 years and originally housed three bells. A new ring of six was cast by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough in 1883; two of the original bells were melted down and the metal included in the new ring. In 1908 two further bells (again by Taylor's) were added to the front of the ring to give eight, hung for change ringing. One of the original bells from 1409 still survives as an "odd ninth" and is used as a service bell: it is recognised as having national historic importance. The bells are used before services on Sundays, with practice on Friday evenings.[20][21][22]
Lindisfarne Gospels
The
Anchorage and Ankers House Museum
Attached to the church is the former anchorage, one of the few surviving to this day and described as the most complete example of its kind in England. It was created by blocking off one corner of a church in the late 14th century, with an extra room added externally in the 16th century. Originally it was on two levels, but the floor was removed at some point to allow more space and light. From 1383 to 1547 it was occupied by six
It was used in this way until the
Footnotes
- ^ Selkirk 2000, pp. 333, 336–337.
- ^ Low Low 1881, p. 107.
- ^ Simeon, Stevenson 1855, pp. 495, 664.
- ^ a b Bonner, Standcliffe, Rollason 1989, pp. 367–374.
- ^ Selkirk 2000, p. 338.
- ^ "The Lindisfarne Gospels Tour; Text". British Library. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ "The Lindisfarne Gospels". Lindisfarne the Holy Island. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ a b "The Lindisfarne Gospels". BBC. Retrieved 22 February 2010.
- ^ Low Low 1881, p. 109.
- ^ Selkirk 2000, pp. 338–340.
- ^ Selkirk 2000, p. 51.
- ^ a b c d "Keys To The Past, Ref No D11004, Chester-le-Street, Church of St Mary & St Cuthbert; Listed building". Archived from the original on 16 June 2011. Retrieved 28 September 2010.
- ^ a b c d "St Mary and St Cuthbert | Church Building". Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ "Ankers House and St Mary and St Cuthbert's Church". Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ "Harrison & Harrison organ catalogue by name C". Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1835). "poetical illustration". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. Fisher, Son & Co.Landon, Letitia Elizabeth (1835). "picture". Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1836. Fisher, Son & Co.
- ^ Blunt 1883, p. 198.
- ^ Blunt 1883, pp. 188–190.
- ^ Blunt 1883.
- ^ "Chester le Street—SS Mary & Cuthbert". Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers. 7 June 2006. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ "Database of historically important bells and bell frames". Churchcare. Church of England. 22 November 2007. Archived from the original on 29 July 2010. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
enter "chester le street" in the "Parish or Location" field, and click "Search the database"
- ^ Blunt 1883, p. 189.
- ^ "St Mary and St Cuthbert | Lindisfarne Gospels". Retrieved 16 February 2010.
- ^ "The Lindisfarne Gospels". The Northumbrian Association. Archived from the original on 20 June 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2010.
- ^ Blunt 1883, pp. 13–14.
- ^ "St Mary and St Cuthbert | Ankers House". Retrieved 16 February 2010.
References
- Simeon of Durham; Stevenson, Joseph (1855). The Historical Works of Simeon of Durham.
- Low Low, John (1881). Durham. OCLC 384311.
- Blunt, William O. (1884). A Thousand Years of The Church in Chester-Le-Street. London: Wells Gardner, Darton & Co. OCLC 31920515.
- Gerald Bonner; David Rollason; Clare Stancliffe, eds. (1989). St Cuthbert, His Cult and His Community to 1200. Woodbridge: ISBN 0-85115-610-X.
- Peter F Ryder (March 1993). "St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester - le - Street, An Archaeological Assessment" (PDF). Church of England, Diocese of Durham.
- Selkirk, Raymond (2000). Chester-le-Street & Its Place in History. Birtley, County Durham: Casdec Print & Design Centre. ISBN 1-900456-05-2.
External links
- A church near you St Mary & St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street
- Church of St Mary & St Cuthbert record from Historic England
- Chester-le-Street history with information on the Church and St Cuthbert
- Early Church in Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street Heritage Group