A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



26 ft. 8 in. by 8 ft. 6 in., south porch and west tower 

 I oft. gin. square, all these measurements being 

 internal. 



The fragment of a pre-Conquest stone carved on 

 two sides was found in 1908 built into the buttress 

 on the north side of the chancel and is now in the 

 porch. The oldest parts of the existing fabric, how- 

 ever, are the south doorway, the jambs of the chancel 

 arch and portions of the north wall of the nave, 

 which are all that remains of a 12th-century church, 

 consisting of an aisleless nave, apparently of the same 

 dimensions as still exist, and a chancel. Some 

 work appears to have been done in the i 3th century, 

 two fragments having been found in 1 908, one with 





EOCLESCLIFFK ChURCH FROM THK NoRTH-EAST 



the dog-tooth and the other with a nail-head orna- 

 ment, and the bowl of the piscina in the chancel is 

 of this period. The building then seems to have 

 remained unaltered till the 15th century when the 

 Aislaby chapel on the south side of the nave, later 

 known as Hindraers' or Pemberton's porch, was 

 added. The 11th-century chancel, which was the 

 same width as the nave, was entirely rebuilt at the 

 same time or shortly after, the tower erected, and 

 the nave considerably altered, all the windows now 

 being of 15th-century date. In 1633 the chancel 

 was reported to be in good repair, but the south 

 chapel, ' called Hindmers' porch,' was in great decay.' 

 The chapel was then apparently restored and other 

 repairs done to the building. In the latter part of 

 the I 7th century under Cosin's episcopate the chancel 

 roof was renewed and new fittings, including chancel 

 screen and stalls and seating to the nave, were 

 inserted. A slated roof replaced the old leaded one 



over the nave between 181 i and 1814, and a flat 

 plaster ceiling was erected at the same time. The 

 interior was restored in 1864, when the ceiling was 

 taken down and the walls plastered. The vestry 

 and organ chamber were added in 1908. The tower 

 was repaired and electric light ins ailed in 1926. 



The church throughout is built of rubble masonry, 

 and the roof of the chancel, which is covered with 

 blue slates,'" is lower than that of the nave. The 

 walls of the nave finish with embattled parapets, and 

 the roof is covered with blue slates, but the south aisle 

 or chapel is under a lean-to leaded roof behind a 

 straight parapet. 



The chancel has a five-light pointed east window 



with perpendicular 

 tracery, and two win- 

 dows of three cinque- 

 foiled lights on the 

 south side with four- 

 centred labelled heads. 

 A single window of 

 similar type originally 

 existed on the north 

 side near the west end, 

 but was reset in the 

 north wall of the organ 

 chamber in 1908. The 

 I 7th-century oak roof 

 is in three bays with 

 two end and two 

 middle curved princi- 

 pals and moulded pur- 

 lins. The principals 

 are carried down the 

 walls and rest on 

 carved oak corbels. At 

 the east end of the 

 south wall in the usual 

 position is an ogee- 

 headed piscina, with a 

 broken 13th-century 

 bowl, having a base of a shaft on each side. Adjoining 

 is a triple sedile with four-centred arches and attached 

 shafts with moulded capitals and bases. The recesses 

 are only 7 in. in depth and originally had apparently 

 movable seats of wood. Immediately west of the sedile 

 is a four-centred priest's doorway. The floor is flagged 

 and the west end of the north wall is open to the 

 organ chamber. The pointed chancel arch is of two 

 chamfered orders with hood mould towards the nave 

 springing from the older square responds and cham- 

 fered imposts. 



The nave has two windows on the north side 

 similar to those in the chancel, the easternmost 

 being old, the other a restoration. There is 

 also a window of two cinquefoiled lights on the 

 south side between the tower and the porch and a 

 built-up doorway in the north wall. The nave 

 roof is modern, plastered between the principals. 

 The chapel is open to the nave towards the east end 



Ww.. 



' Visitation by Archdeacon Clarke, 

 12 Mar. 1635, quoted by Surtecs, Hisi, 

 and Ami q. of Dur. iii, 200. * The south 

 window, which is dammed upp, to be 

 opened. The cloclc in decay.' A coat 

 bearing a hunting horn stringed was for- 

 merly in the east window, mention being 

 made of Thomas Bellingham and Anne 

 hit wife, who had caused the window to 



be made ; the figures of the benefactors 

 and their children were below (Harl. MS. 

 1540 [2], fol. 35 ; in a copy of the 

 Visitation of 1575). There is a similar 

 hunting horn with strings on a shield 

 carved on one of the bosses of the chancel 

 roof. Thomas Bellingham was rector in 

 1444, and a family named Bellingham 

 including a Thomas lived in Aislaby about 



230 



1680. On another boss ii a Tudor rose. 

 On the corbel of the chancel roof nearest 

 the east wall on the south side is the head 

 of an elderly bearded man perhaps re- 

 presenting Thomas Bellingham. 



'" The roof, like that of the nave, was 

 originally covered with lead and is so 

 shown in Surtees' illustration (c. 1823) 

 op. cit. iii, 199. 



