A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



was carried out in 1889, when the plaster was removed 

 from the walls on the north side, the floor relaid, an 

 organ chamber crectej in the angle of the south aisle 

 and chancel, and new oak seating substituted for the 

 old pews, wliich were used as panelling round the 

 walls. The larger north-west vestry was added in 1 896. 



The church throughout is built of wrought stone. 

 The east gable of the chancel h.is been rebuilt, and 

 the east window is a modern pointed one of four tre- 

 foiled lights with tracery in the head. The chancel 

 roof is covered with slates overhanging at the eaves, 

 and is considerably lower than that of the nave. The 

 chancel was lighted on the south side by two pointed 

 14th-century windows, one of which remains near the 

 east end. It consists of three lights, with flowing 

 tracery of good design and external hood mould, 

 but the cuspings have been cut away. The other 

 window was removed when the organ chamber was 

 erected and Inserted in its eastern wall. It is of two 

 trefoiled lights with a quatrefoil in the head. The 

 chancel walls are without plinth or string-course. 

 The only remains of the ancient ritual arrangements 

 in the chancel consist of a piscina with semicircular 

 moulded head ornamented in the hollow with a line 

 of four-leaved flowers — a very beautiful piece of work. 

 The bowl projects, and is slightly carved on the 

 underside. The north side of the chancel is open to 

 the chapel by an arcade of two wide pointed arches 

 of two chamfered orders springing from an octagonal 

 pier with moulded capital and base, and from similar 

 responds, the western one being, however, practically a 

 pier built up against the older masonry of the nave 

 wall. The chapel is 17 ft. in width, but slightly less 

 in length than the chancel, its east wall setting back 

 externally about 2 ft., and is lighted on the north side 

 by two 1 5th-century segmental-headed windows, each 

 of two cinquefoiled lights and perpendicul.ir tracery. 

 The east window is modern. The chancel .irch is 

 a sharply pointed one of two chamfered orders, the 

 inner springing on the north side from the western 

 pier, or respond, of the chancel arcade, and the outer 

 dying into the wall above. The arch is probably 

 a rebuilding in the old position of an earlier one 

 demolished when the chapel was erected. On the 

 south side it springs from a half-octagonal respond 

 with capital and base corresponding to the piers on the 

 north side of the chancel. All the fittings are modern. 

 There is no chancel screen, but the easternmost bay 

 of the north arcade is filled with an oak screen erected 

 in 1889. At its west end the chapel is separated from 

 the north nave aisle by a badly-shaped wide pointed 

 arch of a single chamfered order. 



The nave is of two bays with three square-headed 

 clearstoried windows of two pointed lights on the 

 south side, and a modern slated roof On the north 

 side are two blocked clearstory windows, now seen 

 only from the inside, the later flat-pitched roof 

 covering them externally. The line of the old roof 

 and north clearstory is still visible in the east gable 

 of the nave, the raise J portion of which Is built upon 

 the old walling. The south aisle is under a separate 

 lean-to slated roof The north arcade consists of 

 two wide pointed arches of unequal spacing. They 

 are of two orders, springing from an octagonal pier 

 with moulded capital and from long responds of 

 similar type. The detail of the capitals seems to 

 indicate a date about the middle or latter half of 



the 1 3th century. The wall is 3 ft. thick, and 

 the openings respectively 18 ft. 9 in. and 19 ft. in 

 width. Both arches of the south arcade are of two 

 chamfered orders, and spring directly without 

 capital or impost from an undivided octagonal pier 

 and from similar responds at each end. The west 

 f.ice of the eastern respond has been cut away, the 

 inner order of the arch being cut back to accom- 

 modate it, and the western arch, which, owing to its 

 greater width, is aLo higher than the other, has been 

 entirely rebuilt. The work in its original state prob- 

 ably belonged to the latter half of the 14th century, 

 but it contains so little architectural detail that a later 

 date might be argued for it. 



Both aisles extend the full length of the nave. All 

 the windows are modern. The south aisle east of the 

 porch was formerly divided into three bays externally 

 by buttresses with a window to each bay, but the 

 easternmost buttress has been removed and a window 

 inserted in its place instead of the two which formerly 

 existed. The aisle is now open at its east end to the 

 organ chamber, which projects externally in front of 

 it. A piscina with plain semicircular head remains 

 in the south wall in the usual position, but the bowl 

 has been mutilated. Built into the wall above is part 

 of a trefoil-headed niche with a crocketed canopy 

 supported by small human figures of late 14th or 

 I 5th-century date. Six ancient fragments found in 

 1889, Including the two consecration crosses, are built 

 into the cast wall above the arch. The nave and north 

 aisle retain their flat plaster ceilings. The south 

 doorway has a pointed arch of two chamfered orders, 

 and the outer arch of the porch is of a single cham- 

 fered order with hood mould, and an ogee-headed 

 niche above. The porch has a stone seat on each 

 Side. 



The tower, the greater length of which is from 

 north to south, is of three stages marked by chamfered 

 set-backs, and has diagonal buttresses of five stages to 

 the height of the belfry floor, above which they are 

 continued with less projection to the embattled para- 

 pet, terminating as angle pinnacles. The lower stage 

 is blank on the north and south sides, but has a west 

 window of three pointed lights under a flat arch. 

 There is a dwarf buttress below. The middle stage 

 is blank except for a slit in the south and west sides, 

 and the walls are without plinth except to the but- 

 tresses. The belfry windows are of two trefoiled 

 lights with rounded head, from the middle of which 

 rises a small pilaster shaft going up In front of the 

 parapet, and terminating in an intermediate pinnacle. 

 A clock dating from 1864 has a dial on each side 

 immediately below the belfry windows. The tower 

 arch is of lancet form, and consists of two chamfered 

 orders dying into the wall high up at the springing. 

 There is no vice, access to the upper stages being by an 

 iron ladder. 



An organ was erected in 1853, but the present 

 instrument dates from 1889. In 1863 the pews were 

 of oak and had quaint iron 'snecks' on their doors. 



The font and pulpit and all the fittings are modern. 



A monument ' richly executed ' to the memory of 

 James Bellasis of ' Owten,' who died in 1640, was 

 removed from the north wall of the church in 1850 

 and placed in the belfry, but was broken up in 1852.' 



^ The monumental inscriptions are given in Surteei, loc. cil. 



374 



