Nominal: 1401 Hz Weight: 541 lbs Diameter: 26.5" Bell 1 of 2
Founded by John Taylor & Co 1903
Dove Bell ID: 50906 Tower ID: 18273 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Bensham: St Chad
Diocese of Durham
Church, 613063
This church is on the Heritage at Risk Register (verified 2025-11-06)
View more information about this church on the Heritage at Risk website
Overview
Grid reference: NZ 249 617
Built 1900-1903 by William Searle Hicks of Hicks & Charlewood in late 14th-century Decorated and early Perpendicular style. Cruciform with aisles and an octagonal crossing tower. Retro-chapel and vestry extensions to east. An expensive and accomplished town church with important Arts-and-Crafts influenced furnishings. West end converted 1990, and family centre built in south churchyard.
Visiting and facilities
Building is open for worship
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
4-bay nave with aisles and transepts, crossing tower, north porch, 3-bay chancel with ambulatory, flanking vestry / organ chamber and south aisle chapel, east 3-bay retro-chapel of All Saints.
Dimensions:
[Approximate] Nave 30m (100ft) x 8m (35ft), chancel 8m 25ft) long
Footprint of Church buildings: 799 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
St Chad’s was built in 1900-03, designed by William Searle Hicks of Hicks and Charlewood, who also oversaw the design of the earlier fittings, employing local firms, particularly Ralph Hedley’s of Newcastle and the Newcastle Handicrafts Company. James Eadie-Reid (1868-1928) was the artist for the murals and panel paintings of the outer wings of the reredos (both since painted over), and the designer for many of the figurative panels in the woodwork, which were carved by James Taylor Ogleby. London-based Arts and Crafts specialists supplied many of the later fittings: Caroline Townshend (1878-1944) and Leonard Walker (1877-1964) for the stained glass; William Bainbridge-Reynolds (1855-1935) for the altar plate. Hicks died in 1902 before seeing St Chad’s dedicated.
The builder was Bewley’s of Dunston. The land was given by Lord Northbourne, but the money to build and furnish the church came from the very wealthy Emily Matilda Easton, whose portrait still hangs in the church. The church was furnished by a number of leading artists associated with the Arts-and-Crafts movement in the first decade of the century, invited by the first vicar, H C Windley. St Chad’s was the locus for a much wider circle of patronage, which included Walter de Lacey Willson (memorialised by Henry Payne’s south transept window at St Andrew’s, Roker and by a plaque in the church) and Bishop Arthur Thomas Lloyd of Newcastle, friend to Caroline Townshend’s uncle, the solicitor and Newcastle alderman Thomas George Gibson.
The church was built to serve the working class occupants of the housing estates around it, as a “cathedral for the workers”. A school, hall and institute were also provided, now gone, the social vision has remained. The curtilage on the south side houses the Family (Wellbeing) Centre and car park to serve it, and the west half of the church itself was converted in 1990 to house a family charity, St Chad’s Community Project, which was funded by the Church Urban Fund, Urban Programme and other charitable bodies as a response to Faith in the City. This has since moved out to bigger premises nearby.
Exterior Description
The church is a fine example of an archaeologically correct essay in the late 14th-century transition from Decorated to Perpendicular, and of triumphalist Anglo-Catholicism. There may be parallels with churches in Hick’s native Dorset and Sherborne Abbey in particular, but infused with the spirit of Arts-and-Crafts to avoid slavish copying to create something original, indeed this is Hicks’ late and last masterpiece. The quality of the golden stone which is so characteristic of Tyneside, the excellent and obviously expensive ashlar work, tracery and other features, all this cannot fail to impress, contrasting strongly with the tough urban setting.
The elegant octagonal crossing tower is the most obvious example of this invention, rising from squinches and festooned with battlements and a corona of crocketed pinnacles and a narrow fleche with vane, but not overpowering. It has traceried openings to each face, two of them partly blocked by attractive blue and gold lozenge clock faces. The articulation of the other components and the massing is also masterly. The building is unusually long because of the chapel of All Saints, set like a Medieval retro-chapel to the east of the chancel, and also the long chapel aisle and organ chamber / vestry flanking the chancel, but this length is balanced by the transepts and “pinned down” by the tower.
As noted above the tracery in the pointed windows (the exception being the 2-light clearstorey windows in square frames) is a mixture of very flamboyant Late Decorated style and early Perpendicular. The nave west end and chancel east wall have large 7-light windows, 5-lights to the transept end walls, 3-lights elsewhere. Bays have slender stepped buttresses, the corners with pinnacles. The fine north porch has its own recessed sharply gabled roof, and an elaborate carved surround to the doorway with symbols of the Evangelists and a carved tympanum, and three niches above it with figures of St Chad (holding a model of Lichfield Cathedral), with St Aidan on his right, and Theodore of Canterbury on his left.
Building Fabric and Features
Nave
20th century 4-bay nave with aisles and transepts
Tower (component)
20th century crossing tower
Porch
20th century north
Chancel
20th century 3-bay chancel with ambulatory
Vestry
20th century and organ chamber
Chapel (component)
20th century south aisle and east 3-bay retro-chapel of All Saints
Building Materials
Sandstone
20th century yellow local sandstone ashlar
Stone
20th century freestone dressings
Slate
20th century roofs
Interior
Interior Description
Moving inside through the porch, one enters a modern lobby, with toilets to one side - this is within the 1990 extension which occupies the western three bays of the nave and aisles. Stairs lead to a complex of upper rooms, suitable for meetings etc. Beyond this lobby on the ground floor is a large hall with well appointed kitchen on the south side. Double doors in the east wall lead into the worship area of the church.
The quality of the architecture and especially the furnishings and fittings is quite extraordinary – one can only imagine the effect if the walls had been covered with frescoes as planned. The slender continuous arcades and chancel arch capitals and the fine roofs, particularly the hammer-beam roof to the chancel, are of the highest quality. Behind the High Altar and over the arches to the ambulatory is a small but ornately carved singing loft, a unique feature for a Tyneside church.
It is however the woodwork, metalwork and stained glass which really impresses, particularly interesting the shift from the earliest stained glass by Percy Bacon in the chancel east window in a traditional style to the later more expressive glass by Walker and Townshend of a few years later. The woodcarving by the Newcastle-based workshop of Ralph Hedley (1848-1915) makes perhaps the greatest impact on the interior, in respect of the richly carved roofs and rood beam, screens, stall fronts, desks and reredos. The iron gates to the ambulatory, fine lamps, superb processional crosses and paschal candlestick by the Newcastle Handicrafts Company, all this could be a museum to Arts-and-Crafts in the North-East as well as contributing to a beautiful place of worship.
The remaining nave bay is pewed with good quality benches with plain ends, more elaborate oak choir stalls with poppyheads. Fine carved integrated Bishop’s chair and sedilia with elaborately carved canopies. Attractive marble floor in the sanctuary. The red carpet elsewhere and nave are considered necessary for modern use.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
20th century High altar has a carved and gilded chest (of a piece with the reredos), similar to Lady Chapel altar and chapel of All Saints.
Reredos
20th century oak carved and painted triptych with pinnacles, very fine, by James Taylor Ogleby, for Ralph Hedley's workshop, Newcastle
Pulpit
20th century Oak with tester, fine carving everywhere, the figure of the crucified Saviour lifted up on the cross, while the four lower panels represent four great sermons: St John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness, our Lord preaching on the Mount, St Peter on the day of Pentecost, and St Paul on Mars’ Hill at Athens. The statue of the Patron Saint stands on the newel post of the pulpit steps. By James Taylor Ogleby, for Ralph Hedley’s workshop, Newcastle.
Lectern
20th century Of oak, pelican feeding chicks with own blood, cf the cathedral. The four statuettes at the base represent Moses (the Law), Isaiah (the Prophets), St John (the Gospels) and St Paul (the Epistles). Carved prayer desk, Moses with “horns” of light, very dynamic and expressive. By James Taylor Ogleby, for Ralph Hedley’s workshop, Newcastle. Retractable lectern on hinge in All Saints Chapel.
Rail
20th century ornate carved oak communion rail
Font (component)
20th century Ornately carved octagonal Derbyshire alabaster font with white marble figures at each corner. The statuettes represent St Michael and four angels with shields bearing symbols of baptism and three figures representing Faith, Hope and Charity. Clustered column stem and square base. Equally ornate suspended oak font cover now fixed in position following its relocation to the east end of the south aisle.
Stained Glass (window)
20th century A collection of high quality and interest. North aisle: Window by Leonard Walker (a rare North-East commission), 1915, the Ascension. In memory of Emily Easton and her family (the Embletons). Chancel: Crucifixion in east window by Percy Bacon Bros Co, 1903. Also west window of 1903 donated by Ms Easton as a memorial to Hicks, with Old Testament scenes (the Creation, Moses with the Tabernacle, Abraham and Isiaah), as well as a number of saints including St Chad. The window is now cut across horizontally by the 1990 rooms. Chapel of All Saints: East window with St Mary the Virgin, St John, and the Good Shepherd by Caroline Townshend, dedicated 1904 in memory of the Bishop. South window by Caroline Townshend 1908 with Blake, Walton, Gilpin, More, Herbert and others, subjects chosen by the Vicar, HC Windley.
Plaque (component)
20th century There are many brass plaques and marble tablets, some very ornate, including one to the builder Isaac Bewley and various benefactors.
Clock
20th century By W M Potts & sons of Leeds c 1903, manual winding. Good.
Organ (component)
20th century 3-manual pipe organ 1907 by Abbot & Smith of Leeds, extended by Norman and Beard of Norwich 1915, elaborate Gothic case and gallery. Maintained by Harrison & Harrison of Durham.
Crucifix
20th century Outside the east end of the church was a calvary stone with a bronze crucifix and lead lettering. There are three steps at the sides of the monument and one at the front. Inscription: "Erected by the congregation and parishioners of St Chad’s in memory of those who served in the Great War 1914-1918. Grant O God peace to the living, rest to the dead".
Bells
Nominal: 699 Hz Weight: 1723 lbs Diameter: 44.5" Bell 2 of 2
Founded by John Taylor & Co 1903
Dove Bell ID: 50907 Tower ID: 18273 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Portable Furnishings and Artworks
registers dating from 1900
Churchyard
Grid reference: NZ 249 617
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Sources
Showing 6 entries of 6 View All
Quinquennial Inspections
Submit a change
If you notice something incorrect or missing, please explain it in the form below and submit it to our team for review.