St John's Church, Gateshead Fell, is in Church Road,

Sheriff Hill Sheriff Hill is a suburb in the Metropolitan Borough of Gateshead in Tyne and Wear, England. It lies on the B1296 road south of Gateshead, south of Newcastle upon Tyne and north of the historic city of Durham. According to the 2001 UK censu ...

Gateshead Gateshead () is a town in the Gateshead Metropolitan Borough of Tyne and Wear, England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank. The town's attractions include the twenty metre tall Angel of the North sculpture on the town's southern outskirts, ...

Tyne and Wear Tyne and Wear () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England. It borders Northumberland to the north and County Durham to the south, and the largest settlement is the city of Newcastle upon Tyne. The county is ...

, England. It is an active

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in the deanery of Gateshead, the archdeaconry of Sunderland, and the

diocese of Durham The diocese of Durham is a diocese of the Church of England in North East England. The boundaries of the diocese are the historic boundaries of County Durham, meaning it includes the part of Tyne and Wear south of the River Tyne and contemporary ...

. The church is recorded in the

National Heritage List for England The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, ...

as a designated Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

. It was a

Commissioners' church A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglicanism, Anglican church in England or Wales built with money voted by Parliament of the United Kingdom, Parliament as a result of the (58 Geo. 3. ...

, having received a grant towards its construction from the Church Building Commission. The church stands at the highest point in Gateshead.

History

Section 12 of the Gateshead Inclosure Act 1809 ( 49 Geo. 3. c. cxxxv) set aside an acre of land at Gateshead Fell to build a church, and another act of Parliament passed the same day, the ( 49 Geo. 3. c. cxvi) decreed that there be a church built on it.MacKenzie, E & Ross, M (1834): ''An historical, topographical, and descriptive view of the county palatine of Durham'' p. 107 oclc 59482663. A grant of £1,000 () was given towards its construction by the Church Building Commission. Designed by John Ions, the

foundation stone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

was laid by Rev. John Collinson, at a "lofty eminence" on Sour Milk Hill, on 13 May 1824. Building continued into the next year and the church was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

on 30 August 1825. The total cost was £2,742 (). In the 1990s alterations were carried out at the rear of the church to create meeting rooms, toilets, and a kitchen.

Architecture

St John's is constructed in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

stone with a Welsh

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. Its architectural style is

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

. The plan of the church consists of a

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

, a short

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

, and a west tower with a spire. The tower also has diagonal

buttress A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es and an

embattled A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals t ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

. The windows along the sides of the church are lancets. The two- manual organ was made by

Harrison and Harrison Harrison & Harrison Ltd is a British company based in Durham that makes and restores pipe organs. It was established in Rochdale in 1861. It is well known for its work on instruments such as King's College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, and th ...

. It replaced an organ made in about 1929 by Blackett and Howden, and was installed in 2000. The organ was formerly in St Aidan's Church, Blackhill,

Consett Consett is a town in the County Durham (district), County Durham district, in the ceremonial county of County Durham, Durham, England, about south-west of Newcastle upon Tyne. It had a population of 27,394 in 2001 and an estimate of 25,812 in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gateshead Fell, St John's Church Church of England church buildings in Tyne and Wear Grade II listed churches in Tyne and Wear Churches completed in 1825 19th-century Church of England church buildings Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Tyne and Wear Diocese of Durham Commissioners' church buildings

History

Architecture

See also

References