Whitworth Parish Church
WHITWORTH PARISH CHURCH, STANNER'S LANE
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1121448
- Date first listed:
- 30-Mar-1951
- List Entry Name:
- Whitworth Parish Church
- Statutory Address:
- WHITWORTH PARISH CHURCH, STANNER'S LANE
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 1999-08-04
- Reference:
- IOE01/00778/21
- Rights:
- © Mr Brian Wilcockson. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1121448
- Date first listed:
- 30-Mar-1951
- List Entry Name:
- Whitworth Parish Church
- Statutory Address 1:
- WHITWORTH PARISH CHURCH, STANNER'S LANE
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- WHITWORTH PARISH CHURCH, STANNER'S LANE
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- County Durham (Unitary Authority)
- Parish:
- Spennymoor
- National Grid Reference:
- NZ 23560 34712
Details
NZ 23 SW SPENNYMOOR STANNER'S LANE (East side, off) Whitworth
5/72 Whitworth 30/3/51 Parish Church
GV II
Parish church; dedication unknown. 1808 rebuilding of nave of church of unknown date; 1850 improvement and addition of chancel and vestry; vestry extended 1930. Roughly-coursed squared sandstone; east elevation rubble; ashlar plinth and dressings. Roof graduated Lakeland slate with stone gable copings. Nave with south porch; chancel with north vestry. Porch has high gable over diagonally-boarded door,with elaborate hinges, in chamfered surround with shafts and head-stopped dripmould: sundial in gable peak. 3-bay nave and 2-bay chancel have lancet windows with dripmoulds; flat sills in nave; bays defined by buttresses, angle at corners, with offsets; chancel sill string continuing round buttresses, and stepped up to 3 stepped east lancets. 2-light west window under dripmould; gabled bellcote, with bell and wheel in 2-centred arch, on west gable coping. North vestry door dated 1930. At west, 2 pent extensions dated 1935 have open roofs on pilasters, sheltering 2 effigies transferred from churchyard. At north a much-eroded female figure with long drapery; at south a late-C13 knight in chain mail, holding shield and wearing flat-topped cylindrical helm with eye-slits; feet on twisted figure in tunic; dog lies by his crossed legs. Said to represent Humez of Brancepeth.
Interior: painted plaster with ashlar dressings over embattled panelled dado, with blind tracery, in chancel. Roof arch-braced collared trusses on frieze, wall-posts and deeply-moulded corbels. Chancel roof 1888 by Ralph Hedley of Newcastle: panelled, with Tudor-flower bosses and rich stencilled decoration, on enriched frieze. Double-chamfered 2-centred-chancel arch, the outer chamfer pyramid-stopped and resting on stop-chamfered jambs, the inner on shafts with moulded capitals, under head-stopped dripmould. Shafted moulded rerearch to east window, with ball-flower-stopped dripmould. Perpendicular- style reredos 1895 by R. Hedley, with much gilding and richly-painted Crucifixion.Painted Gothic-style stone pulpit and octagonal font. Panelled pews with roll-moulded square ends; choir pews have poppyheads and Tudor-flower decoration. Terrazzo chancel floor. Painted heraldic shields high on chancel walls. Glass includes 1901 east windows to Rev. E.A. Wilkinson: The Ascension. 1920 west window World War I memorial to men of Binchester and Page Bank. Northnave windows: c.1897 high-quality Christ the Good Shepherd; others dated 1889, 1898; and 1909 St. Aidan by Horton, Butler and Bayne. South nave windows, including medallion glass with Presentation in the Temple, to Catherine Duncombe Shafto, died 1872 aged 102. Vestry has medallion glass. Organ one of the first by Harrison of Durham. Monuments include dark grey ledger stone in north-east corner of nave, with deeply-cut arms and crest, and inscription to Margaret, wife of Mark Shafto of Whitworth Hall, naming her children Robert, John and Catherine. Alabaster wall monument above in Art Nouveau style, to E.A. Wilkinson, died 1900, by Lowes and Sons; at west end, circa 1723 alabaster wall monument to Mark Shafto, with coat of arms in broken segmental pediment on aedicule containing long, well-cut Latin inscription saying he died of dropsy, and the monument was put up by his son and heir Robert. Classical wall monument to R.E.D Shafto, died 1848, by Denman, London.
Gothic monument at south-west to Robert McFarlane, surgeon, died 1854 after a fall from a gig, by W.T. Hale,London. Brass plaques below most windows.
Historical note: 'Bonny Bobby Shafto' of the popular C19 children's song was the grandson of Margaret and is said to be buried here in the family vault.
Sources: Whitworth Church, A Brief Guide, n.d.; typescript in church.
Archaeologia Aeliana, 2, XX, Newcastle (for 1898) 220 and 228.
Listing NGR: NZ2356034712
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 112274
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Whitworth Church A Brief Guide, ()
Archaeologia Aeliana in Archaeologia Aeliana, Vol. 20, (1898), 220 228
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 09-Jun-2026 at 14:59:38.
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