No. 16-16A Market Place, Incorporating Remains of St Mary's Church

Details

HEXHAM

709/0/10019 MARKET PLACE
11-NOV-10 (South side)
NO. 16 - 16A MARKET PLACE, INCORPORATI
NG REMAINS OF ST MARY'S CHURCH

GV II
Town house, mid-C19: rear wall incorporating bays 2 and 3 of St Mary's C13 Parish Church

MATERIALS: House: red brick with ashlar dressings, slate roof, terracotta ridge and finial. Church: sandstone.

PLAN: house facing north onto Market Place of two bays with basement; left bay with four floors and right bay with three floors above a ground floor passage. There is a staircase set against the passage wall. Church: nave with aisles to north and south and a sanctuary.

Exterior: North Elevation: 2 bays and 4 storeys with a bracketed eaves cornice, and prominent kneelers; the roof is pitched with ornate ridge tiles and a finial to the right. Tall, stepped chimney to left gable and there are moulded bands at first and second floor level and quoins to left side and upper right side. The ground floor has a C20 shop front incorporating a passage opening to the right. The first and second floor windows have 2-over-2 rectangular windows set within pointed arched moulded surrounds incorporating circular floral and leaf motifs. Third floor windows are similar, set within surrounds incorporating chevron decoration to the lintels. South Elevation: at the right, part of a two-centred arch of two chamfered orders, infilled with small squared sandstone and an inserted C13 lancet window, also blocked. Immediately to the left is a pier with a moulded octagonal capital displaying a ring moulding at the neck and a deep hollow to the abacus. Left of this there is part of the right side of a second arch of identical form; this is also blocked and has a later passage opening supporting the upper floors of the house above.

Interior: North Elevation: the northern face of the eastern half of the arch and the apex is exposed within a staircase which rises above the old church passage.

HISTORY: This medieval church was the parish church of Hexham in the Middle Ages. It was constructed in the C13 and was the successor of an earlier, Saxon, church possibly on the same site, built by Bishop Wilfred. The date of the abandonment of St Mary's is unclear; a reference in 1634 suggests that at that time it was already a roofless shell and it was probably abandoned after the Reformation c1540 when the former abbey church became available. After it fell into decay, parts of the church, including the nave's north arcade, became incorporated into a number of houses lining the market place.

SOURCES:
N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: Northumberland 2nd edition (1992), 327-9
PF Ryder, 'Nos 11-13 Market Place (Stafford's Fruiterers), Hexham: A Provisional Archaeological Assessment', unpublished (2000)
PF Ryder, 'St Mary's Church, Hexham, Parts 1 & 2', unpublished (2001).

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
This mid-C19 townhouse incorporating important remains of the C13 St Mary's Church is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Historic Interest: the survival of church fabric is significant for its early date, artistic quality and the archaeological evidence it provides for the presence of different phases.
* Date - it represents important architectural elements of an early C13 parish church, other upstanding parts of which are already designated
* Design - the gothic nature of the later townhouse is an interesting reflection of the C13 gothic contained within
* Group value - the market place setting occupies a site of great antiquity and the remains of the church have strong group value as part of an important group of listed buildings clustered around Hexham's historic market place, with the priory church of St Andrew forming the west side.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

505733

Legacy System:

LBS

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