Ponteland Church of St Mary (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Ponteland.
In the historic county of Northumberland.
Modern Authority of Northumberland.
1974 county of Northumberland.
Medieval County of Northumberland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ16587296
Latitude 55.05081° Longitude -1.74196°

Ponteland Church of St Mary has been described as a Fortified Ecclesiastical site although is doubtful that it was such.

There are major building remains.

This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Parish church. C12 - C15. Restored 1810, 1851 by Wardle, 1861 by F.R. Wilson and again in 1881. Squared sandstone and Welsh slate roof. West tower, nave, with aisles and porch, transepts and chancel.
Tower: C12. West door with one order of columns and chevron moulding in the arch. 2 small original windows above. Several other C12 windows on returns also several C14 cusped windows. Bell stage added C14.
Nave and aisles. 3 bays. Vestiges of C12 masonry; extended C13 (see masonry at west end) and again in C15. South aisle has two 3-light segmental-headed Perpendicular windows. South porch C13, reset; slightly-pointed doorway; pointed tunnel vault inside with 3 chamfered transverse ribs. North aisle rebuilt 1810 using old masonry. Low parapets and shallow,pitched roofs.
Transpets: South transept rebuilt late C15 with Perpendicular east window. North transept C13, the gable rebuilt in C19; 3 tall lancets on north and east sides.
Chancel: Long C13 chancel withchamferedsill string rising to form hoodmould over segmental priest's door. 2 original lancets on north side, C14 Decorated windows elsewhere.
Interior: C15 south arcade with octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches dying into imposts. Similar north arcade of 1810. C13 chancel arch has re-cut corbels of Adam and Eve, before the fall on the south, after the fall on the north. North transept north windows have shouldered rere-lintels; the east windows have shouldered rere-arches. C14 glass fragments in chancel window heads. Trefoiled piscina in frame of dogtooth.
Many wall monuments, including:- Richard Newton Ogle, 1794 by Coade; John Dixon, 1716 - extremely rustic; Anne Byne, mother, and Anne Byne, daughter 1769 and no date, with interesting inscriptions. (Listed Building Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1370736
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 23121.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N10992.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- The Parish of Ponteland
Books
- Brooke, C.J., 2000, Safe Sanctuaries (Edinburgh; John Donald) p. 168-70
  Salter, Mike, 1997, The Old Parish Churches of Northumberland (Malvern: Folly Publications)
  Knowles, David and Hadcock, R. Neville, 1971, Medieval religious houses in England and Wales (Longman) p435
  Pevsner, N., 1957, Buildings of England: Northumberland (London, Penguin) p. 277
  Dodds, Madeleine Hope (ed), 1926, Northumberland County History (Newcastle-upon-Tyne) Vol. 12 p. 412
Periodical Articles
- Briggs, H.D., Cambridge, E. and Bailey, R.N., 1983, 'A New Approach to Church Archaeology: Dowsing and Excavation and Documentary Work at Woodhorn, Ponteland and the Pre-Norman Cathedral at Durham' Archaeologia Aeliana (ser5) Vol. 11 p. 80-2, 88-90

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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Help is acknowledged.

*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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