Morpeth Church of St Mary (The Gatehouse Record)

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

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ19718509
Latitude 55.15972° Longitude -1.69225°

Morpeth 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. Largely C14. Squared stone with Lakeland slate and lead roofs. West tower, nave with aisles and south porch, chancel and vestry.
2-storey tower with angle buttresses and 2-light bell openings; low, lead C18 concave spire. 5-bay nave with C19 porch; windows with cusped Y-tracery; south aisle east window is 3-light with reticulated tracery. Nave and aisles have low-pitched roofs behind parapets.
3-bay chancel has original priest's door with decorative hinges and knocker. 2-light windows with Decorated tracery, divided by buttresses. Large C18 incised sundial. Large 5-light east window with reticulated tracery; 2 cusped niches in buttress on south side. High steeply-pitched roof.
On north side an original 2-storey vestry with 2 gargoyles. North aisle partly rebuilt in C19.
Interior: Original south door with iron knocker. Original door also into vestry. Arcades with double-chamfered arches and octagonal piers. South arcade responds have foliage capitals. Double-chamfered tower arch dying into imposts and double-chamfered chancel arch on octagonal responds. Original nave roof with arched braces and cusped spandrels between purlins and principal rafters. Old timbers in aisle roofs also. In south aisle a C14 tomb recess. Squint into chancel. C14 glass in south aisle east window. East window has C14 "Tree of Jesse" glass, restored 1851 by Wailes. Elaborate sedilia and piscina with crocketed ogee heads and figures on the dividing columns. C14 head stops to all chancel windows. Original door to aumbry on chancel north wall. Chancel has C19 roof with cusped arched braces on angel corbels. Good late C19 screens and pulpit. Cartouche to Robert Fenwick, 1717, in south aisle. (Listed Building Report)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1042763
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 23258.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) N11087.

Books
- Brooke, C.J., 2000, Safe Sanctuaries (Edinburgh; John Donald) p. 165-7
  Pevsner, N., 1957, Buildings of England: Northumberland (London, Penguin) p. 213-4
  Hodgson, J., 1832, A History of Northumberland Part 2 Vol. 2 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne; John Hodgson) p. 390-94 online copy
  Hodgson, J., 1832, A History of Morpeth (London) p. 85
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Northumberland County Council, 2009, 'Morpeth' Northumberland Extensive Urban Survey doi:10.5284/1000177 download copy

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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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