Church of St Michael

CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, FRONT STREET

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1185953
Date first listed:
17-Jan-1967
List Entry Name:
Church of St Michael
Statutory Address:
CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, FRONT STREET
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Date:
2004-06-06
Reference:
IOE01/12460/18
Rights:
© Mr Bob Cottrell. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II
List Entry Number:
1185953
Date first listed:
17-Jan-1967
List Entry Name:
Church of St Michael
Statutory Address 1:
CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, FRONT STREET

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

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.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:
CHURCH OF ST MICHAEL, FRONT STREET

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:
County Durham (Unitary Authority)
Parish:
Esh
National Grid Reference:
NZ 19683 44028

Details

ESH FRONT STREET
NZ 14 SE (South side)
Esh

10/6 Church of
St. Michael
17.1.67
GV II

Parish church. 1770 rebuilding, dated on interior, on medieval site; extensive
alterations in 1850; south porch added 1884. Coursed squared sandstone rubble,
thinly rendered in places, with ashlar plinth and dressings; roof of graduated
Lakeland slates, and porch roof stone-flagged,with stone gable copings. Nave
with south porch and transept; chancel with north porch. Gabled porch has
chamfered, cusped 2-centred-arched surround to boarded door with ornamental
hinges, in shafted, roll-moulded arch with leaf-stopped dripmould; side
buttresses, stone cross finial. Nave has Perpendicular style 3-light north
window, 2 cusped south windows; 2-light west window with bar tracery, and
blocked spherical-triangular window above, under gabled bellcote with fleur-
de-lys finial. Transept has 2-light Decorated-style window under gable with
side buttresses, and paired lancets in east wall; external chimney-stack at
south-east. Chancel has 4-light Perpendicular-style south window, 3-light
Decorated-style east window. Paired cusped ogee lights in north porch and
shouldered arch and lights on north front; external chimney stack. Stone cross
finials; medieval-style chimneys.

Interior: inner porch has trailing iron foliage decoration. Painted plaster
with ashlar dressings; boarded dado beside pews; boarded, panelled roof on
cornice, with Tudor-flower bosses on chancel panels. Chamfered transept arch
with similar inner arch on corbelled round shafts. Low square-headed piscina,
slightly-chamfered, in south chancel wall. Hollow-chamfered rerearches and
2-centred-arched vestry door. Organ in transept. Glass includes south nave
window by G.J. Baguley, north nave war memorial by Atkinson Bros., both of
Newcastle upon Tyne. Lee memorial in transept by H.M. Barnet of the same town.
Plaque in nave signed Walker and Emley, and dated 1884 for gift of porch and
transept window in memory of former vicar. Early C14 effigy,against south
wall of transept,has slightly-eroded costume detail; headless effigy of child
wrapped in christening cloth on south window-sill of transept.

Sources: W. Stuart White, Registers of the Ancient Chapel of Esh, Newcastle
1896, III; C. Hunter Blair, 'Medieval Effigies in the County of Durham' in
Archaeologia Aeliana, 4 VI Nos. XXXII and LXI.


Listing NGR: NZ1968344028


This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 17 August 2017.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
350512
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Archaeologia Aeliana in Archaeologia Aeliana, ()

Websites
War Memorials Register, accessed 17 August 2017 from http://www.iwm.org.uk/memorials/item/memorial/19036

Other
White, W Stuart, Registers of the Ancient Chapel of Esh, 1896,

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.

Ordnance survey map of Church of St Michael

Map

This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 25-Jul-2026 at 13:08:57.

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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