Church of St Michael
Church of St Michael, Church 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:
- 1207993
- Date first listed:
- 10-Nov-1978
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Michael
- Statutory Address:
- Church of St Michael, Church Lane
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2003-10-26
- Reference:
- IOE01/05482/04
- Rights:
- © Mr D.H. Bottoms. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1207993
- Date first listed:
- 10-Nov-1978
- List Entry Name:
- Church of St Michael
- Statutory Address 1:
- Church of St Michael, Church 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:
- Church of St Michael, Church Lane
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- District:
- Sunderland (Metropolitan Authority)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- NZ 39285 56953
Details
NZ3956NW
920-1/19/41
SUNDERLAND
CHURCH LANE (west side)
Church of St Michael
10/11/78
GV
II*
Bishopwearmouth parish church. Medieval chancel largely reconstructed; tower c1807; transepts 1849-50 by John Dobson; nave rebuilt with double aisles 1933-35 by W.D Caröe; outer aisles partitioned and floors inserted in 1981 by Ian Curry to form community centre. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; ashlar aisles and porches; Welsh slate roof with stone gable copings. Aisled chancel with north vestry; transepts; double-aisled nave clasping west tower; north, south and full-width west porches.
EXTERIOR: Decorated style transepts and chancel, perpendicular aisles and porches. Geometric tracery in five-light east and four-light transept windows with roundels in gable peaks. Buttressed four-bay aisles have three-light windows, and low porches in east bay with boarded doors recessed in elliptical arches; paired perpendicular clerestory lights. West end has wide, buttressed porch with two doors in elliptical-headed arches, flanked by tall two-light windows under ramped parapet of pent roof; lower north and south extensions have buttresses on canted corners; west ends of aisles above have central projecting canopied niches rising through stepped parapets to pinnacles. Two stages of tower above porch have intersecting tracery below and perpendicular tracery in pointed-arched louvred belfry openings below stepped battlemented parapet.
INTERIOR: ashlar; plaster aisles with ashlar dressings. Three bay nave has high elliptical arcades with polygonal piers; chancel roof wood barrel vault, nave roof arch-braced trusses. Late C13 style piscina and sedilia. Transepts have high quality wood galleries set in east bays of nave arcade. Similar wood screen transferred to west end. High-quality C20 carved wood organ case and pulpit with sounding board. Medieval font bowl, C17 font with fluted bowl on turned pedestal rising from acanthus leaves, and elaborate C19 font.
MEMORIALS: include two medieval grave-covers, one with a stepped base to the incised cross and the other with a foliate cross head, both in west porch; an eroded medieval effigy in the south transept said to be that of Thomas Middleton of Silksworth. Many C18 and C19 memorials, including brass in chancel to William Cockin (d.1889) by Singer and Sons, Frome and London; also in chancel, memorial to John Scott (d.1853) by Lewis and Son, Cheltenham. In south transept, high relief depicting a grieving woman, for Stephen Pemberton (d.1831) signed David Dunbar. Plaque in west porch commemorating the munificence of Sir John Priestman enabling the restorations of 1933-35; and a marble memorial to Thomas Wilson, one of the proprietors of the Glass Manufactory at Ayres Quay, d.1776. Glass includes east window 1950 by D.M Grant.
Listing NGR: NZ3928556953
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 391418
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Corfe, T, Milburn, G, Buildings and Beliefs, (1984), 6, 27
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 05-Jun-2026 at 14:18:06.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
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