Shieldfield, Shieldfield Green, Christ Church and hall

HER Number:
8718

District:
Newcastle

Site Name:
Shieldfield, Shieldfield Green, Christ Church and hall

Place:
Shieldfield

Map Sheet:
NZ26SE

Class:
Religious Ritual and Funerary

Site Type: Broad:
Church

Site Type: Specific:
Parish Church

General Period:
Early Modern

Specific Period:
C19

Form of Evidence:
Extant Building

Description:
Parish church. 1859-61 by A.B. Higham. Squared sandstone with ashlar dressings; Welsh slate roofs. SW tower; aisled nave, with first north bay containing canted porch; chancel with north vestry and south chapel. Decorated style. Shallow west porch has 3 gables over tall 2-centred-arched door and flanking triple niches. Similar double door in NW porch has crocketed gables and single niches; head-stopped drip moulds above moulded arches on shafts with flower capitals. 5-light west window. Projecting tower has 3 and 2-light windows and large belfry openings. Angle buttresses with gargoyles crocketed gables. Stone broach spire. 2-light aisle windows have head-stopped drip moulds; 4-light east window. Cross finials to 3 steeply-pitched roofs. Interior: painted plaster and painted ashlar; arch-braced roof with high collar and queen posts. Quatrefoil piers with crocket capitals to moulded 2-centred arches of nave and 2-bay chancel arcades; flower or head-stopped drip moulds. Tall chamfered tower arch contains door and boarded screen. 3 steps to chancel, one to sanctuary and one to altar; medieval-style floor tiles. Gothic-panelled wood reredos. Late C19 brass plaque on north chancel wall to William Boyd, banker. Re-constructed medieval octagonal font. Hall breaks forward on ritual south, completing stepped frontage to green: one storey, porch and 3-sided end to street. Moulded surround to 2-centred-arched door set back at left; 3 windows of 2 pairs of Gothic lights under continuous drip mould; hipped roof. Curious papier-mache figure of Christ the King suspended over the chancel, early C20. LISTED GRADE 2*

Easting:
2554

Northing:
6459

Grid Reference:
NZ25546459

Lats/Lons:

Sources:
Department of National Heritage, List of Buildings of Special Architectural and Historic Interest, 12/523; Brenda Whitelock, 1992, Timepieces of Newcastle, pp 16-17; Alan Morgan, 1995, Bygone Shieldfield; N. Pevsner and I. Richmond (second edition revised by J. Grundy, G. McCombie, P. Ryder and H. Welfare) , 1992, The Buildings of England: Northumberland, p 426; Michael Atkinson Architecture & Heritage, 2018, Christ Church and Circus Central: Community Project - Statement of Significance