Auckland St Anne

Parish Notes Durham

Auckland St Anne

[Population 1911: incl. with Auckland St Andrew]

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St. Anne's chapelry is of great antiquity, and belonged to the guild instituted in the parish church, which was held in the chapel so late as the time of Edward VI. "The chapel owes its origin," says Mr. Raine, "in all probabilty, to the gathering together of the people under the walls of the castle. With the date of its foundation I am unacquainted. In 1391, William Forster, John Chalowner, and others, took of the lord a piece of waste ground at the east end of the chapel of St. Anne, fifty feet in breadth, and extending in length from the corner of the burial ground to the bank of the Wear, in order to enlarge the chapel and churchyard aforesaid. A licence from Cardinal Langley in 1224 recites, that the inhabitants of North Auckland had built (rebuilt) a chapel in honour of St. Anne, and gives them permission to have in it masses, &c., on holidays, limiting the audience on Sundays to the sick and infirm, and providing against detriment to the mother church. Again in 1452, the chapel was enlarged, the procurators taking of the lord of the manor for that purpose a piece of ground ten ells in breadth and twenty-eight in length, in the Market Place. The chapel was rebuilt, by subscription, in 1781, in the debased style of that period. On the ground floor was placed the Grammar-school. To the chapel itself was assigned an upper room, and at the west end was an unseemly tower, built by Bishop Barrington, the lower part of which was converted into a Market-house, the former cross having been removed in 1795. These buildings were all removed in 1847, and the presnt chapel built upon their site from a design by Mr. Salvin. For the chancel arch Mr. Salvin is not answerable, his plan having in this instance been departed from." The new chapel, which consists of nave, chancel, and aisles, with a bell turret at the western end, was opened on the 23rd of February, 1848. The internal arrangements are very convenient. There are two beautiful stained glass windows, by Lawson, of Newcsatle, in the west end of the chapel. They are emblazoned with the armorial bearings of Bishops Crewe and Barrington, and were erected, in 1848, by the master and adult scholars educated at the Barrington School. The pulpit, a fine specimen of wood carving, is the gift of the architect, Mr. Thompson. The registers of this chapelry are included in those of the parish church. The living is a perpetual curacy, not in charge, in the patronage of the Bishop of Durham, and incumbency of the Rev. George E. Green, B.A. [Whellan's History, Topography and Directory of Durham (and Newcastle) (1856), page 277.]

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