Middleton in Teesdale St Mary

Parish Notes Durham

Middleton in Teesdale St Mary the Virgin

[Population 1911: 2,179]

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Church

THE CHURCH, dedicated to St. Mary, is situated on a rising ground on the north side of the town, and near the eastern bank of the Hudshope Beck. It is an antique structure, consisting of nave, chancel, south aisle, and a small tower, containing three bells; the latter stands a short distance north of the church. The principal entrance is by a south porch, under a pointed arch; an oblong and cylindrical pillar form the aisle, and support an elliptical and two circular arches; the font is an upright cylinder of stone; the piscina remains in the wall near the north door of the chancel; and there is a pointed niche in the south wall, near the communion table. Several relievos of crosses are placed above the vestry door and the principal entrance to the church. At the entrance to the churchyard stands an ancient cross, consisting of a small round pillar, surmounted by a sun-dial, and rising from the centre of a square base, on each side of which there are three or four steps. The church, with "two oxgangs of land, a toft, and a croft," were part of the possessions of St. Mary's Abbey, York, the abbot of which foremrly presented at the nomination of the Baliols, for the Bishop of Durham's institution. At the forfeiture of the Earl of Westmoreland, the right of presentation was vested in the crown. The living is a rectory, in the deanery of Darlington, valued, in the Liber Regis, at £25 17s. 1d.; gross income, £600. The parish register commences in 1578. It is in the patronage of the queen, and incumbency of the Rev. John Henry Brown, M.A. [Whellan's History, Topography and Directory of Durham (and Newcastle) (1856), pages 458-59.]

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