Gateshead Holy Trinity

Parish Notes Durham

Gateshead Holy Trinity

[Population 1911: 6,290]

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Church

Trinity Chapel.- This ancient structure, supposed to have been erected previous to 1207, is situated in High-street. After the confiscation of the property of the monastic establishments, it became the property of the ancient Northumbrian family of Riddell, whose mansion house, which stood adjacent, suffered severely from the Scots under Leslie, and being the residence of a Catholic family, was plundered and set on fire by a Protestant mob in 1746. This chapel, which seems to have fallen into disuse after the unions of the hospitals of the Holy Trinity and St. Edmund in 1248, shared the violence of the mob, and remained a ruin until the year 1836, when Cuthbert Ellison, Esq., lord of the manor, gave the ground and buildings, as also the site for the erection of schools, to the rector and churchwardens of Gateshead. In consequence of this gift, a public subscription was commenced, which realised a sufficient sum for the repair of the venerable edifice and the erection of the schools. The chapel was opened for worship according to the rites of the Church of England, in 1837. The eastern window contains the armorial bearings of many of the subscribers, beautifully executed in stained glass by Mr. Wailes, of Newcastle. The Rev. Thomas Spock is the present chaplain. [Whellan's History, Topography and Directory of Durham (and Newcastle) (1856), page 784.]

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