Parish Notes Durham

Monkwearmouth St Peter

[Population 1911: 8,890]

Church

The parish church of St. Peter, Monkwearmouth, in Church street, originally belonged to the abbey founded by Benedict Biscop, A.D. 674, and is the first church glazed with glass made by English hands; it consists of chancel, nave of three bays, north aisle, transept, north porch, and a western tower containing 2 bells; the tower, very narrow for its height, is earlier than that of Jarrow church, and is reared on a basement stage of low round-headed arches: the belfry has coupled lights divided by baluster shafts, but the parapet is of much later date: in the nave there is an effigy of a monk in Benedictine habit, found in the porch in 1808: in the chancel is a carved altar tomb, erected to a member of the Hylton family: the church was restored in 1875, at a cost of over £7,000, and has 700 sittings. The early registers were destroyed by a fire at the parsonage: the existing register of baptisms dates from only 1786; marriages, 1785; burials 1768. The living is a vicarage, net yearly value £465, with residence, in the gift of the Bishop of Durham, and held since 1909 by the Rev. John Thomas Brown M.A. of Pembroke College, Cambridge, hon. canon of Durham, and surrogate. [Kelly's Durham Directory (1925), page 456.]

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Townships

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Topography

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History

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The Parish Chest

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Non-Parochial Records

Newcastle Courant 16/6/1848 The "rising generation" of Monkwearmouth, following the example of Newcastle, have formed an association, and meet every morning at half past five, in the lovely neighbourhood of Roker, to play shindy, make speeches, &c.; thus setting at nought the remark of Hood, that "those who are fond of early stirring are spoons."

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Monumental Inscriptions

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