St Bede's

Introduction

St Bede's Church in South Shields, in the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, was opened on 22 August 1876. The church was consecrated on 14 September 1949 by Bishop McCormack.

History

The first Catholic church in South Shields was opened by Bishop Hogarth on 4 December 1849 in a former chapel. The designer is considered to be Thomas Cooke Nicholson of Newcastle, who may have supervised Gibson Lidbetter. St Bede's was built at an initial estimated cost of about £8,000. The discovery that deeper foundations were required led to the cost rising to £11,000 and a planned NW tower was not completed. The church was refurbished in about 1965 by David Brown, who also re-ordered it in 1972.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is constructed of dressed stone with a plinth of roughly-hewn stone. The church has a longitudinal plan with an apsidal chancel, aisled nave, short transepts and an incomplete NW bell tower. The tall chancel has an apse with a pyramidal roof surmounted by an iron cross finial and seven regularly spaced lancets with trefoil tracery. The pitch-roofed transepts have stepped buttresses and are lit by rose windows above a larger lancet, with three stepped lancets to the E walls.

The nave has a pitched roof with stone cross finials to each gable. The three-bay W end has a central bay flanked by stepped buttresses with a recessed pointed-arch doorway, reached by stone steps, of two orders fitted with double wooden doors. The N face of the tower has a large pointed-arched recessed entrance with a single lancet and paired lancets to the upper stages. The sanctuary has a panelled timber ceiling with ribs dividing it into sections, and its seven windows depict the Seven Sacraments.

The timber reredos of the high altar is richly carved with canopies over four saint statues flanking the central monstrance throne and tabernacle; the lower parts are faced in stone. The N transept contains a NE chapel with a timber altar. The three lancets (removed from the first chapel) depict Saints Francis, John and William. The five-bay nave has an arch-braced roof, painted plastered walls and a mixture of parquet flooring and floor boards.

The pointed arch stone arcades have octagonal pillars, set against which are several statues including a Pieta by Mayer of Munich. At the W end there is an organ gallery with a tri-lobed balustrade, and an organ that is listed in the National Pipe Organ Register. The former baptistery in the NW corner of the narthex is now partitioned as a small chapel; the south window depicts Saints Thomas More and John Fisher (1982) and the W window depicts the Ascension. The ground floor of the NW tower forms a porch and is entered through modern double doors; it contains a large First World War memorial recording the names of the Fallen of the parish, set in a marble frame surmounted by a crucifix.

Music and liturgy

The late-C19 Gothic pulpit and rail with a relief carving of St Bede is located on the sanctuary steps. The aisles' windows contain a variety of stained glass of late C19 and C20 date.

Visiting

The church has a pair of octagonal stone holy water stoups set at the nave entrance. The church has a single-storey flat-roofed vestry extending east from the east wall of the north transept.