Benwell’s ChurchesPast and present

Benwell's Churches Past and PresentThis Heritage Guide is an introduction to some of the manychurches that once stood in the Benwell area. A few still remain as working churches, but most have long gone although they stillremain in the memories of local residents past and present.

Search Search is a community-based voluntary project working in the inner west of Newcastlewith and for older people. It has shop-front premises which provide a drop-in adviceand information service for people of pensionable age and it runs a variety of groupsand activities for over-fifties in community venues across the area. In 2013 Search ran a programme of guided tours to explore the fascinating and variedhistory of the west end of Newcastle, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund's "All OurStories" programme. This is one of a series of Heritage Guides based on these tours. Contact Search Project, 74 Adelaide Terrace, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE4 9JNTel 0191 273 7443 Email searchprojectuk@yahoo.co.uk

A guide©Search Project 2014. Produced by Search in partnership with West Newcastle PictureHistory Collection and St James' Heritage and Environment Group

AcknowledgementsThis guide was created by Judith Green with help from West Newcastle Picture HistoryCollection, St James' Heritage and Environment Group, and Pat Lowery. The images weresupplied by West Newcastle Picture History Collection. The design of this guide wasfunded by the Heritage Lottery Fund through Search's Exploring Our West End project.

Thanks also to all the participants in the Exploring Our West End project who contributedtheir memories.

WestNewcastlePictureHistoryCollection

St James’ Heritage & Environment

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Key

1. St James' CofE Church

2/3 Bond Methodist Church and Chapel

4. St Joseph's R.C. Church

5/6. St John's CofE Church

7. Venerable Bede CofE Church

8. St Columba's CofE Church

9. Benwell Presbyterian Church

10. Paradise Methodist Chapel

11. Paradise Methodist Church

12. Benwell Grove Methodist Church

13. Delaval Mission Hall

14. Benwell Towers Chapel

A. The building still houses the original church

B. The building still stands but with a different use

C. The building has gone

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The period of rapid expansion of Benwell's population from the mid-19th century saw theappearance of a bewildering number and variety of churches in the area. Some, such as StJames' and the Bond Methodist Church, were housed in large, impressive buildings: othersoccupied more modest premises of their own or met above shops or in private homes. Thisguide provides an introduction to some of these churches.St James', the parish church of Benwell, started life in 1833 as a chapel for members of thecongregation of St John's Church in the centre of Newcastle who lived outside the city. At thattime Benwell was a predominantly rural area of farms and mansions, but it was soon tobecome a booming township as factories such as Armstrong's engineering works were openedalong the riverside and thousands of terraced homes soon spread across the area. St James’ was not strictly speaking the earliest church in Benwell, however. Records show thatan action for debt was brought against Patrick, Vicar of Benwell, in 1280-84, suggesting thatthere was a chapel that was regarded as a parish church. The chapel of Benwell Towers(pictured below) retained the privilege of baptism and burial until the late 18th century,indicating that it was more than a purely private chapel. Benwell Towers had a succession ofnotable residents over the centuries, including the Shafto family who reopened the chapel in1680 to be used for regular worship by the residents of nearby Benwell Village. This chapelwas demolished in the 1780s, but Benwell Towers took on a new role in the 1880s when it wasbought by the banker J.W Pease as a gift to the new Diocese of Newcastle. It remained theofficial residence of Newcastle's bishops until 1943.

St James’ Church St James' Church has been the parish churchof Benwell since 1843. Opening originally in1833 as a small chapel run by the church of StJohn's in Newcastle, it was enlarged severaltimes over the next hundred years toaccommodate the growing population ofBenwell. This picture from the 1903 parishmagazine shows the church just after theaddition ofa newnorth aislewhichmeant thatthere wasnowseating for1,200people.

Bond Memorial ChurchA new permanent Wesleyan Methodistchurch building was opened on AdelaideTerrace in 1899 to replace the Iron Chapel.A large part of the money to build this wascontributed by Tyneside businessman andpolitician Sir W.H. Stephenson. It is namedthe Bond Memorial after Charlotte Bond,Stephenson's sister-in-law (who paid muchof the costs of the Iron Chapel) and hermother, also called Charlotte Bond. Thebuilding (pictured below c1910) still standstoday but is no longer a Methodist church.

Benwell Churches Benwell Wesleyan ChapelThe Bond Memorial Church started in 1877 ina rented house on Adelaide Terrace, betweenCochran Street and Oak Street, at a cost of£20 a year. These premises were soon foundto be too small, and a site was found nearbybetween Bond Street and Neville (later Nichol)Street where a new chapel could be built.This picture is from a poster publicising theopening of the chapel in 1881. It was made ofcorrugated iron, and was known as the IronChapel.

St Joseph's R.C. ChurchSt Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church is onArmstrong Road, Benwell, near to HodgkinPark. It replaced an earlier corrugated ironstructure built in 1903 which stood on theopposite side of Armstrong Road where StJoseph's Primary School is now. The newchurch was opened in 1931 and was designedby architects Steinlat and Maxwell in aRomanesque style with a prominent dome, asdepicted on this contemporary postcard. Thechurch was closed in 2013 but the building stillstands.

Can you help?We would welcome photographs and information relating to any of Benwell's churches,especially those which have been "lost" because we know little or nothing about them, orbecause we have no pictures of them. If you can help, please contact West Newcastle PictureHistory Collection c/o West End Library, Condercum Road, NE4 9JH or St James' Heritage &Environment Group c/o Search, 74 Adelaide Terrace, NE4 9JN

St John's ChurchThe new St John's Church, which stillstands today, was opened in 1950. Theprevious building had to be demolishedafter a heavy fall of snow caused it tocollapse. The new building was made frompre-cast concrete, with a brick extensionadded to the rear in the 1980s funded by alegacy from the Miss Brambles ofneighbouring Benwell Hall.

Paradise ChapelThe original Paradise Church was a smallbuilding built in the 1830s just south ofParadise Village. Prior to that worship hadbeen held in an old garret at the boathousearea to the west of Paradise, by the ferrycrossing to Swalwell. The church buildingwas badly damaged as a result of theopening of the new Newcastle to Carlislerailway in 1838, and a replacement chapelwas built in the centre of Paradise paid forby the railway company.

Paradise ChurchIn 1906 the foundation stone was laid for anew and bigger Paradise MethodistChurch. Although the name was retained,this building was further up the hill onAtkinson Road. This was a more centralsite for the growing population of SouthBenwell. Paradise ceased to be a churchin 1971 and the building was laterdemolished. New homes have recentlybeen built on the site

Benwell PresbyterianChurchBenwell Presbyterian Church (later theUnited Reform Church) was opened in1898 at the junction of Armstrong Roadand Hugh Gardens. It was the outcomeof a mission attached to WestmorlandRoad Church. The building wasdemolished in the late 1970s as theclearance programme swept through allthe old housing south of ArmstrongRoad. The church is pictured belowstanding alone on the cleared site.

Benwell Grove ChurchBenwell Grove Methodist Church startedlife in the Benwell Co-operative Hall in1900. A site was purchased for a newchurch at the junction of CondercumRoad and the West Road. Thefoundation stone was laid in 1905 but thebuildings were never completed asoriginally planned. The building intendedto be the church hall was opened forworship in 1906, but the main churchbuilding itself was never built. Thechurch was closed in 1986, and thebuilding demolished in 1989.

St Columba's ChurchSt Columba’s was opened in 1899 as aMission Church of St James' in a buildingthat had previously housed a school. Itstood at the top of School Street, SouthBenwell, just to the west of Clara Street,which at that time ran all the way down toScotswood Road. Most of the congregationlived in the surrounding terraces ofTyneside flats which were demolishedduring the slum clearance programmes ofthe 1960s and 1970s. The church closed in1969 along with these homes.

Venerable Bede ChurchThe Venerable Bede opened in NorthBenwell in 1904. It was originally housedin a wooden building located on what wasthen known as the West Turnpike. Thiswas replaced in 1936 by the presentsandstone structure. The Venerable Bedewas one of several local Mission Churchesset up by St James’ to reach the growingpopulation of its large parish. Some, suchas St Margaret's in Scotswood and StAidan's in Elswick, later became parishchurches in their own right.

St John's Mission ChurchSt John's in Benwell Village is one of theoldest churches in Benwell. The originalbuilding, pictured here c1900, was establishedin 1820 as a Sunday School run from theparish church of St John’s in Grainger Street.Later it became a Mission Church for StJames’ but by the 1930s it had becomedilapidated, and a new building was erectedbehind the original one.