St James’ Church has been a focal point for the local community for almost 200 years.  It opened for worship in 1833 as a Chapel of Ease in the parish of St John in Newcastle.  Chapels of Ease were Anglican chapels built for the convenience of remote parishioners.  St John’s Church was in the city centre, some three miles from the western reaches of the parish.

At that time, Benwell was not part of Newcastle.  It was not until 1904 that it was absorbed into the city.  Back in 1833 it was a largely rural area of farms and big mansions and private estates.  There were several coalmines in the neighbourhood and a growing concentration of industries along the riverside, but the resident population of Benwell numbered only about a thousand.

St James’ Church was designed by John Dobson, the architect mainly responsible for the design of the much admired centre of the city of Newcastle in the 19^th century.  The church was built on land donated by John Buddle, the famous mining engineer and colliery manager who is actually buried in St James’ churchyard in a vault designed by Dobson.  City centre developer Richard Grainger also lies in the churchyard in his family grave within an enclosure of Gothic-style iron railings.

The church has been extended and adapted several times since its original form, reflecting the changing local community.  It remains a historically significant building, and is one of the few heritage buildings to have survived successive waves of clearance and re-building in Benwell.  It has many special features, and contains memorials to members of many rich and powerful families, such as the Milvains, Cooksons, LIddells, Sowerbys and others who used to live in Benwell.   However in recent decades the building has deteriorated and is in poor condition in many ways, despite efforts to regenerate it.

In 2009 it was estimated that the church would have to close within five years because the fabric of the building required major investment and its poor condition meant that it was impossible to raise sufficient income from other uses to cover running costs.  A major study was carried out to discover what the local community wanted to happen to the building, and how it might be transformed to meet current needs.  The key finding was that, despite its condition, the church was a much loved feature of the local area.  This resulted in a popular plan to develop the building as a centre for heritage and culture for the local community as well as continuing to serve as the parish church.  This vision underpinned a series of funding bids, supported by a programme of activities and events which gave a practical shape to the proposed facility.  Over the next few years about a quarter of a million pounds was raised to repair and improve the building through a succession of grants.  The first significant improvement was the repair of the roof thanks to grants from English Heritage and other funders, which ended the persistent problem of water entering the building at many points and causing huge damage to the fabric, and led to the church being removed from the official register of heritage buildings at risk.  A generous donation from the Diocese enabled the church to develop a realistic phased plan of improvements by funding technical surveys and costed proposals for the refurbishment and improvement of particular parts of the building.  These supported grant applications from external funders, and were complemented by local fundraising campaigns.  The last significant project to be completed was the repair and redesign of the former south aisle which functioned as the church hall.  The next priority was identified as the replacement of the inadequate heating and lighting in the main worship area.  However, the original programme of phased improvements was abandoned around 2017, and the money raised was diverted to cover other needs.  At the present time the worship area remains without functioning heating and lighting, and the building as a whole suffers from increasing disrepair.

What to see in St James’ Church

Currently we are unable to run guided tours of St James’ Church because the condition of the building makes this inadvisable and the lack of lighting means that many of the interesting features cannot be seen .  There is a leaflet available which describes a self-guided tour.  We would not recommend undertaking this in person,  but it can be treated as a virtual tour.

You can download our church guide by clicking here

Below is the floor plan of the church as it is now.  The numbers relate to features described in our heritage guide

The Chapel of Ease

The nave is at the centre of the building.  This is the location of the original Chapel of Ease, built in 1831-3 and designed by John Dobson, but there have been significant changes over the years.

• At the chancel arch, there would have been triple round-headed windows below which a small altar table was situated.
• Where there are now arches at either side of the central nave area, there would have been the north and south walls of the church, each with its round-headed windows.
• At the north-west corner, there would have been the font and a door to the vestry (now the entrance porch).
• The organ was at the centre of the north wall.
• There would have been no centre aisle, but instead two side aisles.
• There was a gallery at the west end, accessed by a dog-legged staircase in the porch, (now the baptistery) entered from the south.
• There would be seating for about 430 people, including the gallery.

Enlarging the church

The first of a number of enlargements was added in 1864.  A south aisle was added by replacing the south wall of the Chapel of Ease with a series of arches opening onto a new extension of the worship area to the south of the nave.  A chancel was also added, and the existing east wall was replaced with a chancel arch.  A centre aisle was introduced and the pews reorganised to accommodate 686 seats. The organ was relocated to the west end of the south aisle.

The north aisle was added in1903 by the architects Hicks and Charlewood.  This was created by converting the north wall of the church into an internal arcade wall linking the nave with the new north aisle.  With this extension, there was seating for 1,200 people.

Today’s worship area

The nave together with the north aisle together constitute the worship area of the church today.

Features of interest here include:

• Stained glass windows including some by William Wailes, one of the foremost stained glass designers in Britain in Victorian times.  In the mid-19^thcentury, Wailes’ stained glass factory was the largest in Britain.
• A stone carving by the designer and sculptor, Eric Gill, in celebration of the Golden Wedding of Sir Benjamin Browne and his wife Annie.  (Browne was head of the Tyneside shipbuilders and engineers Hawthorn Leslie).
• A stone bust of John Buddle, with detailed inscription recounting his achievements and merits.
• The organ, located in the west end of the north aisle, is a TC Lewis instrument brought from St Cuthbert’s Church in Melbourne Street,Newcastle, in 1974.

The Chancel

The chancel was built on to the east end of the original building in 1864 by creating an arch out of what was previously an outside wall.  The stained glass windows are worthy of note.  On the east wall is a set of three by William Wailes depicting scenes from the gospels.  Another window featuring Ruth is probably by HM Barnett, himself from a family of stained glass makers in York, who trained with Wailes in Newcastle and set up his own firm in Newcastle in 1858.  This window is dedicated to the memory of Mary Maughan who was the wife of the first vicar of Benwell, having previously been married to the nephew of John Buddle.

The altar was made for the church’s centenary service in 1932 by the prestigious firm of craftsmen woodcarvers established by the well-known painter and woodcarver, Ralph Hedley, and carried on by his sons.  Ralph Hedley was responsible for much of the woodcarving in St James’.

The Vestry / Lady Chapel

The room at the east end of the north aisle, adjacent to the chancel,  which serves as the vestry today was formerly the Lady Chapel.  Contemporary church records suggest that this was once the jewel in the crown of St James’ – equipped with fine carved panels and stained glass windows, and separated from the main worship area not by a partition but by Ralph Hedley carving.  The  Lady Chapel was added in 1910 by the family of Sir Walter Scott, a local entrepreneur who was a major benefactor of St James’.  Of note are two complementary windows by Atkinson Brothers of Newcastle, given in memory of Sir Walter Scott by his family, and a stained glass window depicting Jesus holding a child (probably by Barnett).

Baptistry and tower

The baptistry was created in 1894 out of the original south entrance to the Chapel of Ease.  The dogleg staircase and gallery were demolished, and a tower arch was formed in the west wall of the church.  There is an interesting stained glass window, possibly by the Percy Bacon Brothers of London, showing the figure of St James and dedicated to the memory of another 19^th century vicar of Benwell, Francis Bromley.  A more recent addition is a 1950s stained glass window with the inscription “Consider the lilies of the field how they grow” (although there are apparently no lilies in the picture)

Also in 1894, a spire with clock and spiral staircase were added to the tower.  During the Second World War the cable of a barrage balloon removed the top 20 feet of the spire, necessitating major repairs.  The church bells are still in use, although less frequently than in the past.  This is a rare peal of bells by Charles Carr of Smethwick, of which the tenor bell weighs 15cwt.  Charles Carr made church bells and gun barrels, including its largest bell for the Roman Catholic cathedral in Demerara in the West Indies, and bronze guns for the King of Siam.

Church hall

Today’s church hall was created in 1980 by infilling the arches with a glazed partition and reorganising the pews.  This space then became the church hall, replacing the previous St James’ Church Hall in Atkinson Road, which was sold to build flats.  The money raised was used to create the partitions between the south aisle and the worship area and between the former Lady Chapel and the rest of the north aisle.