Escomb Church is the parish church of Escomb, County Durham, a village about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) west of the English town of Bishop Auckland. It is one of the oldest churches in England and one of only four complete Anglo-Saxon churches remaining in England, The church is a Grade I listed building.
History
Early years
St John's Church, Escomb, was founded in the early part of the 8th century, when the area was part of the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria.
Bede did not mention the church, and so some experts have argued that it was not built until after his death in 735. However, Bede only named churches which were associated with events he recorded.
Neglect and restorations
Until the 19th century, Escomb was a dependent chapelry of Bishop Auckland. In 1848 a vicarage was built at the top of the hill and Reverend Henry Atkinson became Escomb's first resident vicar for centuries.
The church seated only 65 people, and in the 19th century Escomb's population outgrew it. In 1863 a new parish church, St John's, was completed next to the vicarage. Thereafter the Anglo-Saxon church fell into disrepair. By 1867 it had lost part of its roof. It was restored in 1875–1880 by R.J. Johnson, at a cost of between £500 and £550. In October 1880, Joseph Lightfoot, Bishop of Durham, came and preached at a service to mark the completion of the restoration. The building had no heating or artificial light, and thereafter was used for only a few services a year, from June until August.
By 1904, the roof was again in poor condition. In the 1920s, the parish raised money to restore the church, and on 1 June 1927 Handley Moule, Bishop of Durham presided at the Eucharist in the church to mark completion of the work.
The first surviving record of a proposal to install electric lighting in the church dates from 1940. In 1944 it was proposed again, along with gas heating. But the Diocesan Advisory Committee objected and the Diocese of Durham did not grant a faculty for the work. Heating and lighting were discussed again in 1950, but not installed.
In 1959 a new vicar, Reverend Henry Lee, was appointed to the parish. In 1960 the parish agreed to refurbish the building and Lee resumed summer services in it. The architect Sir Albert Richardson prepared plans and in 1962 both the parish and the diocese accepted them. The plan was now for electric lighting and heating to be installed, along with a new altar and other furnishings. The cost of restoration and modernisation was estimated at £6,500. Historic Churches Preservation Trust donated £500 to the fund. In 1963 St John's church, completed only a century earlier, was inspected and found to need repairs estimated to cost £6,500. But church attendance had declined, so the Diocesan Pastoral Committee decided that restoring both of Escomb's churches was not justified. It decided that the Anglo-Saxon church should once again be the parish church, and St John's should be deconsecrated and demolished. Lee refused the proposal, but in 1964 he retired and the diocese suspended the living and the rural dean was made priest in charge.
In 1967, restoration of the Anglo-Saxon church was begun; in December 1969 it reverted to being the parish church and, in 1971, St John's was demolished.
Architecture
Anglo-Saxon
The church is a stone version of the nave and chancel plan and is typical of churches of the late Saxon period. Much of the squared masonry was taken from the nearby Roman fort at Vinovia (Binchester). On the gable of the south porch is a 7th- or early 8th-century sundial, above which projects an Anglo-Saxon relief of an animal's head. On the north wall is a reused Roman stone with the markings "LEG VI" set upside down (presumably referring to the Legio VI Victrix which served in Roman Britain).
The proportions of the nave are typically Anglo-Saxon—narrow and tall. The chancel is rectangular. The church is built of large roughly-dressed, squared stones, with particularly large quoins, many of which are up to 2 ft (0.6 m) high and between 3 ft (0.9 m) and 4 ft (1.2 m) long. The early character of the building and its similarity to other early work in Northumbria are consistent with it having been built between 650 and 800.
Internally, the nave is 13.24 metres (43.4 ft) long by 4.42 metres (14.5 ft) wide. The chancel is almost square, being 3.07 metres (10.1 ft) by 3.11 metres (10.2 ft). The chancel arch is 5 ft 3 in (1.6 m) wide and its apex is15 ft (4.6 m) above the floor of the nave. Its walls are 2 ft 4 in (0.7 m) thick, and about 24 ft (7.3 m) high.
Internally the most notable feature is the tall, narrow chancel arch. The southern impost of the arch is reminiscent of those in a gateway of the Roman fort at Chesters on Hadrian's Wall. This strengthens the theory that stones used at Escomb were brought from Binchester. Many of the stones show Roman tooling, which is common in Anglo-Saxon churches.
The chancel arch is of typical Roman form, tall with massive stone jambs, simple chamfered imposts and precisely-cut, radial voussoirs. It is unlike the non-radial voussoirs that the Anglo-Saxons typically made.
In the Victorian restoration of 1880 were found a number of delicately-carved fragments of cross-shafts of the high quality commonly assigned to the Hexham school. They were found built into the gables, presumably during earlier restorations.
The majority of the windows, small and set high in the walls, are original Anglo-Saxon work. The church is essentially little changed from when it was built. Viewed from the north side, the building is pure 7th-century, with no later additions.
Gothic and later
At an unknown date the eaves were raised. The nave now has a crow-stepped gable at each end. Some simple Gothic windows were inserted in the 13th century, and the south porch was built in the 14th century. In the 19th century, more windows were inserted and a new door was installed in the porch.