Further History
THE PARISH CHURCH, dedicated to St. Thomas, is situated in High-street, and is a spacious brick structure, with copings of freestone to the doors and windows. It is 150 feet in length by 67 in breadth, with a tower at the west end, containing a clock and a peal of six bells. The entrance is under the tower; the nave is separated from the aisle by five square pillars, supporting semicircular arches. There are three galleries, one of which, the western, contains a fine-toned organ.
The east window contains a beautiful figure, in stained glass, of the Redeemer, bearing his cross, and surrounded by the accessories of the Passion. Above is the Hebrew name of Jehovah; and below, inscribed in a circle, in Old English characters, "He was despised and rejected of men." This window was executed by Mr. Gibson, of Newcastle, in 1828. Beneath it, in a recess, stands the communion table. This window was subsequently moved inside the church.
The church, which will accommodate about 1,500 persons, is regularly stalled with oak; and the reading desk and pulpit are of excellent workmanship; it also contains several mural monuments. On the south side of the site occupied by the present church, there formerly stood a chapel-of-ease, under the parish church of Norton; it was dedicated to St. Thomas, and contained a free chantry, dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, and was endowed with four ox-gangs of land and four borough houses, which, in 1588, when the chantry was dissolved, were of the annual value of £5 3s. 6d.
The ruinous state of the chapel, and the increased population of the town, at length rendered the erection of a new church necessary; and an act of parliament was obtained in 1711, for separating Stockton from the parish of Norton, and for making the present church parochial; the first stone of which was laid on the 5th June 1710, and the edifice was consecrated by Bishop Crewe, on the 21st August, 1712, being then completed at a cost of about £1,600. Under the act of parliament just mentioned, and that of 1st Geo. I., 1714, the direction of parochial affairs is vested in the vicar and twelve vestry men, to whom the Bishop of Durham, lord of the manor, is empowered to grant, for the augmentation of the vicarage, a parcel of ground there specified, or any other parcel or parcels of waste ground within the manor, without fine, and under the custom and yearly rent of one penny, provided the same be not of more or greater yearly value than £20 at the time of making such grant. The new-constituted vicarage was entitled to all such tithes within its precincts as had been paid usually to the vicar of Norton; and the patronage of the living was solely vested in the Bishop of Durham.
The parish register commences in 1637. The living is a vicarage, not in charge, nor certificated, but pays a third part of the first-fruits, tenths, procurations, and synodals for the parish of Norton; gross income, £300. Vicar, Rev. F.J. James; curate, Joseph Richardson, B.A. [Whellan's History, Topography and Directory of Durham (and Newcastle) (1856), pages 566-67.] |
