Buildings
All Saints Church
All Saints on Lower Pilgrim Street, Newcastle, is an eighteenth-century church built on the same site as its medieval predecessor that dated back to at least 1286.
2015 – Today
Our work
T+WBPT aided the council in finding new tenants, the Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales, for the building in 2019.
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales were previously using a community centre in Lobley Hill before moving into their much grander eighteenth-century home.
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales signed a 150-year lease for the building in 2019.
It was also in 2019 that the church gained a new bell! The church’s current bell began life in 1887 in The Church of St. Nicholas down in Child Okeford, a small village in Dorset but, in 2018, their bellringer made the decision to purchase new bells with a lighter sound. Three of the bells were immediately sold to new homes across the country but the fourth would take part in Yoko Ono’s performance ‘Bells of Peace’ at Manchester International Festival in 2019 before finding its own new home at All Saints.
The church run two Sunday services and a midweek bible study.
Self-guided heritage tours of the building are available on Thursday afternoons 1-4pm.
It has been a cause for concern as this is one of the most important churches in the country, and is considered to be in the top 10 buildings in the region.
“Its proposed re-use is incredible news as it is one of the most prominent structures on the At Risk register. The best use for a building is that for which it was originally designed
Martin Hulse, Trust Manager
1893 – 2015
History
Before the construction of All Saints as it stands today, another church known as All Hallows was on the same grounds. All Hallows was one of Newcastle’s four original churches and was constructed some time between 1150 and 1190. St Nicholas’ Cathedral was Newcastle’s only official church at the time, with All Hallows, St. Andrew’s and St. John’s technically only being chapelries of the parish.
In 1696, the new bells founded for the church were made from the melted down metal statue of King James the Second who had been deposed during the Glorious Revolution of 1688. The statue previously stood in the Sandhill area of the Quayside.
All Hallows went through various restorations and changes through the following centuries but, by 1785, it was in a serous state of disrepair and the pillars supporting the building were giving way.
When the decision was made to demolish the old church, parts of the tower had to be blasted with gunpowder and, unfortunately, Captain William Hedley was killed by one of the stones falling on him while he was watching the demolition.
The construction of the new church cost £27,000, £2061.19s of which was made from the sale of the old pews, £30 from donations, and an additional £100 donated by a Mrs Atlee as she insisted that the internal fittings be made from mahogany rather than oak.
By the 1880s, the church had again fallen into disrepair and appeals were made for donations.
In the 1950s, the congregation was declining as people moved away from the area. By 1961, it was deconsecrated and turned into offices in the 1980s.
The building was also previously used by the Royal Northern Sinfonia before they moved over to the Sage in 2004.
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