St Ninian’s church is a

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

place of worship situated on Burnhouse Road in the town of

Wooler Wooler ( ) is a town in Northumberland, England. It lies on the edge of the Northumberland National Park, near the Cheviot Hills. It is a popular base for walkers and is referred to as the "Gateway to the Cheviots". As well as many shops and ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

, England. It is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

and is within the Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle.

History

Early Catholic mission

Post-Reformation Catholic worship in Wooler dates from 1792 when a Catholic mission was founded by Mrs Jane Silvertop in a chapel on the top floor of her house she had renamed St Ninian‘s. A priest lived within the house, which stands on present day Ryecroft Way. After the death of Mrs Silvertop it became the presbytery for the town of Wooler until 1850 when Bishop

William Hogarth William Hogarth (; 10 November 1697 – 26 October 1764) was an English painter, engraving, engraver, pictorial social satire, satirist, editorial cartoonist and occasional writer on art. His work ranges from Realism (visual arts), realistic p ...

converted it into a Diocesan Mission Centre in one of his first acts as the newly installed Catholic Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle. The mission was badly damaged by fire in 1856 and the building reverted to being the presbytery for the new church which was being built just a few yards to the west. The presbytery was used as a hospital store in

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

and was sold by the church in 1974 to become the Loreto Guest House, in May 1986 it was designated as a Grade II listed building. Taking Stock: Catholic Churches of England and Wales
Gives history of church and mission. Images of England
Gives details of mission.

New church is built

The church was built in the Late Geometric style at a cost of £1305 by the architect George Goldie of the firm

Weightman and Hadfield Matthew Ellison Hadfield (8 September 1812 – 9 March 1885) was an English architect of the Victorian Gothic revival. He is chiefly known for his work on Roman Catholic churches, including the cathedral churches of Salford and Sheffield. Train ...

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. The church was opened by Bishop Hogarth on 24 June 1856, it was described at the time by the Catholic publication “

The Tablet ''The Tablet'' is a Catholic Church, Catholic international weekly review published in London. Brendan Walsh, previously literary editor and then acting editor, was appointed editor in July 2017. History ''The Tablet'' was launched in 1840 by ...

” as ''‘a severely simple building in harmony with the wild scenery around it’''. Changes to the church over the years have included a reordering of the

Sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

by Father Timney in 1974 and the glazing of the wooden tracery screen below the west gallery in 2012. Images of England
Gives details of church and architecture.

Architecture

The church is built from snecked stone (courses of stonework with smaller stones, or snecks, inserted at regular intervals) with a

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roof. The south west tower has a multi moulded pointed arch doorway with paired

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s at bell level, topped off by a steeply sloping roof with

quatrefoil A quatrefoil (anciently caterfoil) is a decorative element consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter. It is found in art, architecture, heraldry and traditional ...

s in the gables. The interior includes a very tall

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

arch. The multi sided

Lady chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British English, British term for a chapel dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church (building), church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chape ...

stands at the end of the south aisle. The east window and the glass in the south aisle is by

William Wailes William Wailes (1808–1881) was the proprietor of one of England's largest and most prolific stained glass workshops. Life and career Wailes was born and grew up in Newcastle on Tyne, England's centre of domestic glass and bottle manufacturing. ...

and includes one dedicated to the architect George Goldie and his wife Madeleine de Kersadier and another which depicts

Saint Ninian Ninian is a Christian saint, first mentioned in the 8th century as being an early missionary among the Pictish peoples of what is now Scotland. For this reason, he is known as the Apostle to the Southern Picts, and there are numerous dedicatio ...

. Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle
Gives details of St Ninian stained glass. The bell tower was designed for eight bells but has only ever had one, which has not been rung for many years.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Ninian's Catholic Church, Wooler Roman Catholic churches completed in 1856 Roman Catholic churches in Northumberland Grade II listed churches in Northumberland 19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom George Goldie church buildings Grade II listed Roman Catholic churches in England