St. Peter's Church, Sunderland

The Britons and Scots were apparently unfamiliar with stone building involving the use of squared stone and mortar.

 

The building of Hexham was commenced in 674, and it was not till that date that Benedict Biscop was in position to engage workmen for Wearmouth, so that Wilfrid was just beforehand with Biscop, who in consequence had to look elsewhere for his architects, and he set out for Gaul to engage them there.

 

Now it does not at all follow that because Biscop brought his masons from Gaul, therefore they were not Comacines. It was as easy to find Comacines in Gaul as in England. We find them settled there at later date, when they were called artifici Franchi. There is presumptive evidence of a settlement of a guild in Gaul at this time, and it was probably some of the French Comacines that Biscop employed, for Biscop insisted on a church built after the Roman manner, a Basilica; he would have nothing else, and no builders could build a Basilica better than successors to the Roman college of architecture.

 

The twined serpents with birds' beaks on the right doorpost of the doorway under the tower singularly characteristic of the style of the Basilicas in Rome. There is a similar design on the architrave of an ancient door in San Clemente, Rome.

 

 

 

St Bede wrote:

"After the interval of a year, Benedict crossed the sea into Gaul, and no sooner asked than he obtained and carried back with him some masons to build him a church in the Roman style, which he had always admired. ...When the work was drawing to completion, he sent messengers to Gaul to fetch makers of glass, (more properly artificers,) who were at this time unknown in Britain, that they might glaze the windows of his church, with the cloisters and dining-rooms. This was done, and they came, and not only finished the work required, but taught the English nation their handicraft, which was well adapted for enclosing the lanterns of the church, and for the vessels required for various uses.

All other things necessary for the service of the church and the altar, the sacred vessels, and the vestments, because they could not be procured in England, he took especial care to buy and bring home from foreign parts.

Some decorations and muniments there were which could not be procured even in Gaul, and these the pious founder determined to fetch from Rome..."

 

The church was built within a year between 674 and 675, and it was not a large building, although its nave proportions of 5.64m by 19.5m are not dissimilar to those of many Merovingian churches.

There are two medieval effigies. On the north side of the chancel, beneath the eastern arch of the arcade, is a canopied tomb containing a rather damaged effigy conjectured to be Sir William Hylton, builder of Hylton Castle. Hunter Blair dates the effigy to c1380-90 but the tomb itself to the 15th century. The table tomb on which the effigy rests has a panelled front to the north, with shields (now blank) within quatrefoils; this seems contemporary with the effigy, but the superstructure, which has a four-centred arch and rich panelling on the sides and arch soffit, and is surmounted by a moulded frieze with square flowers and a brattished top, looks largely restoration.

 

In the north aisle is a very worn and damaged effigy of an ecclesiastic, identified as a ‘Master of Wearmouth’, thought to be of the 14th century.