St Cuthbert's Church, Redmarshall

St Cuthbert’s Church stands in the small village of Redmarshall in County Durham. Built mainly in the 12th century, it grew with a larger chancel added in the 13th century and a chantry chapel in 1311. The church was altered again in the 15th and 19th centuries, including work by the Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe in 1845. Sharpe replaced windows with Perpendicular-style mullioned ones and added a gallery with his partner E. G. Paley. The east window in the chancel was renewed in 1891, and the church still serves as an active Anglican parish. The building mixes Norman, Gothic and Gothic Revival styles. Its walls are of roughly coursed rubble under Westmorland slate roofs, and it has a west tower with a battlemented parapet. Inside, the nave leads to a south porch and the chancel with its south chapel. The church contains a 15th-century sedilia and Easter sepulchre, a late Norman font, and 17th-century pews and communion rails. In the chapel lie tombs with effigies of Thomas de Loughton and his wife from the mid-15th century. Visitors find a quiet village setting with a church that holds centuries of craftsmanship. The tower rises above the nave and chancel, its battlements marking the skyline. Inside, the Norman font and 15th-century fittings show the building’s long history. The chapel’s effigies and the Victorian organ from 1978 add further layers of interest. The church remains in use, linking past and present for those who walk through its door.