Stockton Parish Church

This is a brick church comprising of a western tower and nave. There is a chancel with vestry added to the north-east and south aisle also added. Extensive stone detailing with quoins and string and eaves courses; stone window surrounds and balustrade over chancel.

Construction began on 5th June 1710, in 1711 Stockton became a parish as opposed to part of Norton parish. The church was dedicated on 21st August 1712 at a cost of £1600 (White’s Directory 1827). The original church comprised tower and nave, although the nave contains aisles within it. The south aisle was added between 1859 and 1889.

The Chancel and vestry were added between 1889 and 1914. The tower has three stages, with round windows at ground floor level on the north and south walls and a double door in the west wall as the main entrance to the church. The stone surround on this door is linked to a large window above which follows the same style as the other principle windows in the church with three vertical lights and a fanlight above. It is however surmounted by a triangular stone entablature. The third storey of the tower has belfry openings for the ring of six bells on all four walls and a clock is positioned on the south facing wall of the second tier of the tower.

The north wall of the nave contains six large windows as the tower but with a slight brick plinth extending from their sills to the ground. There is a stone string course at gutter level pierced by the rainwater openings and one of the hoppers has the date of 1712 on it. A façade wall rises above gutter level and has a stone capping. At the eastern end of the north wall a vestry has been created / enlarged. A protruding doorcase has three strip lights over it while to the west there is a small window which may be a rebuilding of an original north wall window that has been removed to allow construction of the vestry. This dates between 1889 and 1914. The south wall of the nave has a doorway at the west end with a stone surround and half window above it. The two are linked by the stone surround. Two large windows are visible in this wall constructed as those on the north wall, but the remaining length of this wall  is obscured by the later south aisle.

The chancel is relatively short and its lower levels are obscured by the vestry to the north and the modern parish hall to the south. It was built between 1889 and 1914. It rises above the level of the nave and there are three oval windows on either side at clerestorey level. It is surmounted by a stone balustrade of ten decorated columns punctuated by larger columns with half column on either side and surmounted by a ball except across the east end.

The balustrade runs the length of the north and south walls of the chancel and across the east end. It does not run across the west end. Across the east end the balustrade has decorative urns at the corners and a central cross which appears to have the letters IHS (Jesus Hominum Salvatore – Jesus saviour of mankind) entwined in it centre. The east window, which is of the same construction as those of the north wall has a decorative medallion over the middle of the top also with the HIS design. There are also three vertical lights at ground floor level that light a passage. The south aisle was added between 1857 and 1899 and was built as a gabled structure with a cross over the east gable and a separate entrance in its west wall. The vestry has had a later 20th century extension and the parish hall is also of late 20th century date.