This former Methodist Church (closed in 1982) is a 2 storey, symmetrical composition of long thin bricks with concrte detailing and a tiled roof. It retains great and interesting original timber panelled doors, with a slight arc to their head, and leaded lights above containing shields. The original windows also remain and are predominantly rectangular, set in stone surrounds with leaded lights, but a grander window displaying elaborate tracery, positioned in a central gable to the principal elevation, distinguishes the building and animates it skyward. Brick detailing to edges and header arches also form part of the distinctive decorative scheme. It is an attractive building with a distinctive presence on a principal route, utilising an unusual combination of materials (uncommon brick with leaded lights). Although it has been significantly extended, the new build takes the form of a separate building, creating good visual differentiation in terms of scale and proximity, and ensuring that the special character of the original structure is preserved. MATERIALS Brick, stone/concrete?, leaded lights, timber, slate ARCHITECT Harrison & Ash (14 Grey St, Newcastle), Builder Mr Bolam DATES 1914 (opened 17/04) ADDITIONAL INFORMATION It is possible that some funding was provided by the Bishop of Durham LOCAL LIST

This was a CWS cabinet works, later a shirt factory. Inside there was a World War One Roll of Honour in an oak frame {North East War Memorials Project www.newmp.org.uk, P24.02}. The Roll of Honour has been passed to Bill Lumsden of North East War Memorials Project and will be displayed in St. Mary's Church Hall at Heworth. The factory was built in the 1920s. It is built in symmetrical bays with red-brick pilasters in Flemish bond and bays in-between in red-brick English garden wall bond. Two ashlar courses run around the building. The windows sit between them. The building has a sawtooth roof. The short slope is glazed and the long slope covered with Welsh slate shingles and slate ridgecaps. The frontage of the building facing onto Shields Road is bounded by a low red-brick wall in English garden wall bond with ashlar coping stones. The wall has square red-brick gateposts in English cross bond with ashlar copings and ball finials. The north elevation is made up of eleven bays between twelve pilasters. The central bay is the main factory entrance with double doors under a triangular gable roof. The ten remaining bays each have a wooden framed hopper window which opens inwards, glazed with reinforced plastic 'Plexiglas'. The windows have projecting ashlar sills. To the immediate west of the factory entrance is the office entrance with narrow wooden panelled double doors, with the upper panels glazed, which open outwards. Above the door is a glazed panel transom light. At the south-corner of the building is a large brick chimney with two attached tubular steel chimneys. The south elevation consists of four two-storey bays on either side of a central bay with gable roof. A painted sign reads 'CO-OPERATIVE WHOLESALE SOCIETY SHIRT FACTORY' which would have been visible from the adjacent Brandling Junction Railway line. Inside there is an open-plan factory floor, storage area, workshops, offices and meeting rooms, WCs, a kitchen and canteen. The interior doors appear to be original. The roof has vertical steel I-bar pillars supporting large horizontal steel joists. A linen press marked with the CWS logo stands in the storage area. A basement level is accessed by a wooden quarter-turn staircase just off the factory entrance. The basement is open-plan. There are two outbuildings to the east of the shirt factory. The Co-operative Wholesale Society had a number of factories at Pelaw. The first one to be opened was the Drug and Drysaltery Department, where pickled onions and other pickled gooded were prepared and bottled. Gateshead Library has photographs of this factory in 1901 (GL000680 and GL000676). The Tailoring Department made shirts, nightwear, coats, suits, industrial clothing (overalls, boilersuits and pit clothes) and quilts from 1914 (GL000673, GL002452, GL000681). ARCHITECT L G Ekins (CWS, West Blandford St, Newcastle) DATES Plans 1915, erected c1920 LOCAL LIST

This former Co-operative Store was designed by the first Surveyor for Felling UDC and built for the Felling Shore Society, in competition with the Boldon Society premises further along the road. They quickly retaliated by extending their own premises, as their older store would have had difficulty competing with the ‘department’ style of this new one, with its separate drapers, butchers and grocers. It carries echoes of the earlier one – utilising the same materials of brick, stone dressings, and slate roof, but attempts to outdo it in elaboration, with huge Venetian windows reminiscent of those on the Jackson Street store. The bold orange of the brick is brighter and a little more brash, and it is fortunate that the large, pedimented pilasters from the original shopfronts remain, despite the poor replacements for the shopfronts themselves. It is happy that the large, attractively detailed windows to the upper floors remain (?), making an impressive mark on this important street. The dialogue between the older and newer buildings is especially satisfying, as on its own this grandiose building would be admirable, but together with the other Co-op store it tells an engaging story. MATERIALS Orange brick, sandstone, timber, slate ARCHITECT Henry Miller AMICE
(Felling) DATES 1900 LOCAL LIST

This Lytch (meaning ‘corpse’) gate for use during funerals was financed by public subscription, in memory of George V, and all those who worked on it were local people. It stands on a cyclopean rusticated sandstone plinth wall, quarried from the local area, and is crowned with a distinctive clay tiled gambrel roof, with a welcoming gable to the entrance. Between the two, panels of timberwork adorned with tracery appear as glass-free windows onto the churchyard. The whole composition is well-built in good quality, natural materials, and it makes a statement as a grand and solid entrance to the attractive Grade II Listed St. Mary’s Church. MATERIALS Sandstone (Heworth Burn Quarry), Tiles (Foster’s Pelaw Brickworks) BUILDER Stone: Tate, Brown & Co Woodwork & Gates: Pelaw CWS Cabinet Works Tiling: William Knott. DATES 1936 proposed, 1937 dedicated. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION It was moved from its original position in 1958 when the Felling By-Pass was built. LOCAL LIST

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This fine quality building was originally the Boldon Co-operative Society Store, which preceded the Felling Shore Society premises by a number of years. Designed by J H Moreton, who had worked on the Gateshead Union Workhouse a few years earlier, it was modest initially, with a small store area and plenty of warehousing. However, after the Felling Shore premises were opened, it was extended in order to compete for business. The warm hues of the wonderfully weathered brick are complemented beautifully by the abundant sandstone dressings, creating a rich texture accompanying the slate roof, which makes a striking contribution to a key route through the area. The use of variety is extended to the roofscape, which is especially idiosyncratic – involving 2 different styles of shaped gable, and a fine octagonal corner turret, surmounted by a faceted conical roof with hexagonal slate banding and a lead finial. The multiplicity of details includes stone water tabling with unusual kneelers, lintels and cills, a darker brick ‘wheel’, and ball finials to arched gables tops. The dark slate roof offers a pleasing backdrop to the detail of the building, with deep red terracotta ridge tiles. Unfortunately most of the windows to the upper floors have been replaced in plastic (although the 1901 extension to Station Road retains its metal ones), and the ground floor now displays a variety of shopfronts ranging in quality, but all of which would benefit from some improvement. MATERIALS Brick, sandstone, metal, slate ARCHITECT J H Moreton, South Shields DATES 1891 (plans) Extension 1901, Additional stables 1919 LOCAL LIST

This splendid establishment was erected for Edward Adams Esq. of Swalwell. Set over 3 full storeys with 2 half storeys, it provided the very latest facilities in the most modern taste at the time, with a large and airy public bar, sitting rooms, and a large clubroom, as well as generous accommodation. The pub was named for the National Shooting Centre at Bisley, home of the National Rifle Association, as the publican was a noted and successful rifle shot. The building is finely constructed in neat cyclopean rusticated sandstone, with smooth dressings. The degree of intactness of the composition is remarkable, with the single modern intrusion being floodlights to the front elevation, which are even then modest and discreet. It is beautifully detailed, with moulded stone stall riser, elaborately carved corbels with fluting and sweeping canopies, and solid window surrounds enfolding mainly tripartite windows, but some bipartite to the side. It is uncertain whether the form of the windows has been changed, or whether the detail of what was constructed strayed from the original plans, but certainly the ground floor windows are of a different form. The proposals involved a fairly conventional arrangement, dividing the windows in two with slender columns, but the present windows are unusual in form, divided both vertically and horizontally into 3 sections, with transoms of varying height. The upper windows also have this unusual 3 light form, with single pane sashes topped by fixed lights. The neat and cheerful dormers that animate the steeply pitched slate roof retain their timber sashes, terracotta ball finials and glazed cheeks. The timber fascia with raised lettering is absolutely in keeping, and even the cast iron rainwater goods and some of the vents below the windows are still in situ. This is a handsome building, remarkably complete, extending to the interior with attractive panelling, ceilings, and even decorative tiling to the gents toilets! MATERIALS Sandstone, slate, timber ARCHITECT T Leslie Anderson & Albert P Farthing (7 Royal Arcade, Newcastle) DATES 1892 LOCAL LIST

Last use was a dance studio. Now vacant. This beautiful little building was originally a Primitive Methodist Chapel, but was sold to become a library in 1950. Constructed in sandstone with a partially hipped welsh slate roof, as to the west a gable abuts the older Victoria Terrace. The main walls are rubble (for economy), but the window surrounds are neatly dressed with charming carved details, including hood mouldings and raised acanthus keystones. The heavily corniced pediment detail above the door has a subtle but inviting presence, continuing the acanthus detail to its semi-pilasters, and mouldings and foliate shields embellish the arched door surround. The original 6 panel double door remains, with a multipane arched light above, but the window openings have been blocked, and it is uncertain whether the windows are extant. Fortunately the attractive original railings are still in situ, though they have sustained some damage, as they shield a drop to the basement level, which is fully visible to the rear due to the drop in land levels. A cast iron rainwater hopper is still in place but the pipework has been replaced with plastic. It is to be hoped that the building comes back into use soon, as it is in a poor and deteriorating state. MATERIALS Sandstone, slate ARCHITECT Unknown Alterations - Thomas Southern (South Shields) DATES 1854 Alterations 1888 LOCAL LIST

This unassuming gateway, now closed and with boarding behind, was formerly the entrance to the Blaydon East School, established in 1891 but demolished some time ago. What remains is a narrow opening in a sandstone wall, well made in large blocks of dressed stone, with chamfered coping. The opening is shouldered, with simple capped piers, and unusual grid-pattern wrought iron gates, with small railing sections to each side. Trefoil and swirl details enhance the design, assisted by the rather whimsical curling finials. Barley twist uprights support the gates, but one side has lost its 3-dimensionally expressed finial. The gateway is unobtrusive, but intrinsically pleasing and important as a reminder of the historical development of Blaydon. The ironwork needs some maintenance, however, in the form of painting. MATERIALS Sandstone, wrought & cast iron DATES 1891 LOCAL LIST

This beautiful composite chapel is wholly worthy of its status as the centrepiece of Blaydon Cemetery. Designed by the well-known local architect Matthew Thompson, his talent shines through in the proportions and the fine detailing, as well as the way in which the building is carefully placed within the landscape he also designed. A courtyard-like space was allowed to the front of the chapel for carriage turning and congregating, and from here a wonderful glimpse can be seen through the porte-cochere (covered carriage arch) of the serpentine central path rising up through the cemetery. Now, also the Listed war memorial is set in the heart of this courtyard, and therefore framed views of this are attractive from the south. Architectural elements are applied with eclectic decorative forms, but the principal influence is the gothic revival style. The balanced composition is formed of 2 modestly sized chapels set transversely, with set-down chancels at the extremities and gabled vestries, set perpendicular to the north. Each end is gloriously punctured with large quinto acuto arched windows embellished by bar tracery, with the remaining windows simpler pointed lancets. A curious detail draws attention to the small voussoirs (purely decorative devices, as lintels are present beneath), as alternate stones feature a raised, rough square panel although these have been affected by weathering. Aside from this the detailing is comfortingly intact – with deep columnar mouldings enriching the arches of the porte-cochere, fanciful curved kneelers, partly cylindrical chimneys and stepped buttresses. Even the ironwork is still in place, including sinuous wrought hinges on the timber batten doors, and cast rainwater goods, boasting moulded guttering. The whole is constructed in relatively rough stone – it is difficult to discern weather this was a result of rough dressing or tooling, but the former is more likely. The steeply pitched slate roof is visually prominent, as is the lynchpin of the architectural design – the slender and graceful crowning spire -remarkably still housing the bell that could originally be tolled for a charge, whatever the occasion! MATERIALS Sandstone, slate, timber ARCHITECT Matthew Thompson BUILDER Robert Smith DATES 1873 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Internally, to the eastern (Church of England) chapel, some interesting features remain, including the pews and the lectern, and the attractive roof is open to the internal space, with moulded rafters and purlins, and plaster on timber laths. In the western chapel a cast iron fireplace is still intact in the vestry area. The research assistance of Caroline Harrop is gratefully acknowledged. LOCAL LIST