A church which for almost 150 years withstood all that fire, flood and freezing temperatures could visit upon it finally closed its doors on Sunday (July 30).
St Thomas’s, a Grade II listed building on Stanley Hill Top, above Crook, was built to accommodate 500 people. For the past few years the average congregation has been five.
Once there were eight places of worship, including two Methodist chapels in Stanley, in the closely-knit colliery villages between Tow Law and Crook. Now there are none.
“I just feel that closure is such a waste of wonderful building with beautiful acoustics and the best organ in north-west Durham,” said the Rev Geoff Lawes, 86, who for the past 18 years has overseen services at St Thomas’s.
“I just can’t get my head around that we won’t be able to gather here any more.”
Completed in 1878 at a cost of £3,712, the church was gutted by fire – caused during a heavy storm when the heating system exploded – in 1893. It was rebuilt within a year.
A 1923 parish magazine listed Sunday services at 10.30am and 6pm, young men’s Bible class at 1.45pm, Sunday School at 2.30pm, baptisms on Sundays at 3.30pm and Wednesday at 6.30pm and a 7pm “mission church” up the road at Sunniside. There were enough sidesmen to field two football teams.
On the exposed ridge, problems mounted, however. In 1979 the Evening Despatch described bills of several thousand pounds for damage caused by “severe winter weather”.
Three years later The Northern Echo reported that the “cathedral on the hill” faced closure as congregations had dwindled. Just 70 people were on the electoral roll, only around 20 regularly attended.
When the Diocese of Durham proposed closure in 2001, the congregation persuaded the Ven Granville Gibson, then Archdeacon of Auckland, to grant them a six-month reprieve.
Second chance accepted, they created a stained glass window dedicated to Archdeacon Gibson.
Parishioner Vera Ryder, 80, who was baptised and married at St Thomas’s and has attended throughout her life, recalled when there were two Sunday School classes in the church and a third in the vicarage when the vicar’s wife hosted a well-attended embroidery group and when the choir had a waiting list.
“Numbers have rarely got above five these past few years” she said. “We’ve tried everything but folk just don’t want to come any more.”
Though much else changed, the Hill Top climate probably didn’t. “It’s a lovely church lovely village, but the wind still gets to you,” said Pam Brown, a churchwarden.
Heating so great a building for so small a number could also be a problem. “There’s a limit to how much can be achieved” said Prairie Stories, a village history published last year, “with a three-bar electric fire, a bit of good faith and a ganzey”.
Inspired by the late Dave Ayre, a churchwarden and UCATT trade union official, the church also held an annual service to mark International Workers’ Memorial Day, at which four Bishops of Durham and several nationally prominent union officials had preached.
The local Woolley Colliery miners banner was displayed behind the altar, the Crook branch UCATT banner – “Socialism and revolution” – was against a wall.
“When folk claim, as still they do, that the Church of England is the Conservative Party at prayer, they should get themselves to Stanley, Crook” said Prairie Stories.
Boosted by congregations from neighbouring parishes, and by a choir from Wolsingham, the church was full for the final service.
“We know why this has happened, it’s because we have no money,” said Mr Lawes, who will continue to lead services at nearby Satley and Tow Law.
St Thomas’s had been closed for 18 months during Covid, reopened for monthly services in August 2021 but knew that closure was inevitable.
“St Thomas’s has always had a hand-to-mouth existence” said a statement at the time, “It will break the hearts of the congregation to close the doors for the last time but we can no longer bear the burden of funding and maintaining a building that so few want to use.”
Times change, said Mr Lawes, adding: “Stanley used to have at least nine shops. Now it has none. We wanted to carry on for as long as possible but there comes a point when it’s no longer viable.”
The building’s future has yet to be decided, though a memorial garden is being created nearby.
The final service ends with “Great is thy faithfulness”. They thought, said Mr Lawes, that it was wholly appropriate.
- Prairie stories, a portrait of Stanley – a typical Co Durham mining village – is available on Amazon or (£10 plus £3 postage) from mikeamos81@aol.com
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