The treasures inside St John's Church, Darlington, which is now closed

But it closed earlier this year after 173 years of worship, and on Tuesday, August 1, it was taken on by the Durham Diocesan Board of Finance who will work with the Church Commissioners to find the building a future.

St John's Church, Bank Top, Darlington, in 1953

On Sunday, members of Darlington Historical Society were allowed a last look at its treasures as Valerie Cadd gave them a final tour before its doors closed for ever.

“I am just Mrs Cannybody who has been coming to St John’s for nearly 60 years,” she said. “We are all very very sad that it is closing and we can’t answer the question about what’s going to happen to it because we don’t know.”

Built alongside Bank Top station, it was funded largely by the railway company for the new community of railwaymen who worked on the mainline. It could hold 650 people and, in its heyday, there were railwaymen queuing out of the door to get a place in a pew. Now its numbers have dwindled and its ashlar stone is crumbling…

Memories 615 told its history but, far more valuably, Valerie told the stories of its treasures which have been collected up by generations of railwaymen…

Valerie Cadd with the mallet George Hudson used to lay the foundation stone

•  On September 10, 1847, George Hudson, the Railway King of York whose company had taken charge of building the first stretch of the East Coast Main Line from York to the Bank Top area of Darlington, laid the foundation stone with an inscribed wooden mallet.

“The mallet was missing for a long, long time and then a man from Darlington was staying in the Lynton House Hotel in Margate in Kent. They had found the mallet in their attic and they asked him if he would return it to the church. We haven’t a clue how it got there, but we are very grateful that it came back home.

“And we haven’t got a clue where the foundation stone is that the mallet knocked in place, although we have searched and searched and searched for it.”

The inscribed mallet from 1848

• Mr Hudson’s fortunes imploded in 1849 and he wound up bankrupt. Because of this, the church was never finished in the imposing style he had wanted. It never got the 160ft spire (above) that was planned for it, and it never got the three-faced clock that was supposed to go in the tower. Mr Hudson’s company, the York, Newcastle and Berwick Railway, refused to pay for the clock because it had already installed one in the first Bank Top station which could be seen from the church.

• Mr Hudson had ordered a full set of eight bells for the church, but when they were complete, he sent three of the bells to another church he was funding, reputedly in Pocklington in east Yorkshire.

• The church opened on January 3, 1850. It had cost £4,000 but, at least partly due to Mr Hudson’s fall from grace, it had debts of £1,500. The Bishop of Durham refused to consecrate a debt-ridden church so it wasn’t consecrated until July 16, 1853.

• The chancel features some fine Frosterley marble with a brilliant set of Minton tiles (above), made by the famous Stoke pottery, around the altar. The Reverend Thomas Minton was vicar of Holy Trinity church in Woodland Road, Darlington, for many years and was involved in the fund-raising for St John’s. He persuaded his family to do a good deal on the tiles as he had done for Holy Trinity. The St John’s tiles are believed to be “Pugin tiles”, which were designed by Augustus Pugin, the architect of the Houses of Parliament, for Minton and which are highly prized.

• The first organ was presented by railway director and brewer Nathaniel Plews. It came from Bedale church in Mr Plews’ home town. It wasn’t satisfactory and was replaced in 1890 by a pipe organ made by HS Vincent of Sunderland. It has 1,138 pipes and is highly regarded in the organ-playing world. Since the closure of the church was announced, enthusiasts have placed two videos of it in action on YouTube.

• The original limestone pulpit disintegrated and was replaced in 1895 with a pulpit with four religious statues around it (above). “They are St John, Jesus Christ, St Peter and St Thomas, although we thought he was St Mark for many years,” said Valerie. “One day a man came in who was the great nephew of the sculptor. He was very pleased that his great uncle’s work was still here but he said it was St Thomas.”

• St John’s contains three First World War memorials. There’s an unusual triptych (above) memorial in oak, copper and brass bearing the names of 113 parishioners who lost their lives. There’s a framed memorial to the 119 former pupils of St John’s school who died, but they are listed without military rank as the headteacher insisted that everyone is equal before God. There’s also a roll of honour bearing 350 names of school staff and pupils who served in the war. The memorials are being shared between St Herbert’s Church in Yarm Road and the school.

Valerie concluded: “Isn’t it sad that it will be 200 years of the railway in 2025 and the railwaymen’s church will not be open…”

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