View from the west window looking toward the Chancel.

View from the Altar toward the west window

The south transept is the original site of Robert de Mortham’s chantry and the burial place of the Bowes family of Streatlam Castle. It was later the site of the church’s first barrel organ and now houses the present organ, moved here in 1957. The obscured south window presents stained glass in memory of Rev. Canon Dugard, incumbent from 1847. The eagle lectern dates from 1879; the large wooden cross was presented to the church by the 6th Durham Infantry in 1969.

The present east window dates from c.1814, and its stained glass from 1899, which commemorates the ministry of Rev. Canon Brown. A reredos erected in 1883 was removed c.1960. The communion table is Jacobean of the early C17th and stands on the pre-Reformation altar slab, which is laid into the floor.

St. Margaret’s Chapel was originally the organ chamber, constructed in 1870 to house the then-new organ. This chapel of St. Margaret of Scotland was created at the removal of the organ in 1957.

The immense font at St. Mary’s has been variously sited adjacent to the old North Door, the removed West door beneath the gallery and within the tower porch following the 1870 restoration. It moved to its present position in the north transept in 1956.

Made of black local Tees marble, it has been dated to 1485 and is of exceptional size and style. Octagonal in shape, it is sculpted on four of its alternate faces with a raised shield, though the symbols have defied a definitive explanation.

The Masonic-style marks are ascribed to either medieval guild or brotherhood marks, though it was also once thought the triangular device was symbolic of the Trinity.

The intermediate compartments contain shields with the initials A.E.M.T. These may simply refer to the donor of the font but another explanation has been that the M and A are the initial and terminal letters of the name ‘Maria’, the M containing all the letters of Maria as a monogram, and hence the font was given in honour of the Virgin Mary, by a certain T.E.