St Peter's Church, Wallsend
St Peter's Church, Wallsend, is a Church of England Grade II* listed church on the east side of Wallsend, North Tyneside. It is Wallsend’s oldest parish church.
It was built to replace Holy Cross Church, which dated from about 1150 but fell into disrepair by the end of the 18th century. The new church was funded by local people using a tontine. The foundation stone was laid in November 1807, and the burial ground was consecrated in 1809. It opened as a Georgian “preaching box,” and a 1807 bill was passed to legalise marriages and their children.
In 1892 the church was extensively remodelled in the Perpendicular Gothic style, giving it its present shape. By the 1980s the chancel had serious structural problems. After fundraising and grants from English Heritage and the Heritage Lottery Fund between 1995 and 2001, repairs were carried out. The chancel was turned into a church hall, the Lady Chapel into a sacristy, and the vestries into a kitchen and cloakrooms.
In 2001 the parish was merged with St Luke, Wallsend. The church has an Anglo-Catholic tradition, developed during the 19th-century Oxford Movement, though it faced some initial resistance. It is known for bright stained glass from the Tower of Glass group, including the Stella Maris window by Thomas Denny, created for the church’s bicentenary and installed in 2017.
Other features include a font that came from Holy Cross and a pipe organ built by Harrison & Harrison in 1892. Outside are stocks, once used to discourage Sabbath breaking and sometimes photographed for fun at weddings. The churchyard contains memorials to local mining disasters.
The former chancel is now used for social gatherings and can be hired by groups.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 14:48 (CET).