Discussion on Church of St Gregory, Kirknewton : P F Ryder

The NCH suggests that the church originated as an aisleless cruciform building of 12th century, with a north aisle being added to the nave in the late 12th or 13th century. The building is thought to have been damaged or partly destroyed by the Scots; at any rate in 1436 the vicar was licensed to say mass outside the church 'in any safe and decent place within the parish' for 'so long as the hostility of the Scots then existing should continue'.

It is thought that the chancel was reconstructed and shortened in the later 15th or 16th century. The south transept (Burrell Chapel) also seems to have been reconstructed; in 1860 it was found that its vault included materials presumed to come from the nave arcade, although a chapel remained or was reconstructed on the site of the east end of the north aisle (the Coupland Chapel). In 1669 the nave stood in need of rebuilding; it is thought that it was patched up rather than totally reconstructed. In 1796 the Coupland Chapel was still extant, but it had been demolished before 1860, when its foundations were seen.

In 1860 the church was reconstructed, John Dobson of Newcastle being the architect; he retained the medieval south transept and chancel, but completely rebuilt the much-patched nave in a bland Victorian style; the rather later west tower (date and architect do not seem to be recorded) is again of cosmopolitan character and owes nothing to the local vernacular.

Wilson gives plans and sketches showing the church before and after Dobson's 1860 campaign of works, and including the results of his 1860 excavation which traced the original extent of he chancel. The old nave had three windows on the north, interspersed between the surviving lower sections of the medieval arcade piers, and a doorway between two windows on the south.

There was a round-headed window in the west end, which was surmounted by a small bellcote; the plan shows single-light windows in the end gables of south transept and chancel. His post-1860 drawings show a corbelled-out bellcote on the west gable of the nave, and a lancet window in the west end of the north aisle. His post-1860 plan (but not the drawing) shows a window towards the east end of the north wall of the chancel; this might conceivably be an error, as his drawings are not of the highest quality.

Summing up, the only real evidence for a 12th century church seems to be the ex-situ carvings; certainly the length of the earlier medieval chancel would seem more characteristic of the 13th than the 12th century. The piers and arches of the present north arcade, if they correctly reproduce the character of the previous one, would tally with the later 13th or even the 14th century. The extant transept and chancel lack closely datable features; they are probably of late medieval date, although it is clear that the latter retains some earlier fabric in its north wall.