St Brandon's Brancepeth

The outside of St Brandon’s looks like many other English churches and I was surprised at what I saw when I stepped inside. The interior is stunningly beautiful but modern in contrast to the exterior. I learned that this was due to a devastating fire that almost completely destroyed the church.

St Brandon's Brancepeth

In 1998 raging fire devastated the interior of thousand-year-old Saxon church St. Brandon’s in Brancepeth, England. Temperatures reached 1200° Celsius at the height of the conflagration, melting the lead from the roof and virtually vaporizing the beautifully carved wooden interior.

The massive oak beams from the roof were the only remaining wood, and they too were so charred they may or not be datable via dendrochronology (tree ring dating).

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon’s is the Parish church serving Brancepeth village and the surrounding area. It is set in the beautiful village of Brancepeth some six miles south west of Durham City. The church building has over 900 years of history, including its recent stunning restoration after a devastating fire in 1998. The now modern interior contains a display of one of the largest collection of medieval grave slabs in the north of England (discovered during the restoration) which bear a variety of beautiful cross designs.

St Brandon's Brancepeth

St Brandon's Brancepeth

  • History of the village of Brancepeth can be found here.

4 Comments CherryPie on Apr 6th 2022

4 Responses to “St Brandon’s Brancepeth”

  1. I like the way those seats were arranged.
    Radiating outwards, like rays of hope.
    You know those rays behind the peaceful dove.