Gainford Church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, is all of one period, and with a few exceptions dates from the middle of the thirteenth century. It contains several interesting brasses. The same may be said of the Church of St. Edwin at Coniscliffe, which has a very interesting carved slab above the south door.
The Church of All Saints at Hurworth contains several effigies, but was almost entirely rebuilt in 1870. The Church of St. Mary at Egglescliffe has portions of Early Norman date, but the chancel dates from the later Perpendicular period, and has a fine east window of five lights. On the south side of the nave is a fourteenth-century chapel, with a sepulchral effigy of a man in rich armour in a niche in the outer wall.
St. Cuthbert at Redmarshall is a modest structure, but contains two interesting alabaster effigies of Thomas de Langton and Sybil, his wife, placed in a fifteenth-century chantry chapel on the south side of the nave.
Both Norton and Billingham contain churches of great interest. The former has portions of pre-Conquest date, and was one of the churches to which William de St. Carileph removed the monks of Durham in 1083. The church, dedicated to St. Mary the Virgin, contains a nave and side aisles, chancel, north and south porches, and central tower. The latter originally rose no higher than the ridges of the main roofs, and formed a chamber, the floor of which has been removed. Beneath the tower is a very fine effigy of a knight in chain armour, surmounted by a crocketed canopy. The chancel was rebuilt in the thirteenth century, and the upper stage of the tower is probably of the same period.
At Billingham the church is dedicated to St. Cuthbert. The tower is of pre-Conquest date, and has certain points of resemblance to the higher stage of that at St. Peter’s, Monkwearmouth. Several fragments of pre-Conquest crosses are built into the south wall of the tower, and the church has three memorial brasses.
In Durham City, St. Oswald’s, the parish church of Elvet, has a well-recorded history, and was the subject of an amusing dispute between the Bishop Philip de Pictavia and the Prior and monks of Durham, arising from a charter
Norton Church.
of Henry II. confirming to the latter "Elvet, with the church of the same town."