St. Andrew's Church, Monkwearmouth

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St. Andrew's Church is a church in Roker, Sunderland, United Kingdom.

[edit] History

A new church was needed to meet urban expansion in the area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries in an area (Roker and Fulwell) only served by a mission church at Fulwell, and it was suggested splitting a new parish off from the existing one of Monkwearmouth. Fundraising for it by public appeal was initiated in 1903 by the establishment of the Roker and Fulwell New Church Committee, but this proved only a partial success and so a rich local businessman and shipbuilder, Mr John Priestman, stepped in with a donation of £6000 in 1904. He intended the church as a memorial to his late mother and commissioned a design for it from the architect Edward Prior (to whom he had probably been introduced by the then Bishop of Durham, Dr. Handley Moule), which was ready by the end of 1905. This design has led to the church being called "The Cathedral of the Arts and Crafts Movement".

The plans were approved, a site provided, and diocesan permission gained in 1906 to split off a new parish, and so in 1906 the church's foundations were laid. Completion and dedication came less than a year later in June 1907.