Over recent years Thorpe Thewles History Group (TTHG) have become increasingly aware, through social media and heritage forum posts, of increased public interest in the Grade I listed ruins of St. Thomas à Becket Church at Grindon near Stockton-on-Tees. This former parish church was abandoned in 1848 when a replacement one was opened in nearby Thorpe Thewles. For a short period of time, in the 1980s, the site and ruins of Grindon church were open to the public and maintained by Cleveland County Council before reverting once again into private ownership.
In response to the noted public interest in this scheduled monument, between 2024 and 2026, TTHG undertook an aerial image survey of it with grant funding provided by ‘The National Heritage Lottery Fund’ and ‘Point North’. Amongst the aims of this project was not only to provide a ‘bench marking’ condition survey of the site but to generate a series of educational outputs which would help further engage the public with information related to its fascinating history. The poor condition of the site’s walls and uneven floors makes it unsafe for public access, so one of the project’s key outputs was to create an interactive virtual 3D model of it.
This, along with a ‘fly-through’ video of the model, with historic commentary, will allow the public to safely explore the site from the comfort of their own homes. These, along with the project’s additional outputs, will also help those already familiar with the site to safely re-engage with it while allowing others to discover its history for the first time.
Please find below direct links to the individual project outputs from TTHG’s 2024 Aerial Survey of Grindon Church:
• Grindon Church Aerial Image Survey
• Interactive 3D model with annotations
• Interpretive video presentation
• Basic aerial views video presentation
The results from this project have been presented to Tees Archaeology for inclusion in the local ‘Historic Environment Record’ which they curate. These public records will also be available to ‘Historic England’.
TTHG would like to thank the current owners of the site of Grindon church for allowing permission to undertake the above survey and for kindly supporting the project.
For further information about this project please feel free to contact TTHG.
Anon the site was in a sorry state when I first discovered it 80 odd years ago after walking over the fields and the back road from the Primrose Hill area. I remember passing near to a quarry on the way and the railway line from Stockton. Surely this area would be a great place for an architectural dig to see if any historical items were there. The last time I visited the site about thirty years ago someone had fenced off the old ruins and you could not get access. A great shame as I was on a visit to England from Australia at the time.
Who owns this church? Is it the Durham Dioceses, Stockton Borough Council, English Heritage? Whoever manages it should realise its significance and importance and make it more wisely known and available to the greater community. We have visited. it is in a very sorry state and it needs more careful management.
The church has been privately owned for nearly a century we believe. It was sheduled by the Government in 1948.
Due to the poor condition of this scheduled Monument public access to it is no possible due to health and safety plus public liability insurance reasons. For this reason TTHG have worked with both the site owner and Tees Archaeology on a project that allows all to gain online virtual access to it via the presentation of a series of informative videos, aerial images plus an annotated interactive online 3D model of the site. All these can be found at the project’s web hub, linked below:
https://thorpe-thewles.org.uk/grindon-church-aerial-survey-project
The site should be surveyed by archeologists and let’s wait and see the results.
It was surveyed by archaeologists in the 1980s.