The Opening of Our Church

(notes taken from the Church’s Centenary Brochure 1848)

Tuesday, the 22nd August, 1848, was a great day for the people of Walker. During the last year they had watched their own Parish Church taking shape, and now at last, the building completed, they were assembled together in large numbers to await the arrival of the Lord Bishop of Durham, Dr. Edward Maltby, who was to perform the consecration ceremony. At about II a.m. their patience was rewarded. Word went round that the Bishop was approaching - a gentle-man about eighty years of age, who drove to the Church in his carriage and four horses, with outriders." The great moment had come.

At the west door of the Church the registrar was to be heard reading the petition "praying his Lordship to consecrate the building by setting it apart for divine worship." The Bishop, having signified his cordial assent began reading “in an impressive and audible manner” the 24th Psalm, as he proceeded to the communion-table:…

“Who shall ascend unto the hill of the Lord; or who shall rise up in His holy place?”

and the clergy who followed in procession responded:…

“Even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors: and the King of Glory shall come in."

Then, from the sanctuary, the Bishop consecrated the Church to the performance of the several offices of religious worship." There followed another procession out into the Churchyard, where the ground was duly consecrated as a place of burial. On the return of his Lordship and the rest of the clergy to the Church, Mattins was read by the Vicar, the Rev. C. Thompson, after which the Venerable Archdeacon Raymond preached a discourse appropriate to the occasion from Psalm CXXXIII. 3:

” For there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore”

So, the life of Walker Parish Church had begun. On that very day two children were baptised: - Mary Cook, of Wincomblee, and Sarah Frances Swan. of the West Farm, Walker, and there was one burial, that of Dorothy Stewart. The first marriage took place on the 9th October, 1848, between David Munroe and Jane Pickering of Diamond Row.

From contemporary accounts we can learn the pride with which the people of Walker regarded their new Church. "The building thus finished and con- secrated is extremely simple, but withal so ecclesiastical in appearance as to be pronounced by the Bishop and Archdeacon to be one of the most successful of modern times, and is as remarkable for its solidity as its propriety of character, reflecting the highest degree of credit on the taste and skill of the architect, Mr. A. B. Higham." The building was erected by Mr. Cail, contractor, for the sum of, believe it or not, £1,250.