FEARS have been raised over the future of memorial stones at a Victorian church in South Tyneside.
St Andrew’s Church in Hebburn was today due to be auctioned for almost £300,000, but members of a Hebburn website have expressed anxiety about what may happen to stone memorials inside the church.
One of the stones, hidden underneath a staircase in the church, may even commemorate Victorian shipbuilding magnate, Andrew Leslie, who helped found the famous Hawthorn Leslie Shipyard company, and who built the riverside church in the gothic style, in 1872.
Another memorial remembers former Hebburn shipyard proprietor, Arthur Coote, who died in a railway accident near Glasgow, Scotland, in June 1906, and his wife, Janet, who is remembered in an inscription for dedicating her life to “the welfare of the people of Hebburn”.
A third stone is dedicated to the Reverend Alexander Lobban, a former minister of St Andrew’s Church, who died in 1903.
All of the memorial stones were provided by either workers at the Hawthorn Leslie yard or by members of the St Andrew’s congregation.
Vikki Lawlor, board administrator of the Hebburn and Mid-Tyne Community Message Board website, said: “I am concerned as to what happens with a few of the relics.
“There was one plaque left on the wall for Arthur Coote and his wife, Janet. I think the one in the darkest corner, underneath the stairs, was part of a plaque for Andrew Leslie himself.”
Several would-be buyers have viewed the Grade 11-listed building, at the junction of Ellison Street and Church Street, whose iconic spire has dominated Hebburn riverside for 140 years.
The church was today due to be auctioned at the Newcastle Marriott Hotel, Gosforth Park, Newcastle.
No one was available for comment at estate agents Andrew Craig, of Victoria Road West, Hebburn, which is handling the sale of the old church.
Twitter: @terrykelly16
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