Its appearance is thus described by Henry Bourne:[5][6] This church is seated upon a hill, which is much about the same height with the situation of St. Mary’s, in Gateshead, and upon the same line with it.

The steeple was a low, square, inelegant tower, supported by buttresses at the corners of the west side, and terminated by large embrasures.

Brand gives an illustration of it,[6] and Mackenzie describes[7] it thus: "It consisted of an altar, the front of which was enriched with beautiful gothic compartments and armorial bearings, over which rose an elliptic canopy, surmounted by a spiral arch rising in the centre and terminated with a tower, the crest of the Thornton family.

But the principal ornament of this monument was the large brass plate which covered the top of the altar, on which were beautifully engraved the figures of Roger Thornton and Agnes his wife, with numerous effigies of the apostles and saints, many of them with the symbols of their martyrdom.

[8] A very interesting feature of the church was the seamen's porch, and gallery on the north side, built by the Master and Brethren of the nearby Trinity House, Newcastle in 1618.

The centre one bore the arms of Trinity House, and on the side panels were depicted four scriptural subjects, all most appropriately being connected with the sea.

One Cuthbert Maxwell, a stonemason of Newcastle, seeing this, ran in haste to St Nicholas’ and All Saints’, and hid the fonts of these churches before the Scots had time to reach them.

At the demolition of the church it was given to Alderman Hugh Hornby, that enthusiastic collector of antiquities who built the carved stones from Tyne Bridge towers into the wall of his garden in Pilgrim Street.

[9] About 1785 the churchwardens procured plans and estimates for the restoration of the building from William Newton, of Newcastle; but Dr Sharp, the Archdeacon of Northumberland, objected to the proposed design of shortening the chancel, and thus altering the form of an old Gothic church.

Two other architects, David Stephenson and John Dodds, were called in, and they reported that it was impossible to give an estimate for restoring the church, as so many unforeseen circumstances might crop up.

It was found necessary to blast with gunpowder the masonry of the tower, so tenacious was the mortar binding it, and while doing so a sad accident occurred, by which a well-known inhabitant of the town lost his life.

This was Captain William Hedley, who was killed by one of the stones of the great west door falling upon him while he was standing watching the work of destruction.

He was greatly respected in Newcastle, and well known abroad as the hero of a deed of humanity and daring, in saving a child from drowning in Bordeaux harbour.

The portico, which was to have had a colonnade of Ionic columns along the south front, was altered to the present Doric design, and the money thus saved was devoted to the improvement of the tower.

"[10] The new church was finished in 1796, and its cost was £27,000, the whole being obtained by assessment of the parish, except £2061.19s raised by the sale of pews, £30 by donations, and £100 given by Mrs Atlee for the additional expense of making the internal fittings of mahogany instead of oak.

On either side of it there is a wing – that on the left being used as a morning chapel and for baptisms, and that on the right as the vestry where hung the monumental brass of Roger Thornton, now moved to Newcastle Cathedral.

[1] About the end of 1881 Richard S. Donkin of Campville, North Shields, a wealthy shipowner, whose place of business was close by the old church, made a handsome offer to improve the graveyard at his own expense.

Many other generous gifts were at the same time made to the church, but we will only mention one more, that of the presentation of the new clock by Mr John Hall, another Newcastle merchant.

In presenting this address Mr Cowen, standing on the steps of the church, made a speech to the assembled people who crowded below to the number of about ten thousand.