Progress was slow, however, with disagreements between Church and local property owners as to who should finance the construction, stalling the project until 1804.

A Bill was passed in the House of Commons in August 1807 in order to legitimise the marriages and their offspring, and to authorise the construction of a new church.

The scheme entailed turning the chancel into a church hall, the Lady Chapel into a sacristy, and the vestries into a kitchen and cloakrooms.

In the early years of Fr Armstrong's incumbency (1830-1871) the thinking of the Oxford Movement began to shape the life of the church, albeit strongly resisted initially by some parishioners.

It was dedicated on 6 May, the feast of St Eadfrith The font originally stood in Holy Cross Church, and would have been use by monks from Jarrow to baptise babies born in Wallsend.

At some point after Holy Cross was abandoned the font found its way into Wallsend Burn (the stream which now forms the parish's northern boundary).

[citation needed] The souls of Wallsend were ministered to from an early stage by monks crossing the Tyne from St Paul's, Jarrow, one half of the Benedictine house of Monkwearmouth–Jarrow Abbey.