St Mary's Barnard Castle

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One of the earliest known incumbents of St. Mary’s is Robert de Mortham, who was vicar of Gainford (eight miles away and the parent church of St. Mary’s Barnard Castle). He was the second son of Eudo, and the brother of William of Mortham who sold the estate and nearby Mortham Tower to Thomas de Rokeby.

Robert de Mortham founded a chantry to the Blessed Virgin in the south transept on 11th January 1339, where a piscina still can be seen in the south wall. In 1340 Robert de Mortham and the Chaplain paid 30 shillings for the confirmation of the chantry from Edward III, and eight years later the Prior and Convent of Durham added their assurance to this. He endowed the chantry with lands in Barnard Castle and Whittington and was later buried there himself.

His recumbent effigy was removed to its present position in the north transept in 1868-70: he is depicted in his ecclesiastical robes of amice, alb, stole, dalmatic and chasuble embroidered with flowers and roses. He bears a chalice in his left hand, his right hand is raised in blessing over it. Originally on the right shoulder a bird was sculpted, and his feet rested on a lion. The inscription reads as follows:

ORATE PRO AlA: ROBERTI DE MORTH’M QNDAM VICARII DE GAYNFORD
[Pray for the soul of Robert de Mortham formally vicar of Gainford]

Mortham Tower stands three miles from Barnard Castle and near the conjunction of the Rivers Greta and Tees. It was possibly built as early as 1166 by the Rokeby family. The adjoining house and buildings were later added in the reign of Henry VII.

In Barnard Castle’s castle itself, one of the main towers in the Inner Ward was named the Mortham Tower and is thought to have been constructed about the early C13th.