You mentioning St Cuthberts Church got me looking up some history. Firstly, i noticed on a map in a previous thread, that there was an oval shape attatched to the church so i set about looking to see what this was and the reasons for it..I came across these photos which were taken in 1873 The reasons given... `St Cuthbert's church is shown with the extraordinary plan that was created out of the old church in 1818. The old north wall was pulled down and replaced with a large semi-circular extension, complete with galleries. This had the effect of re- orientating the worship space to north-south, completely contrary to the time- honoured east-west of most Christian churches throughout the world. The reason given for this strange expansion was the growth in working population at the booming Bedlington iron and engine works but the real growth of the town did not come until the second quarter of the nineteenth century (in 1801, there were 789 people in the town, but by 1821 it had more than doubled to 1,862). This unusual arrangement at the church lasted nearly 100 years as it was not until 1912 that the extension was demolished and the original orientation restored` This is the way it looks now.. So, what i`m wondering is.. it seems a lot of work and expense on this building, solely for `growth of population in Bedlington`? Did everyone in those days go to church religiously every week, then once the work died down and people up and left, the building was pulled down? Curious??