The church is GradeII listed. It stands on a site founded by St. Aidan. Some restoration work was carried out in 1675 by Robert Trollope who designed the Newcastle Guildhall. Strange but true, - when Trollope died, Newcastle City Council refused to let him be buried in Newcastle because of his name so they sent him over to St. Mary's in Gateshead. However, some bright spark wrote on his headstone, " Here lies Robert Trollope who made yon stones roll up. When death took his soul up, his body filled this hole up" !