Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 13 July 2016.
710/1/321
18-JUL-49
CHURCH STREET
(North side)
PARISH CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS
(Formerly listed as: PARISH CHURCH OF ALL SAINTS)
II*
DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF ARCHITECT: Parish church with C14 nave and C15 tower and aisle, restored and extended in 1860-61 by Mallinson & Healey.
MATERIALS: Dressed sandstone in regular courses, graded-slate roofs.
PLAN: Aisled nave, west tower, south porch, chancel with north vestries, chapel and offices.
EXTERIOR: Parish church in mainly Tudor-Gothic style, with little distinction between late-medieval and C19 work. The 3-stage Perpendicular tower has diagonal buttresses, embattled parapet and corner pinnacles. In the lower stage is a 3-light west window and stair-turret door in the south face. The second stage has a C19 2-light north window, and round clock on the south face. The upper stage has unrestored 2-light openings with louvres. The nave is 4 bays and has square-headed late-medieval 5-light clerestorey windows on the south, but 4-light 1880 windows on the north. Aisles also have mainly 3-light square-headed windows, of which the south are 1860 and the north-aisle windows are late-medieval insertions into a buttressed C14 wall. There is also a segmental-headed north doorway, and 3-light east window to the south aisle under a Tudor arch. The south porch has an entrance with continuous moulding, and the re-set south doorway is C13, with 2 continuous orders of dogtooth and outer roll mould. The 2-bay chancel has 2-light square-headed south windows with Decorated tracery, and 5-light Perpendicular east window. The vestry is under a lean-to roof, extended further north by stepped chapel and choir vestry under pitched roofs, and by an office, the roof of which is concealed by a parapet.
INTERIOR: Four-bay arcades have octagonal piers and double chamfered arches. The easternmost (1860) pier on each side is carved with foliage, and another C14 capital on the north side has unusual deep striations. The offset tower arch is similar to the arcades, with polygonal responds and steep arch. The 1860 chancel arch is 4-centred on polygonal responds. The nave has a 7-bay king-post roof with raking struts, the chancel a 3-bay collar-beam roof on corbelled brackets. In the south chancel wall is a re-set corbelled piscina, and another simple, re-set piscina is in the south aisle, where the blocked relieving arch of a former recess is also visible. A wide segmental arch leads from north aisle to the chapel. The floor is paved with flagstones and incorporates 2 C19 ledgers, with raised floorboards beneath the pews. The chancel has mosaic tiles and stone-paved sanctuary. Walls are exposed stone.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The massive undecorated medieval tub font has chamfered corners and stands on a C19 pedestal. The font canopy is C17, with scrolls supporting a crown of little wooden pinnacles and serpent heads. Pews have L-shaped ends. At the west end of the north aisle is a family pew dated 1633, which incorporates panels with arabesques and the upper part of which is open on symmetrical balusters. Panels of another C17 former pew are fixed to the nave west wall. The square wooden pulpit of 1889 has blind tracery and centre panels of Christ with disciples, and niches at the angles with figures of Peter and Paul. Choir stalls have ends with poppy heads and frontal with open trefoil arches. The communion rail has buttressed posts and wide arches with trefoils in the spandrels. In the north chapel is a white-painted C14 effigy of a knight, probably Sir Peter Middleton (d 1336), in a C20 recess. There are many small commemorative brass plaques of the C16-C18, the earliest a palimpsest commemorating William Robenson (d 1562) and Johis Reyner. The crucifixion east window is by William Warrington (1861). One north aisle window shows the Angel of the Resurrection by J. Henry Dearle for Morris & Co (1922), and a bellringers' memorial window is by Powell Brothers of Leeds (1887). Three C8 crosses, formerly in the churchyard, are kept in the tower base, with 2 former Roman altars and other fragments.
HISTORY: Built on the site of a Roman fort. Two Roman altars were discovered in 1925 built into the tower. The earliest part of the present building is the re-set C13 south doorway. By the C14 the nave had aisles, of which 3-bay arcades survive, although the south arcade has been rebuilt south of its original line, which is why the tower arch is offset. The tower arch is C14 but the present tower is C15. In the late C15 or early C16 square-headed windows were inserted into the aisles and south side of the clerestorey. In 1860-61 there was an extensive restoration and enlargement. The nave was lengthened by one bay, the south aisle was refaced, and a new chancel with organ chamber and vestry was added. The architects were James Mallinson (1819-84) and Thomas Healey (1839-1910) of Bradford. The vestry was extended in 1927, part of which was subsequently converted to a 1939-45 war-memorial chapel.
SOURCES:
Le Patourel, J., Ilkley Parish Church (1968).
Marshall, P., Ilkley Parish Church: The Church Brasses (1995).
Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, West Riding (1967), 277.
A Guided Tour of All Saints' Parish Church, n.d.
Lambeth Palace Library, Incorporated Church Building Society Archives.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of All Saints, Church Street, Ilkley, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:
* All Saints was built on a Roman site and retains significant medieval fabric, in the south doorway, nave arcades, north aisle and the west tower. The C19 enlargement and restoration was largely in sympathy with the earlier work.
* It has a C14 stone effigy and a significant collection of small brass memorials of the C16-C18.
* Other interior fixtures of special interest include a C17 family pew, and C17 cover on the medieval font.
* The church houses 3 Anglo-Saxon crosses, and 2 former Roman altars that were built into the tower.
The Parish Church of All Saints; 3 stone crosses south of Church of All Saints;
7 headstones grouped south west of Church of All Saints, and Nos 4-6 and 12-18 (even) Church Street form a group.
This List entry has been amended to add sources for War Memorials Online and the War Memorials Register. These sources were not used in the compilation of this List entry but are added here as a guide for further reading, 26 October 2017.
