CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW

CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW, BACK CLOUGH

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1133912
Date first listed:: 23-Nov-1973
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW
Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW, BACK CLOUGH

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1133912
Date first listed:: 23-Nov-1973
Date of most recent amendment:: 23-Nov-2010
List Entry Name:: CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW
Statutory Address 1:: CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW, BACK CLOUGH

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW, BACK CLOUGH

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Calderdale (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:: Non Civil Parish
National Grid Reference:: SE 11355 26942

Details

679/5/123 23-NOV-73

BACK CLOUGH NORTHOWRAM (West side) CHURCH OF ST MATTHEW (Formerly listed as: BACK CLOUGH NORTHOWRAM CHURCH OF ST MATHEW)

II

DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF ARCHITECT: Parish church of 1911 by Walsh & Nicholas.

MATERIALS: Snecked local sandstone, graded stone-slate roof.

PLAN: Aisled nave with south porch, transepts, and chancel with south chapel, north vestry and link to north-east tower.

EXTERIOR: Perpendicular style. The nave has a clerestorey of 6 pairs of cusped lights under square heads, continuing over the transepts. Four-bay aisles have three 4-light square-headed windows. On the north side the narrower first bay has a doorway with continuous chamfer. On the south side the porch occupies the first bay, and has a continuous chamfer to its original south doorway, and inserted east doorway. The west front has two 3-light nave windows between angle and central buttresses, and 2-light aisle windows with cusped Y-tracery. Transepts have double gables, each with 3-light windows. On the south side the right-hand window is shorter as it has a square-headed doorway beneath it. The chancel has a 5-light east window and 3-light north and south windows. The 3-bay south chapel has south windows with Y-tracery and 3-light east window. The vestry and organ chamber have trefoil windows, east doorway, and form a passage to the tower, which is illogically placed as if it was an afterthought. The tower is 3 stages, with set-back buttresses rising to crocketed gables beneath the embattled parapet. The lower stage has pairs of mullioned windows. In the second stage are pairs of ogee-headed windows. First and second stage windows are framed by tall arched recesses. Above them is a round clock in a square frame. The taller ashlar bell stage has pairs of pointed openings with louvres.

INTERIOR: The first 2½ bays of the nave have been partitioned off by a steel and glass screen, and their furnishings have been removed. In total the nave is 6 bays, continuing across the transepts, of which the first bay is narrower. Its arcades have octagonal piers without capitals, and moulded arches. The chancel arch is similar, on polygonal responds. The nave has an arched-brace roof with polygonal boarded ceiling behind it, on a wooden cornice with fleurons. The 3-bay chancel roof is similar, with pendants. Aisle roofs have corbelled arched braces and transept roofs have collar-beam trusses. On the north side of the chancel is a high arch to the organ recess, and pointed vestry door. On the south side is a segmental-pointed niche, with heraldic shields forming the label stops. Walls are plastered. The sanctuary has a marble floor but the remainder of the chancel floor is concealed under carpets. The nave has a parquet floor, with raised dais at the east end where an altar has been set up.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The font is octagonal, carved with bowl and stem as a single piece. Pews, surviving only in the eastern half of the nave and aisles, have fielded-panel backs and alternate ends have linenfold panelling. Part of a former chancel screen, made by C.H. Stevens (1938), has been placed in the chancel and has a central ogee arch with flanking narrow bays with delicate tracery. The cornice has been mostly removed. The sanctuary walls have 2 tiers of panelling, the lower with linenfold and surrounding a piscina in the south wall. The reredos is by H.P. Jackson of Northowram (1913), and has niches with figures of archangels. The south chapel retains a panelled wooden reredos but has otherwise been cleared of furniture for use as a meeting room.

HISTORY: Parish church of 1911 by the Halifax architectural firm of Joseph Walsh (1861-1950) and Graham Nicholas (1871-1915). The interior was re-ordered in the 1990s, when furnishings were removed from the west end of the nave, to be used for non-liturgical purposes.

SOURCES: Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, West Riding (1959), 235.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Church of St Matthew, Northowram, Halifax, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * It is a prominent Gothic building in the centre of Northowram village, retaining its original external character and detail. * It has a spacious interior with simple but elegant arcades and roofs, and retains most of its original fittings, the most notable of which is the locally carved reredos.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 338624
Legacy System:: LBS

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.