Church of St Thomas

CHURCH OF ST THOMAS

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Overview

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1226171
Date first listed:
01-Nov-1966
List Entry Name:
Church of St Thomas
Statutory Address:
CHURCH OF ST THOMAS
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Date:
2006-01-02
Reference:
IOE01/14920/11
Rights:
© Mr Nigel Wood. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:
Listed Building
Grade:
II*
List Entry Number:
1226171
Date first listed:
01-Nov-1966
List Entry Name:
Church of St Thomas
Statutory Address 1:
CHURCH OF ST THOMAS

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

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

The scope of legal protection for listed buildings

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

Location

Statutory Address:
CHURCH OF ST THOMAS

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

District:
Calderdale (Metropolitan Authority)
Parish:
Heptonstall
National Grid Reference:
SD 98645 28006

Details

SD 9828SE HEPTONSTALL C.P. HEPTONSTALL

9/77 Church of St. Thomas

1.11.66

G.V. II*

Church, c.1850-1854 by Mallinson and Healey. Set in the same church yard as the Church of St. Thomas a Becket which it replaced. Ashlar, slate roof. Tall west tower, nave, aisles, chancel and chancel chapels, north porch and south porch. Gothic Revival with Perpendicular traceried windows. 3-stage embattled tower. Angle buttresses. North door has pointed arched doorway with richly moulded surround and carved spandrels. West window set in 1st stage, square window with 4 quatrefoil lights in 2nd stage. Tall belfry windows of 3 over 3 lights to 3rd stage with elaborate hoodmould. Richly embattled parapet with tall pinnacles. 6-bay nave with 3-light windows to aisles and clerestorey, articulated by offset buttresses surmounted by gargoyles. Buttresses to clerestorey rise to form crocketed pinnacles. Richly embattled roofs with pinnacles and carved cross at division with chancel which has lower roof. 3-bay chancel with 2-bay chancel chapels. Diagonal buttresses rise to form pinnacles at east end with broad east window of 5 over 5 lights with cusped heads and plate tracery. 2-light windows in single bay return walls at basement level light small crypt chapel. Gabled porches with decorated diagonal buttresses and pinnacles has pointed arched doorway with richly moulded surround rising from colonnettes. Hoodmould has carved faces to termination. Interior: Arcades with pointed arches rising from piers with clustered colonnettes and moulded capitals. Queen post roof with spandrels filled with tracery. This rests on long posts with curved braces to tie beam, carved stone angels. Lean-to roofs to aisles. Archbraced roof to chancel. Most windows have stained glass. Reordered seating and furnishings in a modern cathedral style c.1964 at the bequest of Abraham Gibson of Greenwood Lee (q.v.) by Robert Maguire and Keith Murray. In the 3rd bay of the nave a large new organ screen divides the church in two. Fine organ by Hill, Norman and Beard, 1964. The unusual 11 sided font from the old church is set behind the screen in preference to the 1850 font which is to one side of the altar. Some monuments from the old church are now housed in the tower which has the earlier church's clock made by Titus Bancroft of Sowerby Bridge in 1809. This has an 18' pendulum, dials 6' in diameter. The chief merit of the church lies in its landscape value. It is superbly sited and is visible on the skyline from every surrounding valley. N. Pevsner, Yorkshire West Riding, (London 1479) p.262, 631. Illustrated in K. Parry, Trans-Pennine Heritage (1981) p.136.

Listing NGR: SD9864528006

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:
423308
Legacy System:
LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Parry, K, Trans Pennine Heritage Hills People and Transport, (1981), 136
Pevsner, N, Radcliffe, E, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The West Riding, (1967), 262, 631

Legal

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

Ordnance survey map of Church of St Thomas

Map

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© Crown copyright [and database rights] 2026. OS AC0000815036. Use of this mapping is subject to Terms and Conditions.

End of official list entry

All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.

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