Church of St Paul

Details

919/47/1246 STOCKWELL HILL 20-NOV-03 ARMITAGE BRIDGE (North side) CHURCH OF ST PAUL

II Anglican church. Built to the designs of John Boham Chantrell in the Decorated style, consecrated 1848. After a major fire of 1987 the church was thoroughly rebuilt to the designs of Richard Shepley under the direction of the vicar, the Reverend Ian Jackson, the church re-dedicated in 1990. Squared stone brought to course; freestone dressings; slate roofs; lead roof to vestry. Externally the plan reads as nave with N and S aisles, chancel with SE vestry, S porch and W tower. The internal plan is the old chancel screened off from the former nave, which is the main worship area, with the W end 2 storeys including an organ chamber, meeting rooms, offices, kitchen etc.

EXTERIOR: The exterior of the 1848 phase is lavishly decorated with carving. Buttressed 3-bay chancel with angle buttresses with decorated gablets at the corners and a 5-light E window with Geometric Decorated tracery and 2-light N and S windows. There is a moulded eaves cornice carved with foliage and figures. 5-bay N and S sides have angle buttresses at the corners, buttresses to the bays and 2-light Decorated style windows. Ribbon windows with square leaded panes have been introduced under the eaves as part of the post-fire rebuilding. S porch with angle buttresses with niches in them, a moulded doorway with 2-leaf lattice work timber door and a statue niche in the gable. Fine tower with decorated angle buttresses which rise as octagonal pinnacles with gablets and crocketted finials above an openwork parapet. The S face of the tower has a small doorway presumably to the original internal stair turret, and pairs of belfry windows with central shafts Decorated tracery. The N and S faces each have trefoil-headed windows. 3-light Decorated W window. The vestry has a 2-light Decorated traceried E window and a square-headed S window adjacent to a shoulder-headed doorway. Over the doorway is a very large C19 stone sundial with a traceried iron gnomon.

INTERIOR: Unplastered walls to the nave and existing worship area. Visible survivals of the C19 church are the chancel arch, moulded and double-chamfered on semi-circular responds with capitals and the octagonal responds of the former aisles against the chancel wall. The responds are crowned with classical figures. The piscina survives on the S wall of the old chancel. The 2 western bays on the N and S arcades have been absorbed into the 2-storey W end block. The post-fire rebuilding includes new octagonal piers with capital-like timber elements. These are built outside the line of the old arcade to support the new roof. Behind the old chancel arch there is white canted screen with a full-height internal glazed window above 2-leaf door. At the W end there is an organ gallery. Elegant post-fire fittings include a font with a pyramidal metal bowl set in a plain square section stone plinth with a font cover suspended on chains over it. The cover is wide metal canopy with a peaked roof and cylindrical timber corner shafts. Metal and timber communion rail; ceilure over the altar table. The western portion includes as stair with good iron balustrade.

An 1848 building of fine quality and rich in carved detail, of which the tower survives unaltered. The serious 1987 fire damage resulted in many changes to the main body of the church.

Sources
Pevsner, Yorkshire: The West Riding, 1967 edn., 84.

Listing NGR: SE1343213700

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

416601

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Pevsner, N, Radcliffe, E, The Buildings of England: Yorkshire: The West Riding, (1967), 84

End of official list entry

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