Church of St Andrew and St Mary

Details

938/6/218 PETERSON ROAD
01-FEB-79 (East side)
ST ANDREW'S CHURCH

(Formerly listed as:
PETERSON ROAD
CHURCH OF ST ANDREW AND ST MARY)

II
Parish church of 1846 by G.G. Scott, reordered in the 1970s by R. Shepley.

MATERIALS: Coursed, rock-faced sandstone with freestone dressings, replacement thin slates to nave and chancel roofs, original thick graded slates to lean-to aisles.

PLAN: Aisled nave, lower chancel with north vestry and C20 north-east extensions

EXTERIOR: Early-English style parish church with steep nave roof behind coped gables, and lean-to aisles, consistent use of hood moulds with head and foliage stops. There is evidence of a former gabled porch against the south aisle, but the main entrance is now in the west front. The nave west front has openings recessed under a tall pointed arch. Its doorway has nook shafts and above it are 2 pointed windows, and another pointed window is in the gable below the gabled bellcote with single bell. The 5-bay nave has no clerestorey. Plain two-light aisle windows are without tracery. The 3-bay chancel has pointed windows, triple stepped east window and a south doorway under a shouldered lintel. The vestry is under a gabled roof, the organ chamber under a lean-to roof.

INTERIOR: Nave arcades have round piers and double-chamfered arches. The tower arch is similar, on semi-circular responds, and the chancel is richer, with an inner order on corbels. The nave roof is of crossed arched braces on corbels, and the chancel has a keeled wagon roof. Walls are plastered. The chancel is separated from the main body of the church by a glazed screen across the chancel arch and the west end of the nave is also separated from the church by a partition, inspired by the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and has an inserted first floor.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: Many of the C19 fixtures have been removed, including the seating. In the chancel is an altar table and communion rail, both with open arcading and probably of 1846. Stained glass in the east window is mid C19. Other fittings of the 1970s, including a font with shallow silver bowl on a timber frame, are in the Mackintosh style.

HISTORY: Parish church of 1846 built by George Gilbert Scott (1811-78). Scott was the most successful church architect of his day, although he was also awarded important secular commissions such as the Albert Memorial and Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras, both in London. St Andrew represents an early work where his preference for the architecture of the late C13 is apparent, and where he has applied his ideas to a church of relatively modest scale. The interior was significantly altered in the 1970s to the designs of Richard Shepley.

SOURCES:
Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, West Riding (1967), 530.
Lambeth Palace Library, Incorporated Church Building Society Archives.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Church of St Andrew and St Mary, Peterson Road, Wakefield, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is an early work, albeit relatively modest, of Sir George Gilbert Scott, the most successful church architect of the C19.
* It is an early example of the archaeological approach to C19 Gothic architecture, with its steep roofs, and the style of the late C13 that Scott favoured.
* Although it was significantly re-ordered in the 1970s the interior also retains its original architectural features, such as arcades, arches and roofs, and also retains its original altar table and communion rail.

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

445060

Legacy System:

LBS

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