Details
The asset was previously listed twice also under List entry 1313263. This entry was removed from the List on 11-March-2015.
938/11/222 ST PAUL'S DRIVE
30-MAR-71 ALVERTHORPE
CHURCH OF ST PAUL
II
Parish church of 1823-25 by P. Atkinson, refurbished in the 1840s and altered late C20.
MATERIALS: Ashlar sandstone, slate roof with crested ridge tiles.
PLAN: Wide nave with west tower, short chancel and east vestry.
EXTERIOR: The church is in the non-archaeological Perpendicular style of the early C19. It has a 3-stage tower with angle buttresses and embattled parapet on notional machicolations. The lower stage incorporates the porch, with Tudor-arched west doorway with square label and roundels to the spandrels. The west window is 5-light, below 3-light middle-stage windows and pairs of 2-light upper-stage openings with louvres. The nave is wide and high, evidently designed to accommodate a 3-sided gallery. It is 6 buttressed bays, with octagonal corner turrets and plain parapet. Three-light windows have transoms. In the west wall, flanking the tower, are hollow-chamfered doorways below gallery windows. In the east wall are blind windows either side of the miniscule chancel, which has a 4-light east window, angle buttresses and turrets with pinnacles. In the gable of the nave are 3 stepped pointed windows. The vestry has two 2-light east windows with Y-tracery, and hollow-chamfered doorways in north and south walls. The church stands in a large and sylvan churchyard.
INTERIOR: The very broad nave roof has cambered tie beams on corbelled brackets, divided into large panels by axial ribs, and enriched by ridge bosses and incorporating 2 iron ventilators in the eastern bay. The chancel arch is narrow, with thin attached shafts. Walls are plastered. There is a decorative tile floor in the nave and raised floorboards below pews, but the sanctuary has a richer tile floor including encaustic tiles. The tower base incorporates 2 gallery stone stairways with solid balustrades, and doorways in stone surrounds leading to a shallow-vaulted passage beneath the gallery. Crypt now adopted for parish rooms.
PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The 5-bay west gallery is carried on timber posts with Tudor arches, and has a panelled front, which was altered when the north and south galleries were removed. The small octagonal font with Gothic tracery on the stem is of the 1820s. Benches, which have panelled square ends and backs, and the gallery benches, are probably of the same date. Other furnishings are late C19. The octagonal wooden pulpit has painted Biblical scenes, above a base with buttresses and elaborate tracery. The chancel area was extended in the late C19 by erecting a 3-sided screen at the east end of the nave. This has a panelled dado and main lights with intricate open tracery, below a simple cornice surmounted by winged angels. Choir stalls have shaped ends and open-arcaded frontal. Communion rails are wooden on twisted iron uprights and scrolled brackets.
HISTORY: Parish church of 1823-25 by Peter Atkinson junior (1776-1843), architect of York. It cost £8,082, funded under the auspices of the 1818 Church Building Act, which was passed in order to build new churches in growing industrial districts where the provision for Anglican worship was generally lacking. Atkinson was responsible for 16 churches or enlargements during this notable late Georgian campaign.
SOURCES:
Pevsner, N., The Buildings of England: Yorkshire, West Riding (1967), 81.
Port, M H., Six Hundred New Churches (1961), 138-39.
Speak, H and Forrestor, J., `St Paul's , Alverthorpe' (1976).
Lambeth Palace Library, Incorporated Church Building Society Archives, file 05113.
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The church of St Paul, Alverthorpe, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* The church, which has undergone only minor exterior alteration, is a good example of the simple Gothic style favoured in the early C19 in churches built for growing industrial populations, and is one of a small minority of such churches that were built entirely from public funds.
* The proportions of the building, with a high and wide nave to accommodate a gallery, and the stunted chancel, are typical of the low-church era when the pulpit rather than the altar was the focus of attention.
* The church stands in a prominent position and is a good example of how C19 churches were carefully sited to occupy commanding positions in the landscape.
