Church of St Mary

Details

714-1/0/10097

HAWKSWORTH WOOD
HAWKSWOOD AVENUE
Church of St Mary

21-AUG-07

II
Church, 1932-35 with minor alterations in 1972, designed by W.D Caröe, in knapped flint with sandstone dressings and a Westmorland slate roof. The nave, aisles and chancel are under a single height roof, with a south porch at the west end, and baptistery, porch and vestries on the north side. A small bell cote is on the south side at the junction of nave and chancel. The style is late Perpendicular, approached from an Arts and Crafts perspective. Ashlar quoins and dressings are irregular in size.

The chancel is stepped in from the nave, with an even narrower east end comprising a sanctuary. The east window has five lights with a depressed arch and tracery. There are gabled buttresses to each side and a central gabled buttress ending below the east window. The flint masonry of the walls of the sanctuary is divided into panels by sandstone ashlar, forming patterns resembling blind windows, triangles and circles. Two single light windows are on the south side of the chancel, and one on the sanctuary.

The nave has five bays with four windows on the south side and three on the north, each of three lights with simple plate tracery beneath flat-headed sandstone lintels. The roof sweeps down over the aisles with a deep overhang. The west end of the church has gabled buttresses to each side of a wide pointed segmental arch in ashlar. A central gabled buttress rises to the top of the arch and divides two two-light traceried windows. A broad band of alternating ashlar and flint work forming triangles runs beneath window height.

The south porch has a pitched roof and a recessed pointed arch door beneath a segmental arch ashlar lintel. The flintwork is divided by ashlar similar to the sanctuary, and over the door is a small shield bearing a device of three swords. There is a two-light window on the west side. The north porch is smaller with a battlemented front and recessed segmental arched door, and is attached to the baptistery. The baptistery, at the western end of the north side, has a pitched roof and two-light windows to the west and north sides.

At the junction of nave and chancel on the north side are the choir and clergy vestries, with a small entrance porch at the east end. It has a pitched roof lower than the main roof and extending down over the porch to the east. It has two two-light windows in its gable end and a single light window on its east and west sides. A chimney stack in ashlar projects centrally from the gable end from above a string course. The porch door faces north with two small windows to the east side. Steps on the east side lead down to a basement boiler.

The bellcote on the south side is in sandstone ashlar. It is thin, with a gabled roof and is pierced by two openings each containing a bell. It has narrow buttresses to east and west and a single angle buttress to the south. It has a narrow single light at ground floor level and a small round light above the main roof line.

INTERIOR: the chancel and sanctuary have a single barrel vaulted boarded roof. The curtained reredos is framed with wooden pilasters and a carved wooden frieze. To the south side of the sanctuary is a double sedilia and aumbrey, set within a unifying ashlar band. The seats have wooden backs and circular windows above. In the chancel the double row of choir stalls to either side are finely carved in wood with scroll motifs, inscriptions, and carved angels at the head of each end. On the north side is an open wooden screen behind which is the organ and door to the vestries. The rood screen is also finely carved in wood with allegorical symbols and gothic script picked out in gold and a cut-work frieze above which hangs a large cross in wood and gold. Arches to either side frame passageways to the organ and sedilia. In front to the left is a matching wooden pulpit. All the woodwork was designed by Caröe and made by Bowman of Stamford. The altar stands before the rood screen.

The walls of the nave are plastered and there are narrow passage aisles with arcading of double chamfered arches springing directly from octagonal piers. These have no capitals and stand on rectangular bases. The roof has shaped open trusses resting on simple stone corbels. Most of the seating is free standing chairs, but the wooden front rail is by Robert Thompson, as are a banner stand, hymn board, credence table, altar and stools. To the rear of the nave is the font in stone with tapered sides on four square section supports, with carved scrolls on the font cover. Doors to the porches are brass-studded leather with circular windows with grilles. The radiators are located in segmentally arched recesses. The baptistery is now a children's area and contains the only stained glass in the church, added in the 1950s. A foundation stone in the west wall records the name of H.M Butler who gave the choir stalls, altar, rood screen and pulpit.

SETTING: the church stands near the centre of a housing estate in north-west Leeds. The site also houses a church hall and a brick vicarage designed in 1953.

HISTORY: The church was built to serve the population of the new suburb of Hawksworth Wood, north west Leeds, which was founded by the City Council in the 1920s. It replaced a wooden church of 1922, and was part funded by W.M Butler, a director of Kirkstall Forge where many of the local population worked.

It was the last church to be designed by W.D. Caröe, and he was assisted by his son Alban. Minor alterations in 1972 were carried out by Alban Caröe and involved moving the high sanctuary down into the body of the nave and moving the font from the baptistery to the centre of the rear of the nave.

SOURCES: Church of St Mary Hawkswood Avenue, John Minnis, English Heritage, 2006.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION:
St. Mary's Church is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* A late but well-executed flowering of the Arts and Crafts movement, characterised by an inclusive approach to artistic styles and a high level of craftsmanship
* Designed throughout by the nationally significant architect W.D Caröe
* A complete and unaltered architectural and decorative ensemble of high quality

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

503358

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Minnis, J, Church of St Mary Hawkswood Avenue, (2006)

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