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Summary

Description

Thomas Hamilton, 1848, incorporating some late 15th century remains. Rectangular-plan aisled decorated gothic church with square-plan 4-stage engaged NW tower, small later vestry to SE. Cream sandstone, stugged ashlar with polished dressings. Base course; eaves cornice; pointed-arched windows; deeply chamfered reveals to aisle windows; geometric and flowing tracery to aisle and clerestory windows; hood-moulds and label-stops (mostly masques/heads) to openings (apart from aisle windows); off-set diagonal buttresses with crocketted pinnacles.

TOWER: 1st stage with round-arched doorway, timber door with blind tracery and decorative iron hinges to E; bipartite window to N; string course above. 2nd stage with paired lancets to E and N; sloping string course above. 3rd stage with square heraldic panel under stepped roll-moulding with clock above to N, E and W; sloping string course above. Top stage with chamfered corners and tall louvred bipartite window to all faces; decoratively pierced and cusped parapet on blind traceried corbel table with masque pendants.

NAVE AND AISLES: E entrance (liturgical W) front gabled with cross finial; round-arched bipartite window to centre, string course and large 5-light window with flowing tracery above; round-arched moulded doorways to side aisles, doors detailed as above. W front (liturgical E) gabled with cross finial; bipartite window flanked by cusped arrow slit windows to centre, string course and large 6-light window with flowing tracery above. 7-bay aisle elevations (base of tower forming easternmost bay of N aisle) with lean-to roofs, bipartite aisle windows divided by buttresses; westernmost bay of S aisle with small window;

2 short gabletted wallhead stacks to each side of nave.

VESTRY: 20th century small gabled single storey rectangular-plan vestry to NW with rectangular cusped bipartite windows and curved gablet.

Square leaded panes. Slate roof with metal flashings; 4 wallhead stacks (see above). Moulded skews.

INTERIOR: 5-bay nave with substantial octagonal stone piers to arcade; panelled aisle roofs with pierced braces springing from carved mask corbels; ornate carved hammerbeam roof springing from carved mask corbels stops; raked E and W galleries with blind tracery balustrades, organ in W gallery. Vaulted E vestibule with foliate capitals to columns. W vestibule with floor of pre-Reformation grave slabs. Furnishings: elaborate marble and sandstone pulpit with prophet figures in columned niches (Sydney Mitchell & Wilson, 1893-4); Renaissance-style marble font; galleries and W screen dated 1909, framework of cusped tracery to organ pipes; extensive stained glass scheme (Ballantine studio 1889-93), Christ preaching to E window, Last Supper to W window.

GRAVEYARD: large number of elaborate 19th century gravestones and monuments; some 18th century stones with memento mori carvings. 13-arch gothic battlemented burial enclosures to W wall; 7-arch Tudor gothic arcade with quatrefoil carved parapet and shields with decorative cast-iron tie-beams, dated 1826-34. Classical enclosure to right of Constitutions Street entrance. Enclosures of Ramsay (1806-71), Wood (1795-1878) and Lawson families to SE wall. Empty classical enclosure to S encased by gothic arched with tombstones dated from 1830s onwards.

WALLS, GATEPIERS AND RAILINGS: tall rubble walls enclosing churchyard, ashlar and render to Constitution Street with corniced blind arches in channelled and cusped jambs; octagonal panelled gatepiers to Kirkgate and Constitution Street entrances; fleur-de-lis railings and gates.

Statement of Special Interest

Statutory address amended (2012). Building was previously listed as 5A-5C Kirkgate.

References

Bibliography

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