St Mary and St Nicholas (formerly)

Kippax

St Mary, Kippax, Yorkshire, West Riding

Parish church

Kippax lies some 9 miles E of Leeds. The nave, rectangular chancel and west tower of the medieval church survive; the porch and vestry are modern. Original windows remain on the N side, but these are coated with cement on the exterior, so no original surface can be seen. The plan of the church, and an unusually large proportion of the wall fabric, is original and is thought to date from the early post-Conquest period. The churchyard is immediately adjacent to the remains of a ringwork castle; the visible earthwork may have been a hollow motte and the bailey may have extended into the area now occupied by the churchyard. Both castle and church are placed high and have wide views. The walls are in herringbone stonework. In this technique the stone is not trimmed square but it seems to be left much as the slabs came from the quarry or field. The local magnesian limestone is slabby and thus well-suited to this technique. These stones are laid slanting and coursed, and opposed in successive courses, but there is the occasional horizontally-laid course too (all exterior views). The herringbone fabric is extracted above the windows that were inserted later. It extends high into the tower, with a suggestion of the roof line on the east face. The church does not seem to have had unusually tall proportions. There was a restoration in 1875-6, which affected the interior and was not detrimental to the exterior, if we accept the additions of vestry and porch as necessities. The label and label-stop of the blocked N doorway have some ornament, probably billet and chequer patterns. This is the only Romanesque sculpture.