The Corpus of ROMANESQUE SCULPTURE in Britain & Ireland
West Yorkshire (now)
Parish church
This is a low, sturdy Perpendicular style church in gritstone, sited on the edge of a level step in the S side of the Calder valley where the Huddersfield to Halifax road drops down to a bridge; the surviving streets of the old town plan (Southgate, Church Street) lie to the S. The church has an aisled nave of four bays, a tower enclosed by the aisles; a chancel with N chapel and S organ. The nave roof is thought to be 13thc, the oldest in Yorkshire; the nave walls inside are plastered. There are illustrations of the church c. 1830 or 1840 (Butler (2007), 172; Crossley (1920); Ryder (1993), 85) but none show Romanesque features.
Romanesque remains are the voussoirs in the three orders of the pointed chancel arch; the builders in the 14thc made use of 12thc stone, presumably from the previous narrower chancel arch (Bilson 1922).
Parish church
East Ardsley is now within the metropolitan area of Leeds, only 6 miles from the centre. The medieval church consisted of a W tower, nave and chancel (Ryder 1993, 149; Booth (1963) 1997, 14-15). The building was demolished in 1881. Before that Sir Stephen Glynne visited in April 1871 and described a church that 'had originally only chancel and nave, but a north aisle has been added [1781], in debased style, to the nave, and there is a poor modern west tower, of small size, and not worthy of being exactly described. The south wall of the nave is original and had a fine Norman doorway...three orders of arch mouldings, two with bold chevron work and one with lozenges. The shafts are gone but the capitals have square abaci and good sculpture.' (Butler 2007, 166). A new church was built to the N of the old site, reusing the 12thc doorway, but apparently no other elements of the earlier structure.
Parish church
A church in Magnesian limestone in a red brick suburban setting. It has nave, chancel, south chapel, south aisle, tower and north porch.
In 1951-53 the church was moved to this site from Ferry Fryston, about three-quarters of a mile north of the present position, (approx. Grid Ref: SE 478 251). The OS map of 1893 suggests remnants of medieval strip fields in the area, which is now occupied by the Ferrybridge power station. The burial ground at the old site remains to the east of the power station. The church at Ferry Fryston had been restored by Ewan Christian about 1878, and faculty papers at the Borthwick Institute show the plan and sections of the medieval building (Fac. 1878/4). A painting of the church from the SW dated 1905 is in the vestry. Ryder (1993, 152) has a photograph of the N face of the church on the old site.
After a long history of flooding and, latterly, erosion, it was decided to move the church to Ferrybridge, the modern centre of population. Mottistone & Milner-White (1956), and the mark 0.78m up the R jamb of the doorway, show the flood level of 1866. The rebuilding is said to have used approximately 60 per cent of the original walling and all the worked stone. One bay was added to the aisle at the W end. The S doorway became the present N doorway, and the N aisle was changed to the S side. The vice in the tower was moved from S to N. There are no faculty papers for the removal at the Borthwick Institute.
Romanesque sculpture survives on the N doorway, on the impost of the tower arch and on the font. Accessible parts of the sculpture have been retooled, for example parts of the font and the tower arch.
Parish church
Featherstone is 2 miles SW of Pontefract. This entry is for purposes of information only, as, despite suggestions of its presence at the site, no Romanesque sculpture has been identified here.
The church is in the historic 'Featherstone' on the ridge, but with the later development of the colliery village and railway station about a mile to the south, this smaller settlement is nowadays normally called 'North Featherstone'.
Pevsner (1967, 198) describes a ‘church of blackened stone, over-restored’ and having Perpendicular elements. Peter Ryder says ‘at Featherstone nothing [Norman] remains visible except for the twelfth-century north-west angle quoins of the nave’ (1993, 36). His plan (p.106, fig. 156) shows 12thc. walling visible on the exterior north wall of the nave, and at the south-east corner of the original rectangle; still to be seen from inside the church. He observes that 'very little in the way of datable features survives’ (ibid., p.115).
Ryder also mentions a reused block with ‘possible traces of carving’. This is said to be in the internal face of the wall near the south-west corner of the churchyard (1993, 116). However, when the fieldworker visited the site in June 2000, nothing was found except some short stretches of wall now covered with ivy. For this reason there was found to be no surviving Romanesque sculpture.
Parish church
The church of St Peter lies in rural surroundings near the junction of Church Lane, Kirkgate Lane and Slack Lane in what is now South Hiendley; Felkirk as a settlement appears to be losing or to have lost its separate identity. The church comprises nave, chancel with flanking chapels, north and south aisles and a west tower. In the churchyard there is also an Elizabethan schoolroom now converted into a church hall.
The church is mostly 15thc and 16thc but incorporates a large number of reused 12thc architectural fragments. These include the jambs of the present tower arch (Ryder 1991, 24) and a reset windowhead. There is herringbone walling in situ (Ryder 1991, fig. 34) on SE angle of the nave. The interior walls have been heavily retooled, probably during that restoration. A faculty of 1875 gives a plan of the church (Borthwick Institute York Fac. 1875/3)
The tower arch, to the level of the imposts, is early 12thc and incorporates some carving.
Parish church
The church at Glasshoughton is a modern 1902 building in red brick. A medieval font from Castleford can be found in the plain interior, set in the N aisle near the E end. The font is recorded as coming from All Saints church at Castleford. The beginnings of the medieval church at Castleford are ancient, and its position related to the lines of the late 1stc. Roman fort, but nothing Romanesque now survives there. (Ryder 1993, 9, 145)
Parish church
The village of Gisburn lies between Skipton and Clitheroe on the A59. The church has the long low profile, typical of many in this north-western part of the Riding; it has a W tower and continuous aisles of four bays. The chancel and its aisles are separated from the nave by a wall with three pointed chamfered arches resting on a pair of heavy circular piers (Pevsner 1967, 218; Leach and Pevsner 2009, 277). The origin of the cylindrical piers is uncertain, but the lower parts of the W tower and at least three windows and the plain tower arch are certainly of the Romanesque period.
Parish church
The church stands in an open position between Hightown and Hartshead; there are few buildings nearby apart from Church Farm. The building, in sandstone, is largely a neo-Norman rebuild of 1881, comprising an aisled nave, porch, chancel and W tower; there are no faculty papers at the Borthwick Institute.
The tower is thought to be 12thc, perhaps because it is unbuttressed (Pevsner 1967, 254). The nave doorway and the chancel arch have Romanesque sculpture. 12thc stone may be reused in the modern font, and there is an old font, but neither of these has sculpture.
Parish church
Guiseley is a small town north-west of Leeds and south of Otley. The church is large and architecturally complex (Ryder 1993, 154). Medieval parts are the W tower, a nave with a S aisle and a chancel. Restored in 1866, the church acquired a modern nave and a chancel added on the N side in 1909-1910 (Leach and Pevsner 2009, 292). Surviving 12thc. sculpture can be found on the S doorway and in the S arcade, all in a good state of preservation but the doorway shows signs of tidying on its mouldings, probably in the 1886 restoration (Rawnsley and Dobson, 4; Pevsner, (1959), 1967, 227-8; engraving in Whitaker 1816).
Sir Stephen Glynne visited in 1858, before the additions; Butler (2007, 197-98) illustrates Glynne's 'church notes' with an engraving of the interior of 1816 by Thomas Taylor. This shows both nave arcades, looking north-east, and no pews.
Parish church
'The largest parish church in the W parts of the West Riding' (Pevsner 1967, 229) is a mostly 15thc. building with only traces of an earlier structure. It was restored in 1879. The church has a five-bay nave with aisles, a W tower, a small N porch, a larger S porch, and a S chapel (Holdsworth chapel); the aisled chancel is also of five bays and has a N chapel (Rokeby chapel). The nave altar is currently in the fourth bay of the chancel.
For general illustrations and plan, see Ryder (1991, 75-77; fig. 89; plan in fig. 155).
The 12thc. remains are fragmentary, and sometimes puzzling.