St. Peter's Church in Birstall - Part 2

 

A corbel in the porch carved as a grotesque

I spent less than 15 minutes walking around the exterior of St. Peter’s church in Birstall, taking general record photographs from a distance and, although these show that the string courses to the aisle are punctuated by small grotesques, except for the large winged beasts on the porches the figurative sculpture is quite restrained. 

 

Corbels carved with grotesques in the porch

Entering the north porch, I was therefore very surprised to see that the transverse ribs to the pointed tunnel vaults are set on corbels that are carved with grotesques, which depict mythical creatures and various heads – one of which depicts a man with snakes squirming over his face. 

A corbel carved with a grotesque

Once inside the church, I was greeted by the volunteers who were manning the Heritage Open Day and was offered a cup of tree, which was very welcome as I had now been on the move for nearly 3 hours without taking a break. 

 

The church guide

 

Having then purchased a church guide that describes the history of the church, I was then taken into the tower, which has its walls plastered and therefore unable to see the C12 masonry, but the round headed tower arch, with very simple capitals, can still be seen. 

 

A view of the capital to the tower arch

 

Like many church towers that I have seen, it is used for storage and there wasn’t much room to move, but the walls are are covered with a variety of wall monuments dating to the C18 and C19, although I didn’t look at any of them closely and just took a few general photos. 

 

Wall monuments in the tower

 

Peter Ryder, in Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire mentions three grave slabs laid against one of the walls, which the church guide describes as being carved with a double cross and reputedly belonging to Knights Hospitaller who owned land in the area, but Historic England (HE) make no reference to them. 

 

Grave slabs in the tower

 

I then just expected to have a wander around the church, but I was instead taken to an area in the outer south aisle, where there is sufficient space for a small ‘museum’ area, where various interesting items are on display. 

 

The 'museum' area in the outer south aisle

 

These include a late Anglo-Saxon cross slab, with a tree of life design, a coffin lid with a lozenge pattern that is dated to the C11 or C12, a C12 font, two stoops that the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture for Britain and Ireland suggests may be Romanesque, but their octagonal shape probably indicates a later period. 

 

The C12 coffin above the Anglo-Saxon cross slab

 

Other items include ornately carved bench end panels dating from the C16 and C17 and next to this ‘museum’ area is a C15 octagonal font, which has a panelled bowl and stem and was apparently discarded in 1771 but reinstated in 1841. 

 

The C15 font

 

When I saw the elaborately decorated pulpit, I immediately thought this is made with Caen stone from Normandy, which was imported after the Norman Conquest to build Canterbury Cathedral, Rochester Cathedral and the White Tower and other buildings at the Tower of London. 

 

The south side of the pulpit

 

It reminds me of the intricate work in Leeds Central Library, which was undertaken by John Wormald Appleyard and although the church guide confirms that Caen stone has been used, they make no mention of the sculptor. 

 

The north side of the pulpit

 

When visiting a mediaeval church, I tend to make a systematic photographic record of the principal architectural elements - the aisles, arcades, nave, chancel and any associated chapels - where there is very often changes in the architectural style or patterns of masonry. 

 

Views of the various aisles and arcades

On this occasion, with there being double aisles with all of the arcades being built in a single phase and in the same style, with the principal detailing being the foliate capitals, I just had a random wander around the church. 

 

The chancel

 

Entering the chancel, which did not have the lighting on, I just had a wander around this and the adjoining aisles but it was too dark to see the details and the highlight was the reredos, depicting the Last Supper, which is illuminated with a yellow light. 

 

The reredos

 

The church guide again states that this is made of Caen stone, which is recognisable by its colour and very fine texture that makes it very suitable for very detailed carving, but the lighting conditions made it impossible to confirm this. 

 

A detail of the reredos

 

To either side of the reredos, there are niches which are occupied by statues of saints and have ornamented ogee arches with crocketted finials, trefoils, capitals and panels with foliated details and colonnettes made from alabaster. 

 

A niche and statue on the north side of the reredos

 

Before leaving the church, I took a couple of photos of the foliated capitals on the chancel arch and a grotesque on the arcade, which is of a similar style to those seen in the porch, before taking a few more photos of the exterior and then walking back to Batley along Bradford Road – where I would start my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge.

Capitals on the chancel arch and a grotesque

St. Peter’s Church in Birstall – Part 1

 

The west end of St. Peter's church

When planning my day out to Batley and Birstall, I wanted to take advantage of the opening of the Grade II* listed St. Peter’s church for the 2024 Heritage Open Days festival; however, knowing that except for the tower it is essentially a Victorian church, I wouldn’t have made the effort to visit it unless I combined it with the historic architecture of Batley - as seen along Station Road and in the Market Place Conservation Area.

 

The north-east entrance to St. Peter's churchyard

 

Having had a very quick look at Birstall and approaching the north-east entrance to the churchyard, in overcast conditions, my first view was of a large church where the windows, castellated parapets and pinnacles are quite typical of the Perpendicular Gothic style.

 

A view of the north elevation

The remains of a C9 preaching cross have led to suggestions that there could have been a church before the stone built was founded c.1100 by Radulphus de Paganell, according to Historic England (HE), with it being extended by three further phases of building c.1200, c.1300 and c.1490. Except for the tower, with a belfry stage of c.1490 and the lowest two stages dating to the C12, all that is seen to day is the work of W.H. Crossland (1863-1870).

 

Another view of the north elevation

 

The C19 work comprises ashlar masonry using a sandstone that looks quite different to the sandstone used in the school buildings on Kirkgate that I saw when walking down from Market Place in Birstall, which I presume was quarried locally from the local Birstall Rock.

 

A view of the east end

I was keen to get a good look at the interior, so I just walked anticlockwise around the exterior to take general record photographs of the principal architectural elements, but from these the sandstone looks quite yellow in colour and unlike the Thornhill Rock that I had seen in Batley.

 

A detail of the chancel

 

By the time that the church was rebuilt, the railways had become well established and Batley was connected to the quarries working the Thornhill Rock to the south of Morley, the Elland Flags to the east of Halifax and the Rough Rock from Huddersfield. William Crossland who was born in Huddersfield and was based in Halifax, would no doubt have been fully aware of the qualities of these building stones.

 

The Building Stones Database for England map explorer

 

Either side of the east window, which is in the Decorated Gothic style, there are statues of St. Wilfred and a female saint, whose name has completely weathered away along with the nailhead detailing. From my photo, I can’t make out what stone it is, but its highly weathered nature suggests that it might be white Carrara marble rather than Portland stone.

 

Statues on the east end of the chancel

 

Moving round the large yew tree on the north-east corner, it is obvious that the church is built with double aisles, with the east end of the outer aisle having another Decorated Gothic style window, with simple late Perpendicular Gothic style 4-light square headed windows on its south elevation.

A view along the south elevation

 

Arriving at the south porch, which HE describe as having an entrance arch with “3 orders of filleted shafts and vertical bands of fleurons, foliage capitals, and arches incorporating bands of foliage”, I noted that the detailing is still quite sharp.

 

The south porch

 

The yellowish colour of the sandstone is quite apparent and the surface of the ashlar masonry is quite weathered in several places and, especially on the large winged grotesques projecting from the corners of the porch, the highly blackened surface is spalling to revel a fresh surface. Its colour and texture appears very similar to the massive sandstone from the Elland Flags, which I had previously seen earlier in the year in Headingley and the centre of Leeds.

 

A grotesque on the south porch

 

Moving round to the west end, there is a clear difference in the colour of the sandstone ashlar masonry of the double aisles and the sandstone used for the tower which, although quite blackened in places, has a lot more variation and has orange iron staining that is seen in the Birstall Rock.

 

A view of the west end

 

The lower part of the tower, dated to the C12, is built with well squared and coursed walling and there is a slit window on the south and north elevations, The belfry stage (c.1490) is built with much larger and regularly sized blocks and the castellated parapet is set on a corbel table which I had never seen before.

The tower

I finished my quick look at the exterior at the north porch, which has identical detailing to the south porch. With overcast conditions and the detailing not being well lit, I just took a few general photos before entering the church, with 45 minutes to look around before it was due to close.

 

The north porch

 

A Very Quick Look at Birstall

 

A tourist information panel in Birstall

Since arriving at Batley railway station at 10:37 am, I had spent an hour looking at the historic architecture on Station Road and in the Batley Market Place Conservation Area, with the intention of the catching the No. 281 bus to Birstall Retail Park, which was due to depart at 11.41 am. 

 

An extract from the Nos. 281/283 bus timetable

 

When planning my day out, I relied on the timetables on the West Yorkshire METRO website, which do not include a map and, although they list the timing points and main stops on the route, they are not very helpful to a visitor who does not know the area. Looking at Google Map, to locate the position of the bus stops on Wellington Street and the way to Birstall, I assumed that I would need to catch the bus from the Fox's Biscuits stop on the south side. 

The stops for the No. 281 bus shown on the timetable

I didn't see a timetable and when a bus finally arrived 10 minutes later than I had expected, it stated Dewsbury as its destination. With nobody else waiting at the stops on Wellington Street, it was only when the next bus arrived did I hail the bus, only to be told by the driver that the buses to Birstall actually left from the Fox's Biscuits stop on the other side of the road! 

 

Market Place in Birstall

Finally catching my No. 281 bus, I alighted on Low Lane and walked back to Market Place, which the 1854 Ordnance Survey (OS) map shows was at the heart of a settlement that was quite substantial, before the rapid post industrial revolution growth that took place in the region during the second half of the C19. 

 

The 1854 Ordnance Survey map of Birstall

 

Very many of the Victorian buildings remain and, although possessing no great architectural merit in their own right and not one of them being listed, the area around Market Place is quite attractive and these make a significant contribution to the character of Birstall Conservation Area. 

 

The Kirklees Metropolitan Council map of the Birstall Conservation Area

Having arrived in Birstall 45 minutes later than planned, I was very aware that St. Peter's church, which was open for the 2024 Heritage Open Days festival, was due to close at 2 pm so I did not have time to go in search of buildings identified on my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge.

 

My British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge for Birstall

 

Set at the east end of Market Place is a considerably larger than life bronze statue of Joseph Priestley, the discoverer of oxygen, which was designed by Frances Darlington and erected by public subscription in 1912. According to a report in the Leeds Mercury "The statue represents Priestley in the act of plunging a lighted candle into an inverted jar, the supreme moment of his life, when he made the discovery of oxygen".

 

The statue of Joseph Priestley

 

As always, as a geologist I was particularly interested in the grey granite that was used for the tapering square base. Looking at the polished panel with the description, the large rectangular phenocrysts of white alkali feldspar and the general colouration of the crystalline matrix, show this is characteristic of the Cornubian Batholith, which underlies much of Devon and Cornwall. 

 

A polished panel showing alkali feldspar phenocrysts

 

On Chapel Lane, I noticed a couple of large buildings built with sandstone ashlar and took a couple of general photos and I have since learned that one of these is St. John's Methodist Church (1864), which Historic England (HE) suggest may be by James Simpson - the architect responsible for the Methodist church on Hick Lane in Batley. 

 

Views of St. John's Methodist Church

 

Heading back to Chapel Lane and turning down Market Street, I next stopped to photograph the former Princess Picture Palace (1919), which I am quite surprised is not a listed building, because it has an ornate rounded pediment and has considerable social significance. 

 

The former Palace Picture House

 

Outside Birstall Library, I stopped very briefly to photograph the Poppy Paving by Chris Terry, which the plaque says was laid in 2014 as part of the WW1 Centenary and is made of stone and cobbles. I didn’t examine it closely, but the poppy looks like a Permo/Triassic red sandstone, with Cumbrian volcanic green slate used for the leaves. 

 

The Poppy Paving

 

A large building that was built between 1905 and 1915 is set on the corner of Low Lane and Kirkgate and is shown on the 1922 OS map as a Roman Catholic church, with an adjoining presbytery, but it now appears to have been converted to residential use. 

 

The former Roman Catholic church and adjoining presbytery

 

It is built with rock-faced sandstone walling with ashlar dressings, which is quite dirty and I cannot get a good idea of its colour characteristics. On its west elevation, a statue of a bishop is set into a niche, which is made with a white stone that looks quite weathered when I enlarge the photo, but I cannot tell if it is white Carrara marble or Portland stone. 

 

A statue on the former Roman Catholic church

 

On the opposite side of the road is one of a series of public buildings, which are marked in black and are described on the 1894 edition of the OS map as being schools, but which have since been converted to residential use. 

 

A former school building on Kirkgate

Adjacent to this is the Grade II listed former National School (1818), which is now used by a construction company. At each end, there are large square finials and two more of these are set on the crenellated parapet above the entrance porch. 

 

The former National School

 

To the immediate south-west of this is another single storey building that is part of the later C19 schools described above. It has a steep Welsh slate roof with velux windows and a porch on the south-east corner, with a staircase leading to an entrance to the roof space on the south elevation. 

 

A former school building on Kirkgate

 

To the west of this on Bradford Road is another school building that, as with the others described above, is built with a sandstone that has very distinct orange colouration, which is quite different to the uniformly coloured light brown Thornhill Rock that has been used to build the warehouses and public buildings in Batley. 

 

A former school building on Bradford Road

 

The 1854 OS map shows several quarries in Birstall, which worked Birstall Rock from the Pennine Lower Coal Measures Formation and it is therefore likely that all of these school buildings - the last mentioned having a date of 1885 on the lintel above its entrance – are built with this sandstone.

 

A detail of the former school building on Bradford Road