Leeds Minster - The Interior

A detail of the sanctuary floor in Leeds Minster

After a brief exploration of the East Bar, the memorials in the churchyard and the exterior of Leeds Minster, I was greeted by the verger as soon as I walked through the north door and, having been briefly shown some of its interesting features, we sat down and talked over a coffee. 

A view west along the chancel from the sanctuary

When I mentioned that the church was featured in the Building Stone Heritage of Leeds, various people in the café area were curious to know more about this and, by the time I had finished talking with them, my plans to explore the church in depth had gone out of the window. 

A view to the east along the nave

With very limited time before the church closed at 3:00 pm, and with the bulk of the masonry – except for the columns to the arcades – being rendered and painted, I only took a few quick photographs of features that caught my eye and which I thought would be of particular interest to the Sheffield U3A Geology Group, or similar others. 

The Leeds Cross

The Leeds Cross, dating to the 10th century, is one of the most interesting ancient monuments that I have found in the very many churches that I have visited to date. When St. Peter’s church was demolished in 1838, various intricately carved stones were discovered in its fabric and rescued by the architect, Robert Chantrell, and the cross was subsequently rebuilt. 

The effigy of a knight carved in dolomitic limestone

In the same part of the south chancel as the Leeds Cross, there is an effigy of a knight that was made in York c.1325, using Permian dolomitic limestone from the Cadeby Formation. There is also the C17 Hardwick tomb, which is painted sandstone rather than the alabaster that is normally seen in monuments of this age, where family members are depicted in a kneeling position – as seen in Bakewell and Wentworth. 

The high altar with the reredos behind

The mosaic reredos in the sanctuary, by Salviati of Venice, was advocated by the verger as the feature most worth seeing but what struck me most here was the flooring, which reminded me of the inlaid table that I had seen a few days earlier at Holy Trinity church in Ashford-in-the Water. 

Mosaics by Salviati of Venice

I am not an expert in decorative stones and didn’t have the time to closely examine the stones, but I think that I recognised various marbles – truly metamorphic and polished limestone – that I had encountered in the Republic of Ireland, when temporarily working for the Geological Survey of Ireland as an assistant in the Geoheritage programme and as a building stone specialist. 

The floor of the sanctuary in Leeds Minster

 

These include green Connemara Marble, Cork Red Marble and black Kilkenny limestone – all of which were very popular with Victorian architects and often lavishly used in churches and public buildings, such as Sheffield Town Hall. 

A detail of the floor in the sanctuary of Leeds Minster

Most of the stones, which have been laid in the floor together with encaustic tiles, have been worn and scratched over the years and most have now lost their deep polish, with others having deteriorated and now being in a poor condition. 

A general view of the 19th century font

Together with other marbles used in the font, alabaster and purplish coloured crinoidal limestone in the reredos and others used in the memorials that adorn the walls of the north aisle, there is enough variation in the stones in the interior of Leeds Minster to interest visitors for some time and, for this reason, it will feature prominently in the investigation of the ‘Building Stones of Leeds' that will be undertaken in February this year.

A general view of the north aisle