Commercial Street in Morley

 

A hand shake and heart motif on a former warehouse

Having encountered 5 former Nonconformist chapels within a distance of less than 400 metres, since leaving the Church of St. Mary in the Wood, it seemed natural to dedicate my last Language of Stone Blog post to all of those that I unexpectedly encountered during my walk around Morley. 

 

Commercial Street on the 1854 OS map

Resuming the account of my day out at the north end of Commercial Street, the 1854 edition of the Ordnance Survey (OS) map, which was surveyed from 1847 to 1852, shows that this was an essentially undeveloped lane to the south of the ancient town centred on the area around Morley Bottoms – with ribbon development along Queen Street, where a manor house, a Wesleyan Methodist chapel and a Primitive Sunday school are marked. 

 

The growth of the population of Morley

 

During the second half of the C19, as with all of the northern towns and cities set on the Pennine Coal Measures Group strata, the mechanised production of the local industry – fired by the locally mined coal – had led to an exponential growth in the population, which the Census records as rising from 13057 in 1851 to 38404 in 1901, before flattening off in the early C20. 

 

Commercial Street on the 1908 OS map

 

The 1908 edition of the OS map shows that the area to either side of Commercial Street had been densely developed with a mixture of woollen mills and other commercial buildings set amongst blocks of back-to-back terraced houses, with chapels and schools scattered amongst them. 

 

The former Gas Office

 

The first building to catch my eye as I walked south down Commercial Street was the former Gas Office, dating to the first half of the C19, which is not listed but has some interesting features. It combines quite thinly coursed rock-faced walling and massive stone dressings, with an ornate door surround that has cable moulding and pink Peterhead granite columns with Corinthian capitals. 

A Peterhead granite column

Next to this is Thorp House, a pair of semi-detached houses that have the same pattern of walling stone and dressings and first appear on the 1894 OS map. The two houses have different designs but, although quite substantial and with the appearance of being built for occupants with moderate social status, the larger house actually has a back-to-back layout. 

 

Thorp House

 

The properties that were built next to this have been demolished, with a car park occupying the plot of land, but just beyond this is the Grade II Listed Morley library (1906), which is a fine example of a building funded by Andrew Carnegie and designed by the borough engineer, W.E. Putman. 

 

Morley library

 

The relatively plain ashlar façade is dominated by the very elaborate Neoclassical style portal, which has columns with elaborate Ionic capitals with an entablature supporting a segmental pediment and a tympanum with a floriated carved cartouche. 

 

The segmental pediment with the floriated tympanum and cartouche

 

Although not strictly relevant to this Language of Stone Blog, I was most impressed with its interior, with the Morley coat of arms laid out in mosaic, the colourful Art Nouveau Burmantofts faience tiles in the entrance lobby and staircase and the frieze, which were all created by T.K. Yeates of Leeds. 

 

Views of the interior of Morley library

 

Just beyond the library, I got a view of the tower of Morley Town Hall, along with a brick chimney that I thought must be part of a textile mill, but the 1908 OS map or the Morley Community Archives and Yorkshire Industrial Heritage websites make no reference to this. 

 

A chimney and the tower of Morley Town Hall

In front of this on Commercial Street is a substantial late C19/early C20 13 bay and 3 storied building, with a stone frontage, which forms part of a complex of buildings that the chimney seems to be part of, but again there is mention of this building. 

 

A possible warehouse building on Commercial Street

The building has a very ornate surround to the arch above the central main entrance, which has a decorated keystone surmounted by a beehive, with floriated spandrels to each side that include motifs of a pair of scales and shaking hands with a heart above it. These can refer to an idealised collective society, partnership and cooperation and fairness respectively, although I am far from being an expert on such symbolism in architecture. 

 

A detail of the entrance to the former warehouse

A clue to its use, which is likely to be as a warehouse, comes from an inscription above the splay of the building on the corner of Commercial Street and Albion Street, against which it was built, which describes it as the Industrial Co-operative Society Stores Limited (1869). 

 

The former Morley Industrial Co-operative Society building

 

The Morley Industrial Co-operative Society was founded in 1866, with the Albion Street building being its first branch and, from some online research I have discovered that the use of a beehive, which sits above the inscription, has a long history in the Co-operative movement. 

 

The inscription with the beehive

Both of these buildings repeat the pattern of thinly coursed rock-faced walling stone, with massive sandstone dressings, which can again be seen in Stoneleigh House - a substantial house that was built during this period of rapid expansion in Morley. 

 

Stoneleigh House

 

On the opposite corner is another substantial building that is marked on the 1894 OS map as ‘Hall’, which is built with deeper courses of rock-faced Thornhill Rock, with massive sandstone used as cills and heads to the windows, band courses, voussoirs and panels to the central first floor window, which have a compass and set square and a mallet and chisel cut into them – symbols that are typically seen on a Freemasons' lodge. 

 

The former Freemasons' lodge

 

I was particularly interested to see that the Thornhill Rock voussoirs alternate with a dull red sandstone which, when enlarging my photographs, I can see has differential weathering of laminations that highlight its bedding characteristics. 

 

A detail of red sandstone voussoirs

 

I think that this is most likely to be Red Mansfield stone - a sandy variety of the Upper Permian Cadeby Formation - which the railway connections at the time would have provided the architect with the opportunity to readily specify. 

 

The entrance to Peel mill

 

Continuing along Commercial Street beyond the large brick built former Peel mill, which was largely rebuilt after a fire in 1915, which a datestone on the infilled entrance records, I finished at the Commercial Inn (1906), another fine unlisted building on the corner with Middleton Road.

 

The Commercial Inn

 

Nonconformist Chapels in Morley

 

The pediment of the Baptist Tabernacle on Commercial Street

The ruined Congregational Church of St. Mary in the Wood, which I visited mainly to photograph its Grade II Listed tombs and monuments as part of a British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge, has a history going back to the mention of a church in Domesday Book, when the only Christian denomination was the Roman Catholic Church.  

 

The former school and chapel at 3 Observers Mews on Troy Hill

 

St. Peter’s church (1830) on Roams Lane was the first presence of the Anglican denomination in Morley which, along with Leeds, had been dominated by Nonconformism since the latter part of the C17 and I had already seen further evidence of this at 3 Observer Mews on Troy Hill, when looking for an entrance to St. Mary’s churchyard. 

 

The National Spiritual Church

 

According to the Morley Community Archives (MCA) website, the Old Town School was converted in 1867 to use by the Catholic Apostolic Church, which then moved to its current location in 1900 when Zoar Street was built. No information is provided by the MCA as to the actual date, but the building is now occupied by the National Spiritualist Church. 

 

The Morley Church of Christ

On the opposite side of the road is the Morley Church of Christ, which the MCA says was founded in 1895 as an offshoot of the Church of Christ in Liversedge and that the present chapel was bought in 1905; however, the inscribed plaque describes it as a Gospel Hall and the string course beneath it is dated to 1881, which indicates that there has been at least one change in the denomination who have occupied this chapel. 

 

Views of the Zoar Particular Baptist Church

 

Just around the corner on Commercial Street is the Grade II Listed Zoar Particular Baptist Chapel, which has a datestone of 1873 but the MCA states as opening in 1883. The building is locally known as the Labour Party Rooms and, following refurbishment, is hired out for various events. As with the other chapels mentioned above, it provides a further example of the use of the local Thornhill Rock but it is not a listed building.

 

St. Mary's in the Wood Church Hall

 

Adjacent to this is the Grade II Listed St. Mary’s in the Wood Church Hall, which was built in the second half of the C19 and is marked on the 1894 Ordnance Survey (OS) map as a Sunday school The Historic England description mentions that it was also occupied by the Wakefield Tutorial Preparatory School and the congregation of St. Mary’s in the Wood moved here in 2008. 

 

Views of the Baptist Tabernacle

 

Continuing along Commercial Street, past several stone built Victorian buildings that I will describe in a later Language of Stone Blog post, I soon came to the imposing Renaissance  Revival style Baptist Tabernacle (1897) – now converted to apartments – which has towers with pyramidal roofs flanking the central section, double entrance doors and a decorated pediment above.

 

The former Sunday school on Albion Road

 

Designed by the architects Hanstock and Co. of Batley, who were also responsible for Ossett Town Hall, it combines thinly coursed walling stone with massive stone for dressings, which judging by the uniformity of the colour I think are both Thornhill Rock. It has been added to the original Old Chapel (1874) on Albion Street, which was then used as a Sunday school. 

 

The Salvation Army Hall

 

Making my further along Commercial Street past the Grade II Listed brick built Commercial Street Mill, I turned off to have a quick look at a building that I had noticed on Ackroyd Street, which turned out to be the Salvation Army Hall, which had its foundation stone laid in 1907. 

 

The former Methodist Free Church

 

Returning to Commercial Street and passing a car park that occupies the space where there were once late Victorian back to back and other terraced houses, I was surprised to see yet another fine Nonconformist chapel, which again is not listed – presumably because it has the interior has been altered so much by the conversion into apartments. 

 

A detail of the pediment

 

The raised lettering on the pediment gives a date of 1895 and the ornamented band course above the ground floor describes it as a Methodist Free Church, yet the 1894 OS map - revised from 1889 to 1891 – shows that the now demolished corner site with Peel Street was occupied by the Bethel Chapel, but the 1908 edition shows the existing chapel as a Sunday school. 

 

The 1894 OS map showing the Bethel Chapel

After leaving Commercial Street to take a couple of photos of No. 37 High Street, I retraced my steps to Fountain Street, where I encountered another large building, which I thought must be another Nonconformist chapel, but is actually the Grade II Listed Morley Temperance Hall (1895), which is included by MCA on their list of churches and chapels in Morley. 

 

Views of Morley Temperance Hall

On the opposite side of the road is the Grade II Listed former Primitive Methodist School (1878), which is built with a combination of thinly coursed Thornhill Rock to the front elevation, larger rock faced blocks for the side elevations and massive sandstone for the dressings. It was originally built for the Primitive Methodist congregation in Morley, which goes back to 1820 and was converted to a Sunday school when a new bigger chapel was built next to it. 

 

Views of the former Ebenezer Methodist Chapel

I know very little about the various Nonconformist denominations or their membership and finances, but I have never encountered such a concentration of fine chapels, along with their associated Sunday schools, anywhere before and the Grade II Listed former Ebenezer Methodist Chapel (1885) is another example. 

 

The front elevation of the Central Methodist Church

 

Heading back towards the centre of Morley, the last of these to visit was the substantial Central Methodist Church (1862) on Wesley Street, which was designed by the architect John Simpson of Leeds and is the only one that I saw with a burial ground.

 

Views of the burial ground at the Central Methodist Church

 

The Church of St Mary in the Wood

 

A view of the ruined interior of the Church of St. Mary in the Wood

Leaving Scatcherd Park, having spent an hour in Morley after alighting from the No. 51 bus on Victoria Road, I headed off towards the Church of St. Mary in the Wood (1878), 12 Grade II Listed tombs and a mausoleum were part of my British Listed Buildings Photo Challenge. 

 

The Historic England map of St. Mary in the Wood's churchyard

 

The church became redundant in 2008 and, after being purchased and a planning application submitted to convert it into a luxury hotel, a devastating fire in 2010 left it in ruins, with the site since being left unmanaged and becoming heavily overgrown. 

 

The main entrance to the Church of St. Mary in the Wood

Arriving at the entrance to the churchyard on Commercial Street, I found that the gates were secured by a padlock and chain and, hoping that I might find another way to get into the churchyard, I retraced my steps and headed along Troy Road. Having caught several glimpses of the ruins from the footpath, I eventually came to another entrance to the churchyard where the aluminium gate was easily surmounted. 

 

Views from Commercial Street and Troy Road

 

Following a path that was not actually thickly overgrown, I soon obtained my first good view of the church, which was designed in a Gothic Revival style by the architects Lockwood and Mawson from Bradford, whose work I had seen before at Salts Mill, its associated housing and Saltaire Congregational Church. 

 

A view of the north elevation

 

With the benefit of the map from the Historic England website, which pinpoints the listed tombs much better than the map on the British Listed Buildings website, it wasn’t long before I was able to find a pair of chest tombs belonging to members of the Asquith family. 

 

The Asquith chest tombs

I took a few general photos of the west end of the church from a distance, but the churchyard in places had very dense undergrowth that prevented easy access to the structure and I didn’t get close enough to make out any details of the masonry. 

 

Views of the north and west elevations

When I found that my anticlockwise traverse around the exterior of the church could not go any further, I made my way back towards the north side and next encountered the raised grave slab of William Havden (1699), which wasn’t that easy to locate beneath the nettles, ivy, algae and sycamore seeds that were partially obscuring it. 

 

The raised grave slab of William Havden

 

The chest tomb of Anne Lister (c.1735) is one of four set very close together, which all have a similar simple form without any obvious distinguishing features. Although the Historic England records its inscription, I had to clamber on to the most accessible of these and scrutinise the group closely before I could make out her name. 

 

The chest tomb of Anne Lister

 

The table tomb of Sarah Jubb (d.1790) was quite easy to find, with it described as “approximately 1 metre east of north-east corner of church”, although knowing that the Historic England descriptions are not always very accurate and sometimes quite wrong, I again had to stand on the slab so that I could read the inscription.

 

The table tomb of Sarah Judd

Next on my list of tombs to photograph is named by Historic England as: “Group of 3 Raised Tomb Slabs Set Between Central Buttresses to North Aisle of Church of St Mary”. As with the Havden and Lister tombs, the listing description cites the inscriptions on the three separate tombs as a single block of jumbled up text. 

 

The presumed site of the group of three raised tomb slabs

 

I was really quite surprised to see that these have passed through their editorial process without being corrected but, given that their descriptions typically consist of endless lines of text that are not broken down into paragraphs – a basic skill that children are taught at a very early age – they don't seem to give much thought to how these come across to the end user. 

 

Vegetation and saplings growing through a grave slab

On this occasion, this was actually quite academic, because the tombs have become so overgrown by bracken, ivy, grass, dandelions, moss and saplings growing through a fracture in the only slab visible and I couldn’t see any inscription and, based on their position in relation to the north aisle, I can only presume that I had located the grave slabs in question. 

 

Another view of vegetaion on a grave slab

 

For my Photo Challenges that include tombs and gravestones, it is impractical to print the full listing description and I rely on the maps and plans that are available and take enough photographs of them to enable me to refer to the Historic England descriptions when I get home and have access to my computer. The grave slabs of Martha Balmforth (1795) and Benjamin Hopperton (1785) were relatively easy to find, but the recording of their inscriptions by Historic England are again a jumble of words that make little sense. 

 

The worksheet for my Photo Challenge

 

With time moving on, I walked round to the south side of the church to quickly look for the remaining 7 tombs on my list to photograph but, seeing that they were also covered in moss and other vegetation that had accumulated over the years and with nothing at hand to remove them, I decided not to spend any more time looking for them. 

 

Various tombs on the north side of the church

 

Even in a well maintained churchyard, I have usually found it quite difficult to track down listed tombs and gravestones for a Photo Challenge, due to the lichen, moss and algae that accumulates on them and also that the inscriptions are often weathered and barely legible. I am usually quite diligent in my investigations but on this occasion, after taking a few general record photographs of the Scatcherd Mausoleum, I headed off towards the centre of Morley. 

 

The Scatcherd Mausoleum