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| The chancel |
To finish a very productive day, which had included an exploration of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal at Granary Wharf, the old industrial buildings at Holbeck Urban Village, textile warehouses on Wellington Street and the former Leeds School Board Offices and Leeds Central Library, I had a very quick look at the Grade II* listed St. Anne's Roman Catholic Cathedral (1904).
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| Rough Rock walling and Ketton stone dressings on the north elevation |
When photographing the listed buildings at the east end of Great George Street, I took a couple of photos of the buildings to the east of the tower on its north elevation, including Cathedral Chambers. Although it wasn't obvious that these formed part of the cathedral, once I had read the Historic England (HE) description, I could see from these that the walling of the building adjoining the tower consists of Horsforth Stone from the Rough Rock and that Middle Jurassic Ketton stone from the Lincolnshire Limestone Formation is used for the dressings.
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| A floor plan of St. Anne's Roman Catholic Cathedral |
When researching the cathedral itself, which was designed by J.H. Eastwood and his assistant S.K. Greenslade in the Arts and Craft Gothic Style and completed in 1904, I referred to the Building Stone Heritage of Leeds (BSHL), which confirms that these stones have been used, as mentioned in volume 80 (1901) of The Builder - p. 490 and p. 240.
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| The west entrance |
In the Pevsner Architectural Guide to Leeds (PAGL), Susan Wrathmell writes "the cathedral makes a strong impact to the street, enhanced by finely jointed courses of large blocks of Weldon stone. Carved details are in beautiful, buff-coloured Ketton limestone".
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| The crucifix above the west entrance |
Weldon stone is named on p. 240 as the stone selected for the facing of the external walls, but the only stone I know with this name is another Middle Jurassic oolitic limestone from the Lincolnshire Limestone Formation in Northamptonshire, but the BSHL makes no mention of its use and highlights the fact that the walling stone contains conspicuous quartz pebbles.
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| Weldon Stone in the Building Limestones of the British Isles |
From my photos of the west entrance and the crucifix above, I can clearly see a difference between the stone used for the walling and the dressings, which would have been emphasised when the cathedral was cleaned in 1987. I didn't take a closer look at the time and entered the cathedral through the south door, where I firstly took a photo of the north arcade, which is built with a very pale coloured stone that is another Jurassic oolitic limestone – this time a variety of Bath Stone from Corsham Down in Wiltshire.
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| A view from the south entrance |
Walking quickly anti-clockwise around the interior, I first came across Carrara white marble statues of Saint Anthony of Padua and Saint Francis of Assisi, which according to the PAGL were presented to the cathedral in 1927.
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Moving on to the former baptistery, the Statue of the Sacred Heart was sculpted by Cesare Formilli, who was also responsible for the marble walling and flooring and the war memorial. I am no expert on marbles, but the wall panels may be the giallo di Siena marble for the upper section and green/grey cipollino marble for the lower part – both of which are from Tuscany in Italy.
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| The former baptistery and the Statue of the Sacred Heart |
Next to this is the Pietà Chapel, where the white Carrara marble sculpture (1913) by R.L. Boulton & Sons of Cheltenham is based on Michaelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica. The panelling behind this appears to be a dark green serpentinite, which is probably from the Alps or the Northern Apennines in north-west Italy.
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| The Pietà Chapel |
The Chapel of Saint Joseph was designed by Eastwood and the alabaster reredos was produced by H.H. Martyn & Co. of Cheltenham in 1904, with the relief of St. Joseph on his deathbed being made with a light coloured alabaster and a much darker red/brown veined variety for the panel behind – characteristics of the alabaster that came from Chellaston and Tutbury respectively.
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| The Chapel of Saint Joseph |
Adjoining this is the Chapel of the Sacred Heart, with another very large and ornate pale alabaster reredos, which was designed by Greenslade and with Nathaniel Hitch (1904) carving the frieze that depicts the Last Supper and sculptures of the Sacred Heart, Moses and the Crucifixion above.
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| The Chapel of the Sacred Heart |
The many chapels in the cathedral are closed off with railings or altar rails and I therefore didn't get much of an opportunity to have a close look at the various materials used, especially the mosaics in the sanctuary that are also by Formilli.
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| The chancel |
Having spent only 7 minutes inside the cathedral taking 32 general record photographs, I really need to go back and take a much closer look at the various features and details, including the reredos (1842) by Augustus Pugin, which was retained from the original St. Anne's church (1838), by John Child, before it was demolished when The Headrow was widened.
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| The reredos by Augustus Pugin |
In particular, I want to have a close look at the Ketton stone, a Jurassic limestone composed almost entirely of unifromly sized ooliths with very little shell content, and also the Bath Stone, which seems to be much lighter in colour than those varieties that I had seen used as dressings, when working in the building restoration industry in London.
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| General views of the Bath Stone masonry |
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