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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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).
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| The north porch |
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