Holy Trinity, South Crosland

Holy Trinity is an Anglican church located on Church Lane, South Crosland.

History

The church was built between 1827 and 1829 as a result of the Church Building Act of 1818 and 1824[1], when £1.5m was made available by the government to build new churches following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815.

The land used was donated by the lord of the South Crosland manor, Richard Henry Beaumont (1805-1857).[2]

The foundation stone was laid on 15 October 1827 by the Rev. Lewis Jones, the Vicar of Almondbury, and carried the following inscription:

This first Stone of a Church, to be called the Holy Trinity Church, in the Township of South Crosland, in the Parish of Almondbury, built under the direction of the Honourable Board of Commissioners for Building New Churches, was laid by the Rev. Lewis Jones, on this 15th day of October, A.D. 1827, being the eighth year of His Majesty King George the Fourth.

Richard Henry Beaumont, Esq., Donor of the Site.
Mr. P. Atkinson, Architect.
Mr. Joseph Mellor, Churchwarden.

The building was designed by Peter Atkinson and built by Joseph Kaye using ashlar stone. The cost of construction was £2,168 and the original seating capacity was 700, of which 322 were free sittings.[3]

The first service was held on Sunday 23 October 1829 and was taken by Rev. Lewis Jones. The church was consecrated by the Right Rev. Charles Vernon Harcourt, Archbishop of York, on 2 September 1830.[3]

Rev. George Hough (1797-1879) was the first incumbent and remained the vicar until his death in June 1879. The Vicarage House was erected in 1846 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, with Rev. Hough contribution towards the cost of construction.[4]

The neighbouring National School was built in 1835.

On 1 May 1878, a new east window showing the parable of the "Good Samaritan" was added to the church to celebrate the Rev. Hough's 80th birthday. The cost of £300 was covered by a public subscription and the window was designed by the renowned stained glass company Lavers, Barraud and Westlake of Bloomsbury, London.[5][6]

The subsequent incumbents and vicars were:[7][8]

  • Rev. George Coulton — 1879 to 1883
  • Rev. William Le Neve Bower, M.A. — 1883 to 1931/2
  • Rev. W. John W. Tunnicliffe — 1932 to 1935
  • Rev. Trelevyan William Sweeting — 1935 to 1954
  • Rev. Charles Francis Welsh — 1954 to 1962
  • Rev. Alan Metcalfe — 1962 to 1965
  • Rev. William Norman Elliott — 1965 to 1985
  • Rev. Martin Christopher Russell — 1985 to ?

Churchwardens

Local historian Philip Ahier named the following as a partial list of churchwardens in his 1938 book:

Name Years
Mr. Robert Wrigley 1829-1833 (died holding office)
Mr. Charles Brook[9] 1834-1835
Mr. George Dyson 1859-1884 (died holding office)
Mr. Edward Wrigley 1877-1886 (died holding office)
Mr. Henry Wrigley 1877-1880
Mr. Robert Skilbeck 1879-1880, 1884-1886
Mr. James Albert Wrigley 1880-1894, 1897-1919
Mr. Arthur Dyson 1877, 1886-1887, 1897-1898
Mr. Joseph Radcliffe 1883-1884
Mr. Thomas J. Dyson 1889-1890
Mr. Edmund Parkin 1890-1892
Mr. J. J. Booth 1892-1893 ; 1894-1896 (Vicar's Warden)
Mr. Samuel Pontefract 1894-1896 (died holding office)
Mr. G. W. Dyson, 1896 (elected at an extra Vestry Meeting)
Mr. G. H. Sarll 1899-1900
Mr. D. White 1901-1905
Major Thomas Brooke, M.A., J.P. 1906-1918 (People's Warden) ; 1919-1922 (Vicar's Warden)
Mr. B. Schofield 1919-1920 ; 1924-1925 (Vicar's Warden)
Mr. J. H. Duckenfield 1921-1922 (Vicar's Warden) ; 1923-1924 (Vicar's Warden)
Mr. A. E. Carter 1923-1924, 1934-1935
Mr. W. Dowthwaite 1925-1926, 1936-1937
Mr. Frank Lomax 1927-1929 (People's Warden) ; 1929-1931 (Vicar's Warden)
Mr. G. W. Schofield 1929-1931
Mr. A. V. Shaw 1931-1932
Mr. Hubert Lunn, A.R.C.O. 1938-1939
Mr. H. G. Barwood, M.A. 1938-1939

Historic England Listing

  • Grade II
  • first listed 29 September 1978
  • listing entry number 1313827

SOUTH CROSLAND. CHURCH LANE (North side). CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY. Church. 1827-30 in a very plain lancet style to the designs of Peter Atkinson Junior, chancel said to be later (information from the churchwarden), perhaps circa mid C19. Ashlar masonry with slate roofs, the slates laid in diminishing courses. Plan of west tower, galleried nave with south doorway and chancel with northeast vestry.

EXTERIOR: The chancel has set-back buttresses and a triple lancet east window in an arched recess. The south side of the chancel has a blind lancet window. Nave of five narrow bays with pilaster buttresses and tall lancet windows without hoodmoulds. Steeply-gabled south porch with a chamfered doorway and two-leaf door with Gothick panelling, a brattished crest and glazed overlight. The tower has clasping pilaster buttresses and large square-section pinnacles with pyramidal caps. The belfry windows are paired lancets with hoodmoulds. The tower has a tall west lancet and a half-glazed lean-to on the south side. 2002 northwest extension.

INTERIOR: The nave is galleried on three sides. Chancel arch with octagonal responds with moulded capitals. The three-sided galleries are supported on octagonal piers and plain cross beams. Gothick panelled gallery front with cusped blind arches and a probably later dwarf balustrade. Tie beam and queen post roof to the nave with arched braces and braces from queen posts to collar. The two-bay chancel roof is an elegant arch braced design with no collar, the braces springing from wall shafts. The chancel has a panelled dado and integral timber panelled reredos with a cornice and vine trail, with a memorial date of 1910. Circa late C19 choir stalls with multifoil profile. Font with memorial date of 1887 has an octagonal bowl on a base of four pink granite polished shafts' 1950s font cover. The area under the west gallery is glazed off. The nave has a dado of vertical boards with a brattished cornice. Nave and gallery benches have multifoil ends and backs with fielded panels. A plaque records that the gallery was reseated in 1898. Stairs to the gallery are probably late C19 with stick balusters with stout turned newel posts with ball finials. The space under the tower was originally the baptistery and has a dado of blind Gothick panelling. The Creed, Lord's Prayer and Ten Commandments in frames are kept in the gallery.

A two-phase lancet style church with a severely plain exterior but preserving all three galleries although chancel and other fittings mid/late C19.

Further Reading

Records

Gallery

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Location

Notes and References