Church Of St Philip And St Paul

The Church of St Philip and St Paul is a Church dating from 1884 to 1887, designed by RF Tolson. It is constructed of rock-faced yellow sandstone with slate roofs. The architectural style is intended to evoke the 13th century.

The church’s plan incorporates a nave with a south-west porch-tower, north and south aisles, a south baptistery, coupled north and south transepts, a south vestry and a chancel. The four-stage tower has angle buttresses, with a foundation stone dated 1884. The south doorway is round arched, deeply moulded in three orders, and topped with A-shaped coping. A heavy moulded band separates the second stage, which features lancet arcading with shafts. A pilaster strip flanks a pair of narrow slots on the third stage. A further heavy moulded band defines the belfry stage, where deeply-moulded lancet windows are fitted with stone louvres and gablets, topped by a balustraded parapet with pyramidal corner pinnacles.

The west front has a tripartite window of 1:3:1 lights, with Geometric tracery in the central light. The clerestory has five bays, with pilaster strips and pairs of two-light windows with Y-tracery. The low, buttressed aisles have pairs of cusped one-light windows, while the transepts have gabled fronts with four-light windows and Geometric tracery. A gabled baptistery is set into the west angle with the south transept, featuring three arched lights on each wall. A vestry runs parallel to the chancel in the east angle. The tall chancel has a five-light east window featuring Geometric tracery.

Inside, the five-bay aisle arcades consist of cylindrical columns with moulded annular caps supporting two-centred arches with ovolo moulding. Wrought-iron circular lamps hang between the bays. A vaulted ceiling is supported by lateral beams and posts reaching the ridge. The church contains a marble and alabaster pulpit, early 20th-century oak choir stalls by GC Packer, with gableted and traceried canopies, and a corresponding organ case on the north side. The baptistery has a Romanesque-style colonnading, with access to a chapel within the south transept. Various commemorative stained glass windows are present throughout.