Church Of St Wilfrid

Church of St Wilfrid

Catholic church built 1862-64, designed by George Goldie. The building is constructed of coursed squared yellow stone with grey ashlar bands and dressings, beneath slate roofs fitted with wrought-iron finials.

The church follows a plan of a 5-bay aisled nave with clerestory and a polygonal apse, a west gallery and narthex, a south-east vestry, a south-west tower, and a north-west Lady Chapel.

South side features a 1-storey pent-roofed aisle in front of the aisle clerestory. At the western end of the aisle, a pent-roofed porch projects forward, containing an arched opening with a diagonally boarded door on fine wrought-iron hinges set within a moulded 2-centred arch on squat columns with foliate capitals. The aisle windows to the east comprise one, two, and three cusped lights with foiled tracery in 2-centred heads beneath coved hoodmoulds on foliate or head stops. Clerestory windows consist of paired trefoil-headed lights with cinquefoil tracery in 2-centred heads. The chancel windows are cusped lancets, paired and tripled, tied by an impost string.

The vestry is of two gabled storeys. Ground and first floor windows are 4-pane sashes; on the first floor the surround is chamfered with a blind 2-centred head pierced with a quatrefoil. The gable contains a circular window with a cinquefoil light at its centre.

The 4-stage tower has 2-stage setback gabled buttresses. The south face of the lowest stage contains a window of two cusped lights in a 2-centred arch with squat jamb shafts and plate tracery in the head, beneath a hoodmould on head stops. The second stage has a single slit light beneath a relieving arch on the south and west faces, above which rises a blind arcade of four 2-centred arches on slender colonnettes with foliate capitals. Belfry openings are paired lancets with scalloped louvres in 2-centred arches of two orders, the columns bearing foliate capitals. A ballflower frieze, cornice with gargoyles, and pierced parapet with oversized crocket finials at each corner surmount the stage. The steep hipped roof carries wrought-iron finials and a crucifix.

The west end is gabled and flanked by setback gabled buttresses from which pyramidal pinnacles with oversized crocket finials rise on the north and south sides. The west door comprises paired part-glazed 20th-century doors within a 2-centred arch of four orders with stiff-leaf capitals and richly carved soffits, the outer order carrying a carved gabled hood. Between the doors stands a sculpted seated figure beneath a canopy on a column pedestal. Above the doors, the tympanum is filled with high relief carvings of four scriptural and allegorical scenes. Two west windows of paired lights with cinquefoils in 2-centred arches on slender colonnettes flank sculpted standing figures beneath tall crocketed canopies. Above these is a circular window of four foiled lights in a carved surround and crocketed gable cross.

The Lady Chapel is 1-storey with a polygonal end. Its high windows have 2-centred arches on colonnettes with waterleaf capitals. At the west end is a high relief carving of the Virgin and Child.

Interior

The north and south arcades feature 2-centred arches on high round columns with moulded shaft rings and waterleaf capitals carved with angels. The north wall contains a blind arcade on square piers with stylised foliate capitals. Clerestory windows sit in 2-centred arches on shafts with foliate capitals, paired above the nave and tripled in the chancel. The apse is lined with a reredos comprising an arcaded tier of biblical busts carved in high relief above a tier of carved panels, incorporating four sculpted figures seated at lecterns beneath canopies, with five painted panels above. Open outer arches to the chancel are filled with sculpted standing figures. An opulent altar and baldacchino occupy the chancel. A chapel at the east end of the north aisle contains a carved stone altar in a semicircular apse beneath a 2-centred arch. The narthex is vaulted, springing from squat columns with stylised waterleaf capitals. Above it is an organ gallery with a plain parapet.

The Lady Chapel is entered through a screen of trefoiled arches beneath a tracery quatrefoil in a 2-centred arch on columns with waterleaf capitals and a hoodmould on leaf stops. The chapel is fitted with richly carved panelling to sill height. Its altar is carved with a canopied figure of the Virgin and Child and two angels. Original chairs with pierced traceried backs survive.

Historical Context

The church served as the Pro-Cathedral of the Catholic Diocese of Beverley until 1879, when the See of Beverley was divided between the Dioceses of Middlesbrough and Leeds.