Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul, Holgate Road, York

This church was built in 1850–1 by J B and W Atkinson. It is constructed of coursed squared limestone with ashlar dressings and concealed brickwork, with cast-iron piers and slate roofs.

The building follows a plan of a nave with a continuous chancel, and north and south aisles under pitched roofs. The nave projects westward by one bay beyond the aisles. The western wall of the nave features tall thin pinnacles on either side, positioned above set-back buttresses. At the apex stands a gabled bellcote with a trefoiled opening, and a wheel window sits within the gable. The main doorway has a pointed arch flanked by narrower blind steeply-pointed arches, all moulded with engaged shafts. The west walls of both aisles contain a single double-chamfered lancet window each, and the western bay of the nave has matching windows on its north and south sides.

The aisles are each of six bays separated by buttresses. Except for the eastern bays, the windows are paired double-chamfered lancets with hood moulds. On the south side, the eastern bay contains a moulded pointed doorway with angle shafts, above which is a window in the form of a moulded pointed arch filled with three trefoils. On the north side, the ground level is lower and there is a basement under the north aisle, accessed through plain doorways in the 2nd and 6th bays from the west. Against the 4th and 5th bays is an added vestry with a window of three trefoiled lights facing west. The 6th bay has a blocked moulded doorway at ground-floor level, similar to the doorway on the south side. The east gable walls of the aisles are flush with the chancel east wall and have paired lancet windows like those in the north and south walls. Below the gables are circular multi-foiled openings. The chancel east window has three lights with Geometrical tracery.

Inside, the four-bay nave arcades have deeply-moulded pointed arches springing from quatrefoil cast-iron columns. The chancel arch is similarly moulded with responds featuring triple shafts. The chancel has moulded pointed north and south arches, with similar arches between the chancel aisles and the nave aisles. A raised floor now extends the chancel into the eastern bay of the nave. The nave roof has intermediate collar trusses, ceiled at collar level. The main trusses have king posts rising from arch-braced collars, supported by moulded corbels below wallplate level. The aisle roofs also have main and subsidiary trusses with braced collars carrying queen posts. The west gallery has a panelled timber front with late 20th-century glazed screen walls above and below, now containing an office and meeting room at the upper level.

The chancel was extended into the nave in 1890, the east window was replaced in 1906, and the west gallery was altered in the late 20th century. The windows contain late 19th and early 20th-century stained glass of various descriptions.