Church Of St Thomas

Church of St Thomas

Parish church built 1857–61 by the Bradford architects Mallinson & Healey. The church is constructed of coursed sandstone with a graded-slate roof.

The building follows an asymmetrical plan comprising an aisled nave with north porch, transepts, a lower chancel, and a south chancel tower. The exterior is in the Decorated Gothic style. The west front contains a 4-light nave window with 2-light aisle windows either side. The nave has a clerestorey of four lozenge-shaped windows with curved sides and quatrefoil tracery. The aisle windows are 3-light with segmental-pointed heads. The north porch doorway is finished with a continuous moulding and hood mould wrapped around the angles, where buttresses have gable caps. Both transepts feature diagonal buttresses and 3-light windows; the south transept contains a pointed doorway. The chancel displays a 5-light east window, two 2-light north windows, and one 2-light south window. The 3-stage tower has angle buttresses at its lower stage, a south-east turret with a blocked shoulder-headed doorway, and an embattled parapet. The lower stage contains a pointed east doorway and a pair of cusped lancets on the south face. The second stage has narrow cusped lancets to the east and south. Two-light bell openings are boarded up in the north and south faces and blocked in the east and west faces.

The interior survives with original structural integrity. The first two bays of the nave and three bays of the aisles have been partitioned off for meeting and service rooms in the late 20th century. The original arcades remain visible, featuring octagonal piers and double-chamfered arches. Arches to the transepts and the chancel arch (which has polygonal responds) are similarly detailed. The nave roof is concealed behind a suspended ceiling, while the transepts and chancel retain roofs of closely spaced rafters. Walls are plastered throughout. The chancel has a stone-paved floor and the nave a concrete floor, raised in front of the chancel arch where an altar has been installed.

The church retains several principal fixtures. The octagonal font with panelled stem dates to circa 1915. Pews survive in the central part of the nave and aisles, featuring shaped ends with arm rests and fielded-panel backs. Choir stalls are similar, with panelled frontals. The chancel contains a panelled dado and a portable 3-sided reredos of octagonal posts surmounted by angels at the corners, which is integral with the wooden altar bearing inlaid figures of angels to its frontal. A 1914–18 war-memorial rood beam is present. Several windows contain stained glass, including the Good Samaritan in the east window, Elijah and the chariot of fire in the north transept by Kayll & Co of Leeds (1899), and Doubting Thomas in the north transept east window by Ward & Hughes (1888).

The west gallery was removed during restoration in 1911–12 by the Halifax architects Jackson & Fox. The interior was significantly re-ordered in the late 20th century when the west end of the nave and aisles were partitioned off from the main body of the church and pews were removed from the transepts.