Church Of St Mary

ELLAND CHURCH STREET SE 108211 1 2/21 Church of St Mary 24.1.68 I

Church, mainly Cl3 and C14 with chancel arch c.118O, tower c.1490 and other additions and alterations. Nave, chancel, west tower embraced by aisles, south porch and vestry. Rubble and some ashlar with stone slate roofs. Chancel has late Cl5 windows with depressed arched heads. East window of 5-lights; the side windows of the chancel and east windows of the aisles are similar and of 3-lights. Otherwise most of the windows are flat headed and of 2-lights, mainly dating from W. H. Crossland's restoration of 1856, but the west window of the tower is of 3-lights with simple tracery. Tower is of 3 stages with diagonal buttresses and embattled parapet. The belfry windows are of 2-lights. South porch of 1696 with round arch and gable surmounted by reset sundial of 1648. C19 gates to porch. On nave gable is a weathered sanctus bellcote. The chancel has angle buttresses with goblets and gargoyles, and the angle buttresses at the east end of the aisles have the Savile Owl carved on an offset.

Interior: Chancel arch perhaps c.1180 (c.f. Kirkstall Abbey Church), but altered to a steeper angle. Nave arcade of 4 bays with octagonal piers. Nave has collar rafter roof. Chancel of 2 bays with Cl5 slightly cambered panelled ceiling with moulded ribs. Tower bay with semi-octagonal engaged piers with arch of 3 chamfers. The chancel aisles were originally built as chantry chapels dedicated to St Nicholas and St John.

Furnishings: the east window is high quality Cl5 work which depicts the life of the Virgin restored and slightly rearranged by William Wailes of Newcastle c.185O who also designed the west window in 1866. Parclose screens of Cl6 or early C17 of simple design with tracery at heads, and rood screen designer by Fellowes Prynne c.1920 in florid German Gothic. Plain octagonal font said to be of C17. 4 miserere seats are loose in the church. Monuments on walls to William Horton of Howroyd and Mary Horton c.1750 with good portrait medallion, others to the Thornhills of Fixby dating from 1669 to 1758, and to Northend Nicholas, 1818, by Walsh and Dunbar of Leeds. N. Pevsner, 'Yorkshire West Riding', (revised 1979), p.192. L. Hamerton, 'Olde Eland' (Elland 1901), p.143. D. and A. Greenwood, 'St Mary's Church, Elland', (Huddersfield 1954) .

Listing NGR: SE1080521167