Church Of St Mary The Blessed Virgin

The Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin is a Gothic style church located just off the High Street in Sowerby Bridge, dating to 1816-17. It was designed by Thomas Taylor of Leeds, with alterations and extensions made in 1866 and 1910. The church is constructed of coursed squared stone with a Welsh slate roof.

The building comprises a west tower, a south porch (now a vestry), a north addition, a nave, and a chancel. The two-stage tower has offset clasping buttresses rising to crocketed finials, and an embattled pent porch on the south, containing a blocked doorway. A west doorway is situated below a two-light window, both with hoodmoulds. All windows feature Y-tracery. Belfry openings are two-light, with a later clock face on the southern opening. An embattled parapet tops the tower.

The nave has four bays defined by offset pilaster buttresses and a plinth. A three-light intersecting tracery window is positioned on the left side, while the others are two-light windows with trefoils above, all with hoodmoulds. A cornice with gutter spouts and embattled gables run along the nave. The north windows are of three lights with intersecting tracery, which was added in 1866. The chancel, extended in 1910, is three bays, lower and narrower than the nave, also with a plinth and offset buttresses. It includes two-light Perpendicular-style windows and an arched opening under the right window, topped with a gable cross. A five-light east window features rectilinear tracery.

Inside the nave, attached octagonal columns rise to window-head height, supporting panelled roofs. A double stair with a ramped handrail on straight and wavy iron balusters leads up to a gallery (restored 1985/86). A font dated 1662 stands at the back of the church, featuring a fluted base, rolled top, and octagonal basin with carved panels, one of which bears a date. An earlier tub font is also present. Near the Victorian pulpit is an early 19th-century font with an octagonal base, concave shaft, and a small, cyma-moulded bowl. Several 18th-century monuments are incorporated, including one in the south porch dedicated to James Farrer of Ewood Hall, who died in 1718, and featuring swags, cherubs, a cartouche, and arms with festoons. A brass memorial plate is fixed to the south-east wall of the nave, commemorating William Grimshaw, who died in 1763, an incumbent of Haworth who introduced Methodism to that area. Benefaction boards are located in the tower. The church represents the third building on this site, and a cross wall was inserted into the nave during a recent resurvey alongside other alterations.