The Unitarian Church

The Unitarian Church, dating from 1865 to 1869, was designed by John Gibson for Samuel, John and Joshua Fielden. It was prominently sited to be a landmark visible from Dobroyd Castle. The church’s architecture uses a Gothic style, though its orientation does not align with the design. The building comprises a nave with aisles, transepts, a chancel, a porch to the ritual west end, and a large tower with a spire attached to the sixth bay of the nave (on the ritual south side). It is constructed of pitch-faced stone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The nave features seven bays, each with two-light windows with traceried heads, set back buttresses, a string with carved heads and flowers, and a straight parapet. A rose window is set into the gable of the ritual west end, above an enclosed, deeply moulded porch with doorways on three sides. The gabled transept facades each have two bays with taller two-light windows and a spherical triangle above. The short chancel has a large five-light window in its end wall. The tower consists of three stages with angle buttresses and two-light belfry windows. An octagonal stone spire connects to the pinnacles with flyers and has tall lucarnes in the main faces. The bottom stage of the tower forms an open porch with a palm vault incorporating banded webbing, a tall doorway with a deeply moulded arch surrounding the door, and a cusped mandorla containing stained glass.

Inside, the seven-bay nave features pointed arches carried on Devonshire marble columns to the arcade of the aisles. There is a brattished rail and a hammer-beam roof truss carried on marble collonnettes. The aisles have similarly arched-braced roofs. The chancel arch is supported by coupled marble collonnettes, and the chancel has a banded stone arched roof of five bays. Open arcades lead to chapels, now used as vestry and organ chamber, and are distinguished by fine lierne vaulted roofs with banded stone enriched with carved bosses. All capitals are adorned with foliage carving. Original choir stalls and pews remain, featuring carved poppy heads and plate tracery. The pulpit is similarly carved and supported on collonnettes of differently coloured marbles. The font has a carved base with a carved white marble bowl. A stained glass window depicting Scenes from the Life of Christ was created by J B Capronnier (Brussels, 1868). Memorial tablets in the aisles commemorate the church’s founders. Original decorative gas brackets (now converted to electricity) and candelabras to the choir stalls are also present. The church retains its lavish decorative scheme, representing one of the most elaborate Nonconformist churches to adopt the style and arrangements of the Established Church during the High Gothic Revival.