Church Of St Matthew

Church of St Matthew, Northowram

This is a parish church built in 1911 by the Halifax architectural firm of Walsh & Nicholas. Joseph Walsh (1861–1950) and Graham Nicholas (1871–1915) designed this prominent Gothic building in the centre of Northowram village.

The church is constructed of snecked local sandstone with a graded stone-slate roof. The plan comprises an aisled nave with south porch, transepts, and a chancel with south chapel. A north vestry links to a north-east tower, which was positioned as if an afterthought.

The exterior follows Perpendicular style. The nave features a clerestorey of 6 pairs of cusped lights under square heads, continuing over the transepts. The four-bay aisles have three 4-light square-headed windows each. On the north side, the narrower first bay contains a doorway with continuous chamfer. The south side porch occupies the first bay and has a continuous chamfer to its original south doorway, with an inserted east doorway. The west front displays two 3-light nave windows between angle and central buttresses, with 2-light aisle windows featuring cusped Y-tracery. The transepts have double gables with 3-light windows. On the south side, the right-hand transept window is shortened by a square-headed doorway beneath it. The chancel has a 5-light east window and 3-light north and south windows. The 3-bay south chapel contains south windows with Y-tracery and a 3-light east window. The vestry and organ chamber have trefoil windows and an east doorway.

The tower is three stages with set-back buttresses rising to crocketed gables beneath an embattled parapet. The lower stage has pairs of mullioned windows, whilst the second stage has pairs of ogee-headed windows. Both first and second stage windows are framed by tall arched recesses. Above these is a round clock set in a square frame. The taller ashlar bell stage contains pairs of pointed openings with louvres.

The interior contains a six-bay nave with octagonal piers without capitals and moulded arches. The first 2½ bays have been partitioned off by a steel and glass screen with furnishings removed. The nave has an arched-brace roof with a polygonal boarded ceiling behind it, set on a wooden cornice with fleurons. The 3-bay chancel roof is similar with pendants. Aisle roofs have corbelled arched braces whilst transept roofs have collar-beam trusses. On the north side of the chancel is a high arch to the organ recess and a pointed vestry door. On the south side is a segmental-pointed niche with heraldic shields forming the label stops. Walls are plastered. The sanctuary has a marble floor but the remainder of the chancel floor is concealed beneath carpets. The nave has a parquet floor with a raised dais at the east end where an altar has been set up.

Principal fixtures include an octagonal font carved with bowl and stem as a single piece. Pews survive only in the eastern half of the nave and aisles, featuring fielded-panel backs with linenfold panelling on alternate ends. A part of a former chancel screen made by C.H. Stevens (1938) has been placed in the chancel with a central ogee arch flanked by narrow bays with delicate tracery; its cornice has been mostly removed. The sanctuary walls have 2 tiers of panelling, the lower featuring linenfold and surrounding a piscina in the south wall. The reredos is by H.P. Jackson of Northowram (1913) and has niches with figures of archangels. The south chapel retains a panelled wooden reredos but has otherwise been cleared of furniture for use as a meeting room.

The interior was substantially re-ordered in the 1990s, when furnishings were removed from the west end of the nave for non-liturgical purposes. The church retains its original external character and detail, with a spacious interior featuring simple but elegant arcades and roofs.