Church Of St Mary The Virgin

Church of St Mary the Virgin, Illingworth

This church was built in 1777 in coursed dressed stone with ashlar dressings, under a slate roof, replacing an earlier building that was falling down. The construction was funded by public subscription which amounted to over £600. The building comprises a chancel, nave, two small side chapels, a west tower, and community rooms to the west of the tower.

The chancel was added around 1888. It features a gable end with a pediment that carries within it a smaller scrolled pediment with a circular window above and floral swags. To the right and left of the window are small carved decorative panels, and there are decorated panels above the window with swags and urns. A Venetian window forms the east end. The north and south sides of the chancel each have a single rectangular lower window with three semi-circular windows above, extending over the side chapels.

The north side chapel has a hipped lean-to roof with two small windows to the east. The south side chapel has a lean-to roof with two round-arched windows to the side and one to the east end.

The nave, wider than the chancel, has two tiers of round-arched windows, seven on each side, and a modillion eaves cornice. A porch at the east end of the south side is reached by a flight of four steps and has pilasters and a plain pediment.

The west tower is in Victorian Gothic style with pairs of pointed windows to the belfry and a shaped and partly pierced parapet with pinnacles. Late twentieth-century extensions of two storeys surround the tower and extend westwards, slightly lower than the nave, with rectangular stone mullioned windows and a south side entrance with pediment and pilasters.

The interior chancel has stained glass in the three panels of its east end Venetian window and in the south side window; the north side window has small plain panes. The roof is round-arched with plaster panels and modillion cornice, with the top windows inset. The reredos is wood panelled and incorporates a First World War memorial with carved figures and inscription behind the altar. To the right are two sedilia in semi-circular plastered niches with engaged columns and frieze. Arched openings to each side lead to the side chapels, which are separated by open-work iron screens.

The nave has a flat roof with restrained plasterwork around the central chandelier and a modillion cornice. The upper windows formerly lit a gallery, now lost. Stained glass appears in the two eastern lower windows. The entrance to the chancel is through a wide round arch supported on pairs of Ionic columns with flanking giant Ionic pilasters and, on the south side, a decorative plaster panel. Original wide arched openings to the side chapels have been blocked and replaced by small doors. The west end of the nave has been separated by a new wall with an entrance towards the south side and a staircase to the first floor behind on the north side. An off-centre floor to ceiling panel containing narrow coloured glass panes set at an angle stands here. The hexagonal stone font stands before this panel, and the Caen stone pulpit is in the north-east corner of the nave. The south side chapel has a stained glass round-arched window to the east and a timber framed roof. The north side room is used as a vestry and store. To the rear of the blocked-off nave is an arched entrance to the former baptistery with a dedication panel to the right, and a panelled doorway to the former vestry, now incorporated into the community rooms. These consist of offices on the ground floor, an inserted staircase within the area of the original nave, and offices and nursery on the first floor. The tower contains an early twentieth-century clock and angelus bell.

The church was damaged by fire in 1841. In 1866 the vestry and baptistery were moved to the west end. The chancel was added around 1888 and the tower may date to that time or later. The vestry and baptistery were rebuilt in 1929. In the 1970s community rooms were added to the west end, which later took over the western end of the nave as well as the vestry and baptistery.