Church Of St Paul

Church of St Paul, Armitage Bridge

Anglican church designed by John Boham Chantrell in the Decorated style and consecrated in 1848. The building suffered major fire damage in 1987 and was thoroughly rebuilt to the designs of Richard Shepley under the direction of the vicar, Reverend Ian Jackson, with re-dedication in 1990.

The exterior is constructed of squared stone brought to course with freestone dressings and slate roofs; the vestry has a lead roof. The plan comprises a nave with north and south aisles, a chancel with south-east vestry, south porch and west tower. The interior arrangement has been modified post-fire: the old chancel is now screened off from the former nave, which serves as the main worship area, while the west end has been developed as a two-storey block containing an organ chamber, meeting rooms, offices and kitchen.

The 1848 exterior is lavishly decorated with carving. The three-bay chancel is buttressed with angle buttresses that rise as decorated gablets at the corners. It has a five-light east window with Geometric Decorated tracery and two-light north and south windows, with a moulded eaves cornice carved with foliage and figures. The five-bay north and south sides feature angle buttresses at the corners, buttresses to each bay, and two-light Decorated style windows. Ribbon windows with square leaded panes were introduced under the eaves as part of post-fire rebuilding. The south porch has angle buttresses with niches, a moulded doorway with two-leaf lattice timber door and a statue niche in the gable.

The tower is exceptionally fine, with decorated angle buttresses rising as octagonal pinnacles with gablets and crocketted finials above an openwork parapet. The south face has a small doorway to the original internal stair turret and pairs of belfry windows with central shafts and Decorated tracery. The north and south faces each have trefoil-headed windows. A three-light Decorated window lights the west. The vestry has a two-light Decorated traceried east window and a square-headed south window adjacent to a shoulder-headed doorway. Above this doorway is a large 19th-century stone sundial with a traceried iron gnomon.

Internally, the nave and existing worship area have unplastered walls. Visible survivals from the 19th-century church include the chancel arch, moulded and double-chamfered on semi-circular responds with capitals, and the octagonal responds of the former aisles against the chancel wall, crowned with classical figures. The piscina survives on the south wall of the old chancel. The two western bays of the north and south arcades have been absorbed into the two-storey west end block. The post-fire rebuilding introduces new octagonal piers with capital-like timber elements, built outside the line of the old arcade to support the new roof. Behind the old chancel arch stands a white canted screen with a full-height internal glazed window above a two-leaf door. An organ gallery occupies the west end. Elegant post-fire fittings include a font with a pyramidal metal bowl set in a plain square section stone plinth with a suspended metal canopy cover of peaked roof form with cylindrical timber corner shafts, a metal and timber communion rail, a ceilure over the altar table, and stairs with good iron balustrades.

The church represents high-quality work of 1848, particularly rich in carved detail, of which the tower survives unaltered. The serious fire damage of 1987 resulted in substantial changes to the main body of the building.