Church Of Holy Innocents

The Church of Holy Innocents is a large Gothic Revival church built in 1858 by Mallinson and Healy, located on Vicarage Road in Thornhill Lees. It is designed in the Decorated style, constructed from rock-faced stone with ashlar dressings and features pitched slate roofs. The church has a five-bay nave flanked by buttressed, lean-to north and south aisles, and a south porch. The chancel consists of three bays with a vestry on the south side.

A square west tower topped with a broach spire is prominent, featuring three tiers with angle buttresses and paired two-light bell-chamber openings. The tower's parapet is decorated with pierced trefoils, large octagonal pinnacles, and gargoyles. The spire includes lucarnes and smaller ones higher up. The west window has three lights, with two trefoils and one cinquefoil in the head. The south porch is notable for its elaborate moulded surround, filleted colonnettes, and decorative foliage capitals with drop tracery. The clerestory windows are two-light with simple tracery, while the north and south aisles contain three-light windows with Decorated tracery. The chancel features two-light windows with traceried heads and a five-light east window with two cinquefoils and a large circle in the head.

Inside, the church has a five-bay arcade on quatrefoil filleted piers with plain capitals, and the chancel arch is supported by similar responds. The roof is an arched braced hammer beam style, resting on colonnettes and corbels. Noteworthy interior features include a very elaborate stone pulpit and a font, which has a finely carved tall cover with pinnacles.