Church of Holy Innocents is a Grade II listed building in the Kirklees local planning authority area, England. First listed on 3 July 1985. Church. 3 related planning applications.

Church of Holy Innocents

WRENN ID
inner-arch-coral
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Kirklees
Constituency
Dewsbury and Batley MP: Iqbal Mohamed (Ind)
Country
England
Date first listed
3 July 1985
Type
Church
Address
Church of Holy Innocents, Vicarage Road, WF12 9PD
OS grid reference
SE 241 203
Coordinates
53.6788, -1.63548
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

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.

Local climate

Church of Holy Innocents receives an average of 890 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 65% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 52% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 38 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 73% of listed buildings. Of these, 20 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 3 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Gate and Gatepiers to Church of Holy Innocents Grade II 26 m
  2. Gates and Gate Piers to Thornhill Lees Vicarage Grade II 37 m
  3. Thornhill Lees Vicarage Grade II 56 m
  4. Thornhill Lees Church of England School Grade II 93 m
  5. Cleggford Bridge Over River Calder at Junction with Savile Road Grade II 93 m
  6. House Immediately to South of Thornhill Lees Church of England School (Former School and Schoolmasters House) Grade II 127 m
  7. Barn and Farm Buildings at Headfield Farm to North West of Farmhouse Grade II 301 m
  8. Bottoms Farmhouse Grade II 757 m
  9. Ravensthorpe-Dewsbury Railway Railway Bridge Over River Calder Grade II 839 m
  10. Railway underbridge MDL1/10, Thornhill Lane Grade II 894 m