The Church Of St Cuthbert

The Church of St Cuthbert

Anglican church designed by Hoare and Wheeler of London, built between the 1920s and 1956. The church serves the suburb of Birkby, which was expanding in the early 20th century. Church services were initially held in a parish hall (built 1913, immediately to the east) before the current church was constructed using money raised locally. The original design included a tower at the west end and a north aisle, but insufficient funds meant the west end was completed without the tower in 1956.

The church is built from coursed and dressed rusticated local stone with a grey slate roof.

The plan comprises a nave and chancel area under a single roof, a lower south aisle, a main entrance and lobby at the west end, and a small vestry on the north side. A lower level at the east end contains children's and young people's areas and storage.

The main body sits under a single roof. The east end features a single large drop arch window with tracery between stepped buttresses that rise to a string course, which continues from the south aisle parapet and echoes the gable of the main roof. Below this is a plinth with 4 mullioned and transomed windows with plain stone dressings. The north side has 4 pointed arch, 2-light windows with tracery (the two outer windows matching each other, the two inner windows each slightly different), separated by stepped buttresses, with windows also below the plinth. The north side plinth diminishes in height as ground level rises. The vestry, at the east end, has a flat roof with a pediment lower than the main roof, a pointed arch door leading to the lower level, and scattered fenestration including one 6-light mullioned and transomed window. All windows throughout have leaded panes.

The south side also has a plinth of diminishing height. At its east end are a small pointed arch entrance and two 2-light traceried pointed arch windows above. The south aisle projects from the south side at lower height and shorter length than the main body. It has 4 windows matching those on the north side, held between 6 stepped buttresses, with irregular openings to the lower level within the plinth. The aisle parapet has widely spaced crenellations and small rectangular clerestory windows above. A string course at the parapet base continues to the gable end at the east, mirroring the east end arrangement. A pointed arch doorway stands at the south aisle's east end.

The west end features a shaped gable with a stone niche carrying a large bell above the string course. A 3-light leaded four-centred arch window is set in a slightly recessed panel with plain stone dressings, repeated in the nave's side wall. Above is a drop arch window. The west end has a string course similar to the east end and a single tall drop arch window with tracery above a four-centred arch doorway with blind arcade tracery between. A large plain wooden cross hangs to the right of the entrance.

The church is surrounded to the north and west by iron railings with double gates to the west.

Interior

Glazed double doors at the west end lead to an inner porch and narthex with storage and toilets to either side. The double inner porch door and nave door are matching four-centred arches with vertical timbers holding plain glass, with matching windows either side of the nave door. The nave is open with a parquet floor. An arcade of four arches supported on exposed stone pillars leads to the south aisle. At the east end, 3 steps lead to a raised platform with low stone walls to either side, and a further 4 steps to the rear. The altar stands at the front of the lower platform with the stone font to the left. The original organ of 1926, by Abbott & Smith of Leeds, occupies the east end of the south aisle in a matching archway, with a small side altar in the aisle facing the organ's side. To the left of the chancel area are two doors in pointed arches leading to the vestry and stairs down to the lower level.

All windows retain original leading with tracery showing Arts and Crafts influences. All doors are either glazed with vertical timber struts or solid timber with similar vertical panels. A modern glass and timber screen above the narthex at the west end partitions off the upper level (1970s). A timber panelled partition in the south-west corner conceals the kitchen (1990s).

The roof comprises queen post trusses alternating with more slender modified scissor brace trusses, all in plain dark wood. Some main trusses have been supported by metal sheaths. The lower level contains rooms adapted for community use and storage.

History and alterations

Birkby was expanding in the early 20th century, and the parish hall was built in 1913 to accommodate church services before the current church was constructed. Hoare and Wheeler were an established London architectural practice involved in the design or redesign of numerous churches nationwide, including Rudolf Steiner House in London, the Church of St Mark in Berkshire, and the nave and tower of the Grade II* Church of the Holy Trinity in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Subsequent changes include the removal of fixed seating in the nave, insertion of the screen over the narthex, the kitchen partition, and moving the altar forward. A 1936 photograph appears to show panelling either side of a curtained reredos at the east end, now gone. The parish hall was sold off in the 1990s.