Church Of St Mary

LEEDS

SE23SE TOWN STREET, Beeston 714-1/10/533 (North side) 05/08/76 Church of St Mary

II

Anglican church. Chancel 1877, nave and aisles 1885-6 by CH Thornton. Rock-faced coursed masonry. Steeply-pitched slate roofs. PLAN: nave, low aisles, chancel. Gothic Revival style. EXTERIOR: round clerestory windows with quatrefoil and trefoil lights. Small aisle lancets and Perpendicular window in E end of S aisle. 5-light E window with plate tracery. Rose window in W gable with plate traceried 2-light windows below. Small stone gabled porch to SW and slim tower, square on plan with octagonal belfry with small gables over and short stone spire. 2 gravestones, of the Clark family of Beeston Park and Beeston Lodge, are built into the E wall of the vestry (outside). INTERIOR: 5-bay nave, cylindrical columns, roll-moulded caps, stone corbels, arch-braced timber roof. NW corner: C17 font with octagonal base, chamfered shaft, strapwork decoration to bowl; font in use dated 1886. Shallow aisles, wall memorials pre-date rebuilding. N Wall: John Hewitt, 1796; Samuel Walker of Millshaw, cloth manufacturer, '...zealous for the advancement of the/ Woollen manufacture of this neighbourhood', d.1851. S wall: John Jackson of Cottingley Hall, 1695; brass plaque with inscription to Christopher Hodgson, 1642, Elizabeth Hodgson, 1648. West gallery, cast-iron columns, organ. Pulpit given by Mary Scales of Armley Ridge, 1886: octagonal, arcaded panels, moulded and carved decoration. Chancel: arch has attached octagonal columns, ribbed and panelled ceiling, restoration and reredos panelling 1920, altar 1950. Fragments of C16 heraldic stained glass in E window of S chapel which is the re-set window of the earlier chapel (see below). Chancel E window by Thomas Baillie, in memory of William Hill, d.1841, for Harriet Hill, d.1878. In the vestry: C12 fragments of carved stone reconstructed as an archway, not seen. HISTORICAL NOTE: the medieval chapel on this site had nave and chancel with a late C15 S chapel. The chapel was rebuilt post 1789, retaining the E windows. The present chancel was added to the late C18 rebuild in 1877 and the old building was demolished in 1885-6 when the nave was added; the medieval S chapel window was retained however, and built into the corresponding position in the new church; earlier fragments

being rebuilt in the vestry. (West Yorkshire Archaeological Service: Ryder, P: Medieval Churches of West Yorkshire: 1993-: 141).

Listing NGR: SE2869430839