Church of St Hilda

Church of St Hilda

Church constructed in 1878–79 to the design of architect E H Smales, built at the expense of the Foster family. The building is constructed of tooled sandstone with a chamfered plinth, sandstone ashlar dressings, and a stone slate roof. The plan comprises a south-west tower, a five-bay aisled nave, chancel, organ chamber, and vestry. The architectural style combines Neo-Norman and Perpendicular elements, reflecting the form of an earlier church that originally stood elsewhere in the parish.

The tower rises in three stages, articulated by offset angle buttresses and a stair turret positioned to the south-west. A trefoil-headed opening on the south side contains double doors with decorative ironwork. The second stage features arcades of blind round arches to the south and east faces, with clock faces above. Paired louvred bell openings are recessed within moulded round arches on shafts with scalloped capitals and appear on all faces of the tower. A Lombard frieze sits beneath the saddleback roof, decorated with pierced roundels in the gable ends and cresting. The half-octagonal stair turret is fitted with chamfered rounded lights and a hipped roof beneath the belfry.

The west end presents a buttressed nave gable wall flanked by angle-buttressed aisle ends. A stepped three-light west window with a single light above occupies the centre, each light recessed within a chevron-moulded round arch on shafts with waterleaf capitals and continuous rolled hoodmoulds. Three cruciform slits are positioned in the gable apex. The aisle ends have single unmoulded round-headed windows above a continuous sillmould that runs across the entire west elevation. Coped pent roofs cover the aisles.

The nave's north and south sides are fenestrated with round-headed windows in double-chamfered openings beneath semicircular hoodmoulds, separated by offset buttresses. The south side incorporates a recessed door beneath a round arch with chevron and roll mouldings, supported on attached shafts with waterleaf capitals.

The chancel's south side features a pointed priest's door with hoodmould to the east of a square-headed window containing two cusped lights with a flat hoodmould, followed by a similar window further east. The north side is marked by two buttressed twin crossgables, each containing a square-headed window of paired lancets over a dropped sillmould. The eastern crossgable holds a quatrefoil light set within a circular surround with a semicircular hoodmould. A vestry stack rises from the base of the chancel roof.

The east end features a three-light cusped window beneath a shallow two-centred arch and hoodmould, with a continuous sillmould. A glazed quatrefoil in a circular architrave appears in the gable end, beneath a continuous rounded hoodmould. Three cruciform slits sit above. Carved Foster arms are positioned over the lintel of a basement boiler-room door. All gables are coped; gable crosses appear at the east end, nave, and tower. Finials ornament the chancel crossgables.

The interior contains a 1901 clock in the tower porch commemorating Queen Victoria, presented by Abraham Foster. The north and south arcades feature stepped round arches on cylindrical piers with high plinths, beneath a continuous hoodmould. A two-centred chancel arch of two orders rests on attached shafts with annulets and foliate capitals. A fine reredos of Caen stone and alabaster incorporates relief carvings and traceried panels. An octagonal piscina is carved with fleurs-de-lys within a cusped and crocketed niche. An elaborate font of Caen stone stands on marble shafts. A marble cartouche World War I memorial tablet on the north aisle wall is carved with foliage, scrolls, and angel heads. A Baluster Arms Box, fashioned from oak salvaged from H.M.S. Victory, was presented to the church in 1928. Carved Royal Arms appear over the south door. The roof is a hammerbeam construction with embattled, moulded ties and traceried spandrels.