Details
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