Church Heritage Record 946012

Nave and sides of seven bays under a single wide gabled roof at the west a tower with vestibules north and south; at the east a shallow sanctuary with flanking entrance lobbies.

By Thomas Taylor (1777/8 - 1826), and one of the three churches built in Leeds pursuant to the Act for building new churches of 1818. The date of St, Mary's is 1823-5. The Act of 1818 gave Taylor extensive employment, and in 1825 he was able to state that he was so pre-occupied with ecclesiastical work that he had no time even to compete for a secular building.

The church is built of gritstone. The churchyard is entered through a 1914-18 War Memorial lych-gate so that the first impact of the church from close up is from the east - whereas some of the best distant views are from the north. The shallow projecting sanctuary has a gable ornamented with blank niches and both this gable and the wider gable of the east end of the body of the building suggest that the architect was guided more by the classical precedent of a pediment than by any serious study of English (or, for that matter, Continental) mediaeval Gothic; but to say this is to denigrate neither the building ner the architect, for this represents a fascinating stage in the 19th century conversion to Gothic for church-building. Within the sanctuary wall is an east window of three tall lancets under a continuous hood mould, the centre light only slightly higher than those flanking it. There are attached colonettes at the sides, so there is an attempt at more traditional Gothic here.

One of the features of the building is its proliferation of pinnacles - and, again, it is difficult to suppress a feeling that the architect was thinking almost in terms of acroteria, which is scarcely surprising considering the success and ubiquity of the Greek Revival at the time the church was built. The sanctuary gable is crowned by a tall pinnacle, and at its corners the thin clasping buttresses (which look more like pilasters) terminate in pinnacles. The north and south sides of the body of the church, which is seven bays long all with tall lancet windows, are punctuated by a regular series of powerful pinnacles which contribute much to the distinctive silhouette of the building. And finally, the tower, which is the most convincingly Gothic element of the building, is topped by a pierced parapet and four tall and much crocketted pinnacles at the corners. The tower is of three stages - a lofty ground stage linked by a string-course to the point in the nave walls where the buttresses begin to turn into pinnacles; a middle stage with blank arcading and blank ogee niches on the north, south and west sides; and the belfry stage with a pair of tall louvred openings on all four faces. The tower is a commanding, assured performance and it is a notable landmark in the city.

Inside, what impresses is the vastness of the space. The nave external elevations are reflected by the seven-bay arcades internally. The piers are octagonal and their bases rise higher than the pews - which no doubt are Mallinson and Healey's-replacement for the original, probably taller, pews. On the north and south faces of the piers are attached shafts: this is a curious arrangement, and the capitals also are original in form and burgeening. out with curved sides like the bud of some exotic flower. The arches of the arcade are sharply pointed and provide a transition on the one hand to the vaulted aisles and in the centre to the great plaster vaulted space of the nave. The vaults and dado of the walls a pale blue, and the extensive tracts of the upper walls painted a darker blue.

Five bays of the building form the nave, crowded with the dark stained pews, and there is little more that can be said of it: loftiness, elegant vaulting, and tall slender piers - these are the predominant visual features. The two bays east form the chancel, as arranged in the later 19th century; and in the south aisle, occupying three bays, is a chapel with a tough-looking marble reredos of c.1860, the altar being brought forward and having a good embroidered Victorian frontal. The screen of two bays on the south side is quite impressive: tall, with four divisions to a bay, and each division having two-light openings divided by a colonette and surmounted by a quatrefoil within a circle. Also in the chapel should be mentioned the brass altar cross of some quality given in memory of Frederick Tonle, drowned in the River Aire "whilst trying to save the life of a friend" in 1879, aged 16 years.