All Souls Church, Halifax, is a redundant

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

church in Haley Hill, Halifax, West Yorkshire, England. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust. The church is open to visitors at limited times.

Early history

All Souls was commissioned and paid for by the local industrialist Edward Akroyd in 1856. The foundation stone was laid on 25 April that year. Akroyd appointed Sir George Gilbert Scott as architect, and the church was completed in 1859. Scott considered it to be his finest church. It was intended to be the centrepiece of the model village of

Akroydon The Akroydon model housing scheme is a Victorian-era model village at Boothtown, Halifax, in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It was designed in the Gothic style by George Gilbert Scott in 1859 for the worker ...

, and Scott also designed Akroyd's own house and garden, the vicarage and houses for his employees. There is a statue of Akroyd, in its own lawned enclosure, immediately adjacent to the church.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in stone, with

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

roofs. The dressings are in magnesian limestone. Its plan is cruciform and its architectural style is of the 13th–14th century. In detail, its plan consists of a nave with a

clerestory In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...

and north and south aisles, north and south transepts, a chancel with chapels to the north and south, and a south porch. At the northeast corner is a vestry, and in the northwest angle is a tower and spire. Under the tower is a

baptistry In Christian architecture the baptistery or baptistry (Old French ''baptisterie''; Latin ''baptisterium''; Greek , 'bathing-place, baptistery', from , baptízein, 'to baptize') is the separate centrally planned structure surrounding the baptismal ...

. The nave measures by , the transepts by , the chancel by , and the chapels measure by . The ridge of the roof is above the floor of the nave. The spire is high. The tower has four stages, on the top of which is a parapet containing arches, and an octagonal, crocketted

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

at each corner. In the upper stage of the tower are double two-light bell openings. The staircase is contained in the wall and the buttress at the northeast corner of the tower. The spire is divided into five stages by moulded bands; in three of the stages are gabled windows. On its summit is a

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

and a weathervane. At the west end of the church is a deeply recessed doorway, over which is a tympanum containing sculpture. The south porch contains an arcade of three arches, each containing a single-light trefoil-headed window, and deeply recessed doorways. On the north face of the north transept is a priest's door. The clerestory has 15 windows on each side.

Interior

Internally, between the nave and aisles are arcades with columns made from Derbyshire marble. The

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

of the tower and transept arches are made from Aberdeen granite. The church is floored with Minton black, red and chocolate encaustic tiles. The three steps leading from the nave to the chancel are in Nottinghamshire red sandstone. The arcades between the chancel and the chapels are carried on columns of Italian marble. In the chancel is a sedilia, and a credence table built into its wall of the chancel. Between the nave and the chancel is an alabaster plinth carrying a screen in wrought iron. All the carving in the church was overseen by the sculptor John Birnie Philip, and the screen was made by Francis Skidmore. The

reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

is in alabaster and contains niches with statues of the Virgin Mary,

Mary Magdalene Mary Magdalene (sometimes called Mary of Magdala, or simply the Magdalene or the Madeleine) was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to crucifixion of Jesus, his cru ...

, Mary of Bethany, Saint John, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea. The octagonal

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, access ...

is in Caen stone on a pedestal of Derbyshire marble. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a typeface. Each font is a matched set of type, with a piece (a "sort") for each glyph. A typeface consists of a range of such fonts that shared an overall design. In mod ...

is square and has a circular bowl. It is made in

serpentine Serpentine may refer to: Shapes * Serpentine shape, a shape resembling a serpent * Serpentine curve, a mathematical curve * Serpentine, a type of riding figure Science and nature * Serpentine subgroup, a group of minerals * Serpentinite, a ...

from The Lizard and is carried on a pedestal of Aberdeen granite. All the windows contain stained glass. Some of the windows were designed and made by Hardman & Co., and others are by William Wailes, and Clayton and Bell. The organ has four manuals and is currently unplayable and awaiting restoration, but was the largest instrument in the town. The original organ dating from the opening of the building was a smaller instrument occupying half the space of its successor, the present instrument built in 1868 by Forster and Andrews of

Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...

to a specification by

Edmund Schulze Heinrich Edmund Schulze (26 March 1824 - 13 July 1878) was a German organ builder. He was the last of five generations of the Schulze family to build organs, starting with Hans Elias Schulze (1688–1762), Edmund's great-great-grandfather. He die ...

. It was rebuilt and enlarged in 1902 by Norman and Beard. There is a ring of eight bells in operational order (2019), all cast in 1859 by G. Mears at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.

Recent history

The church was declared redundant on 1 March 1979 and was vested in the Trust on 2 August 1989. After the church was declared redundant, the entrance doorway in the south porch was boarded up to prevent vandalism. This was considered to be unsightly, and the Churches Conservation Trust commissioned the design and construction of a set of gates. These are made in iron and have been painted in reddish-brown to complement Scott's design, and the cross and floral motifs have been

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

. At the same time, some conservation work was carried out to the surrounding stonework in the porch, and also around the west window. In 2007–08 the Trust carried out more extensive repairs to the church, including some re-roofing to make it weatherproof, and repairs to the stained glass windows and tracery. The church is open to visitors at limited times and during events such as Heritage Open Days.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halifax, All Souls' Church Grade I listed churches in West Yorkshire Church of England church buildings in West Yorkshire Churches completed in 1859 19th-century Church of England church buildings Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in West Yorkshire George Gilbert Scott buildings Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust All Souls