Joseph Ireland (c.1780–1841) was an English architect who designed

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Church buildings in the early nineteenth century. He specialized in Romanesque revival architecture and worked with

Joseph John Scoles Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English Gothic Revival architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches. Early life and education Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, ...

Life

Ireland was born into a Catholic family from Crofton, near

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

. He worked almost entirely for

patrons, notably the

Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District The Apostolic Vicariate of the Midland District (later of the Central District) was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by an apostolic vicar (or vicar apostolic) who was a titular bishop. Th ...

John Milner John David Milner (December 28, 1949 – January 4, 2000) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman and left fielder from to for the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Montreal E ...

. From 1812 until 1819, he employed

, a relative, as an apprentice. From 1816 to 1818, he was the architect of Church of All Saints, Hassop, originally built as a private chapel for

Hassop Hall Hassop Hall is a 17th-century country house near Bakewell, Derbyshire, which was operated as a hotel until it closed on 29 September 2019. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The Manor was owned by the Foljambe family until the 14th cen ...

and its owner Francis Eyre. The design was based on Inigo Jones' St Paul's Covent Garden. In 1821, he built a Greek-style chapel beside

Houghton Hall Houghton Hall ( ) is a country house in the parish of Houghton in Norfolk, England. It is the residence of David Cholmondeley, 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley. It was commissioned by the ''de facto'' first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Wa ...

for Charles Langdale who had inherited the estate. In 1824, he was behind the initial plans for St Austin's Church in

. In 1826, the

Society of Jesus , image = Ihs-logo.svg , image_size = 175px , caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits , abbreviation = SJ , nickname = Jesuits , formation = , founders ...

set up a mission there and building work started on the church the following year. For the next two years, he worked on St Peter and St Paul Church in Wolverhampton and a chapel for the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers ( la, Ordo Praedicatorum) abbreviated OP, also known as the Dominicans, is a Catholic mendicant order of Pontifical Right for men founded in Toulouse, France, by the Spanish priest, saint and mystic Dominic of ...

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England. It is administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in the administrative county of Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughbo ...

. The priory in Hinckley was the centre for the Dominicans in Britain and the chapel was dedicated to St Peter. It was demolished in 1976. Other works included Holy Cross Church in Leicester from 1817 to 1819, St Mary's the Mount Church in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

in 1825. In 1829 he built a chapel at Tixhall Hall, Staffordshire for the Clifford family; it was dismantled following the sale of the estate in 1840 and rebuilt as St John the Baptist Church at

Great Haywood Great Haywood is a village in central Staffordshire, England, just off the A51 and about northwest of Rugeley and southeast of the county town of Stafford. Population details taken at the 2011 census can be found under Colwich. Haywood ...

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (1 ...

, when writing about Catholic churches in Staffordshire praised Joseph Ireland writing, "The finest Catholic churches are Late Georgian Classical. They are the churches of Wolverhampton and Walsall, both of 1825-7 ... both by Ireland."

Churches

File:St John the Baptist Catholic Church, Great Haywood - geograph.org.uk - 60582.jpg, St John the Baptist Church, Great Haywood File:Hassop - All Saints Catholic Church - geograph.org.uk - 977884.jpg, All Saints Church, Hassop St Austin's Catholic Church - Wentworth Terrace - geograph.org.uk - 654095.jpg, St Austin's Church, Wakefield St Mary's the Mount - geograph.org.uk - 1032947.jpg, St Mary the Mount Church, Walsall Wolverhampton Catholic Church of St Peter and St Paul.JPG, St Peter and St Paul Church, Wolverhampton

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ireland, Joseph English ecclesiastical architects Romanesque Revival architects 1780s births 1841 deaths

Life

Churches

See also

References