St Aidan's Church in

Harehills Harehills is an inner-city area of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north east of Leeds city centre. Harehills is situated between the A58 (towards Wetherby) and the A64 (towards York). It sits in the Gipton & Ha ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

is a

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

built in 1894. It is a large Victorian

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica is a large public building with multiple functions, typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek East. The building gave its name ...

-type red-brick building which is

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. A church hall is adjacent. The architects were Johnson and Crawford Hick of

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

.B. Pepper (1998) "The Mosaic of St Aidan's", pp 119-124 ''in'' L. S. Tate ''Aspects of Leeds''

History

The church was consecrated by

John Pulleine John James Pulleine (10 September 1841, Spennithorne, Yorkshire - 15 April 1913) was an Anglican Suffragan Bishop in the latter part of the 19th and earliest part of the 20th century. John James Pulleine was born in Spennithorne, Yorkshire on 10 ...

, Bishop of Richmond, on 13 October 1894. The first vicar was

Samuel Mumford Taylor Samuel Mumford Taylor (25 August 1859- 30 November 1929) was the second Bishop of Kingston. Taylor was educated at University College London and ordained in 1885. After a curacy at St John the Evangelist's Leeds he became the first vicar of St Aid ...

, who later became Bishop of Kingston-upon-Thames. His pastoral staff and mitres were bequeathed to the church. The

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an ''exedra''. In ...

is decorated with of

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s by

Frank Brangwyn Sir Frank William Brangwyn (12 May 1867 – 11 June 1956) was a Welsh artist, painter, watercolourist, printmaker, illustrator, and designer. Brangwyn was an artistic jack-of-all-trades. As well as paintings and drawings, he produced des ...

, which were completed in 1916. They show scenes from

St Aidan Aidan of Lindisfarne ( ga, Naomh Aodhán; died 31 August 651) was an Irish monk and Christian missionary, missionary credited with converting the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity in Northumbria. He founded a monastic cathedral on the island of Lindis ...

's life: feeding the poor, in

Northumbria la, Regnum Northanhymbrorum , conventional_long_name = Kingdom of Northumbria , common_name = Northumbria , status = State , status_text = Unified Anglian kingdom (before 876)North: Anglian kingdom (af ...

preaching A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present contexts. El ...

and the death of the saint. They are said to be best viewed at noon on a sunny winter's day, when they are lit by the

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

windows. Brangwyn was initially commissioned to decorate the church by painting, and began this in 1910. However, he was concerned that the smoky atmosphere of Harehills would destroy it, so started again with a mosaic. On the south wall, behind the

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in paga ...

, is the scene of St Aidan preaching. The artist's initials, F. B., are subtly given in a pattern of stars. The organ, dating from 1896, is by

James Jepson Binns James Jepson Binns (c. 1855–11 March 1928) was a pipe organ builder based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. Organs Pipe organs at the following locations were either built or rebuilt by James Jepson Binns or his JJ Binns company. A number o ...

and is in unusual in being unmodified from its original condition.St Aidan's Leeds
The Organ

Present day

The church is unusual among Anglican parish churches in celebrating the

Mass Mass is an intrinsic property of a body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the quantity of matter in a physical body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physics. It was found that different atoms and different elementar ...

daily. It was previously in the

Diocese of Ripon and Leeds The Diocese of Ripon (Diocese of Ripon and Leeds from 1999 until 2014) was a former Church of England diocese, part of the Province of York. Immediately prior to its dissolution, it covered an area in western and northern Yorkshire as well as ...

, whose cathedral is at

Ripon Ripon () is a cathedral city in the Borough of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. The city is located at the confluence of two tributaries of the River Ure, the Laver and Skell. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, the city ...

. However the church became part of the Diocese of Leeds in 2014. From January 2012 until 2017, the parish was united with Leeds All Souls.

Gallery

File:St Aidans 2754.jpg, Church Interior File:St Aidans Pulpit.jpg, Pulpit File:St Aidans 0102.jpg, Organ File:St Aidans Font Leeds.jpg, Font Image:StAidansPlaque.jpg, Blue Plaque near main door Image:StAidansSign.jpg, Sign giving times of worship File:Detail of mosaic by Frank Brangwyn at St Aidan's Church, Leeds.jpg, Detail of mosaic

References

External links

St Aidan's Church website
*
Exterior photo on ''Leodis'' database

Aerial view on ''Leodis'' database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Leeds, Saint Aidan's Church Aidan Church of England church buildings in West Yorkshire Churches completed in 1894 19th-century Church of England church buildings Anglican Diocese of Leeds Harehills Anglo-Catholic church buildings in West Yorkshire

History

Present day

Gallery

See also

References

External links