St Matthew's Church is a

local ecumenical partnership In England and Wales, a local ecumenical partnership (or project) is a partnership between churches of different denominations. First piloted in 1964, over 850 now exist to promote unity between different Christian denominations. The missiolo ...

church building situated on Church Street in

Rastrick Rastrick is a village in the county of West Yorkshire, England, between Halifax, 5 miles (8 km) north-east and Huddersfield, 4 miles (7 km) south. The population of the Calderdale Civil Ward at the 2011 census was 11,351. It is perhaps best ...

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 ...

, England. The present church was built in 1798 and is a

Grade II* listed building 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 Ir ...

. It is shared by the

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the established Christian church in England and the mother church of the international Anglican Communion. It traces its history to the Christian church recorded as existing in the Roman province of Britai ...

and the

Methodist Church of Great Britain The Methodist Church of Great Britain is a Protestant Christian denomination in Britain, and the mother church to Methodists worldwide. It participates in the World Methodist Council, and the World Council of Churches among other ecumenical as ...

History

The parish of Rastrick dates back to the 14th century, when the first chapel was built not long after the Black Death of 1349, as a chapel of ease from

Elland Elland is a market town in Calderdale, in the county of West Yorkshire, England. It is situated south of Halifax, by the River Calder and the Calder and Hebble Navigation. Elland was recorded as ''Elant'' in the Domesday Book of 1086. It h ...

. Its first curate John-de-Bretton was appointed in 1363. It was a small and humble building containing "the image of Our Layde, graven in wode, the image of St Matthew unto whom it is dedicated and there stood in the street nigh to the chapel door one cross of stone, very finely graven with fretted work." The Rastrick Chapel was a free chapel in pre-

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

England, that is to say, it was a place of worship over which the bishop had no jurisdiction. This chapel was demolished in 1602 and a new one was built in that same year. The present

Georgian-style Georgian architecture is the name given in most English-speaking countries to the set of architectural styles current between 1714 and 1830. It is named after the first four British monarchs of the House of Hanover—George I, George II, Geor ...

church was completed in 1797 and consecrated on 13 or 15 April 1798. According to ''History, Directory & Gazetteer of the County of York'' (1822), " he second chapelwas taken down and handsomely rebuilt about five and thirty years ago." A clock was installed around 1807, but was replaced by a new one in 1953, which was in turn replaced by the present clock from a church in the

Diocese of Carlisle The Diocese of Carlisle was created in 11 April 1132 by Henry I out of part of the Diocese of Durham, although many people of Cumbric descent in the area looked to Glasgow for spiritual leadership. The first bishop was Æthelwold, who was the k ...

. The old

vicarage A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically ow ...

was built in 1807 and enlarged in 1871, and the present vicarage was built in 1985. The church received its first stained glass windows in 1867. The modernisation of the church interior began in 1875 under the direction of

William Swinden Barber William Swinden Barber FRIBA (29 March 1832 – 26 November 1908), also W. S. Barber or W. Swinden Barber, was an English Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts architect, specialising in modest but finely furnished Anglican churches, often with ...

, and a renovation and a re-decoration were carried out in 1935. In the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse. Ov ...

, the communion table was replaced with an

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 ...

and the inscribed tablets on the east wall were replaced with the

frieze In architecture, the frieze is the wide central section part of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor ...

depicting "Goodly Fellowship of the prophets and Glorious Company of the Apostles". The ceiling over the chancel received a painting depicting "

Christ in Majesty Christ in Majesty or Christ in Glory ( la, Maiestas Domini) is the Western Christian image of Christ seated on a throne as ruler of the world, always seen frontally in the centre of the composition, and often flanked by other sacred figures, whos ...

". Most windows have Victorian stained glass. In 1907, Hugh Travis Clay (1875–1957) gifted the church a beautiful limited edition copy of the 1903

Prayer Book A prayer book is a book containing prayers and perhaps devotional readings, for private or communal use, or in some cases, outlining the liturgy of religious services. Books containing mainly orders of religious services, or readings for them are ...

prepared for King

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria and ...

, he also dedicated the East window around 1889. On 9 November 1969, the Methodists held their first service at St Matthew's Church. A sharing agreement was signed between the Anglicans and Methodists in 1971, and since 2004, they worship together as one congregation.

Gallery

File:St Matthews Church Rastrick.jpg, St Matthew's in 1895 File:St Matthew Rastrick by Tim Green-2683168644 71699ca423 o.jpg, St Matthew's in 2008 File:Rastrick - St Matthew's Church - geograph.org.uk - 3137453.jpg, St Matthew's in 2012 File:Cross base in Rastrick Churchyard - geograph.org.uk - 77197.jpg, Medieval base of a

Norman Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the Norm ...

high cross in St Matthew's churchyard File:Rastrick Cross drawing of 1893.jpg, Medieval base of a Norman high cross in St Matthew's churchyard, drawing, 1893 File:Rastrick Cross drawing of 1893 002.jpg, Medieval base of a Norman high cross in St Matthew's churchyard, drawing, 1893

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.stmatthewsrastrick.org/welcome.htm
A Church Near You entry

18th-century Church of England church buildings 18th-century Methodist church buildings Georgian architecture in England Anglican ecumenism

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links