St Mary's Church, Harrogate is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

redundant Redundancy or redundant may refer to: Language * Redundancy (linguistics), information that is expressed more than once Engineering and computer science * Data redundancy, database systems which have a field that is repeated in two or more table ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and civil parish in the North Yorkshire District, district and North Yorkshire, county of North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist de ...

North Yorkshire North Yorkshire is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in Northern England.The Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority areas of City of York, York and North Yorkshire (district), North Yorkshire are in Yorkshire and t ...

, England. The successor of the church, which uses the former church hall, is now known as Kairos Church.

History

Old St Mary's Church, Harrogate

In 1822 the inhabitants of Low Harrogate had "hitherto felt great inconvenience from the want of a place of worship ... The inhabitants of

Pannal Pannal is a village in the county of North Yorkshire, England. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated to the immediate south of Harrogate. Since 2016 it has formed part of the new civil parish of Pannal and Burn Br ...

... agreed to raise £500 () on the parish rates to assist in promoting this desirable object". The foundation stone of the first Anglican St Mary's church in Low Harrogate was laid on 4 September 1822, "by Rev. R.R. Hunter, vicar of Pannal, in the presence of a numerous assemblage of the visitors ... and neighbouring residents". It was a plain building, funded by a grant from the Commissioners of the Million Act. It was erected in 1824, and consecrated in 1825. It had 800 seats and was assigned as a parish in 1830. It was declared unsafe in 1903. The fabric of Old St Mary's was purchased in 1922 by Elizabeth Wilhelmina Jones, the headmistress of

Harrogate Ladies' College Harrogate Ladies' College is a private boarding and day school located in the town of Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. Founded as a girls' senior school in 1893, the college includes Highfield Prep School and educates girls from ages 2 to 1 ...

. In 1923 it was rebuilt in the school grounds, without the tower, to the design of W. D. R. Taggart.

St Mary's replacement church, Harrogate

The replacement church was built at the current site in 1916 to designs by the architect

Walter Tapper Sir Walter John Tapper (21 April 1861 – 21 September 1935) was an English architect known for his work in the Gothic Revival architecture, Gothic Revival style and a number of church buildings. He worked with some leading ecclesiastical archit ...

. It was constructed in the 14th century English gothic style. In 2007 the church closed as a parish church because of maintenance problems. It was revived by Mark Carey as a fresh expression of church, still within the Church of England, but now serving the whole of Harrogate. It was renamed a
Kairos Church
and now meets in Westcliffe Hall, opposite the old St Mary's building and has a vibrant congregation. The St Mary's Building is now owned by Shaw and Jagger Architects.

Lofthouse Memorial

The stone vaulted south chapel contains a tomb and memorial to Richard Chapman Lofthouse (1832–1907) Deputy Surgeon General of the British Army who founded the church. He served in the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny.

Bells

The tower once contained a ring of 8 bells in the key of F, dating from 1916 and by Taylors of Loughborough. The tenor bell was 16 cwt. The four heaviest bells were removed after the church was declared redundant, and are now hung in the Grote Kerk of Dordrecht. With six new European-cast bells, they form the first peal of

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuning (music), tuned bell (instrument), bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in ...

church bells in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, and the heaviest ring of change ringing bells in the European mainland.

Organ

The first organ was installed in 1895 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 of ...

. This was replaced in 1919 with an instrument by

Harrison and Harrison Harrison & Harrison Ltd is a British company based in Durham that makes and restores pipe organs. It was established in Rochdale in 1861. It is well known for its work on instruments such as King's College, Cambridge, Westminster Abbey, and th ...

. Details of the organ can be found on the National Pipe Organ Register.

Organists

*J. E. W. Lord 1894 – ???? (formerly organist of

Bridlington Priory Priory Church of St Mary, Bridlington, , commonly known as Bridlington Priory Church is a parish church in Bridlington, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, in the Diocese of York. It is on the site of an Augustinians, Augustinian priory founded i ...

) *J. C. Stephenson, ARCO Dictionary of Organs and Organists, 1912 *A. Beaumont, FRCO 1915 – 1946 *Harold Mills

References

External links

Kairos Church websiteSt Mary's church on Sir Walter Tapper Churches website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrogate, St Mary Anglican Diocese of Leeds Church of England church buildings in North Yorkshire Grade II* listed churches in North Yorkshire Churches in Harrogate