Headingley Parish Church or the Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels in

Headingley Headingley is a suburb of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road. Headingley is the location of the Beckett Park campus of Leeds Beckett University and Headingley ...

, a suburb of

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...

, England is a Victorian

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 ...

. It is a Grade II* listed building.

History

The parish of Headingley was carved out of the once very large parish of Leeds, which at the time also included the districts of Armley, Beeston, Bramley and Hunslet. The first church on the site was built on land given in about 1620 by John Savile. This church remained in place for 210 years and could hold 200 congregants. The Industrial Revolution brought population booms to northern England and the population of Headingley increased to 2,000 warranting the creation of a vicarcy in 1849 and the building of a larger, 600-seater, church in 1838, designed by the architect R. D. Chantrell. However, this church was not to last: further increases in population meant that a new church was needed. Today's church is the third on the site and was consecrated in 1886. With the growth in the local population a new parish of Far Headingley was created, and St Chad's Church, Far Headingley was built in 1868. The two churches have worked together in matters of child welfare. The Headingley Team of St Michael's and St Chad's have a tradition of undertaking welfare work dating back to the late 19th century, and during the Second World War St Chad's opened a home for the friendless girls' societies in Leeds. In recent years, the two churches hold early Sunday morning communion services alternately, and both participate in '' Churches Together in Headingley''.

Building and associated buildings

The church was designed by J. L. Pearson, architect of

Truro Cathedral The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary is a Church of England cathedral in the city of Truro, Cornwall. It was built between 1880 and 1910 to a Gothic Revival design by John Loughborough Pearson on the site of the parish church of St Mary. His ...

. It was built from 1884 to 1886, and the north porch was added and the spire completed in 1890. It is built of

gritstone Gritstone or grit is a hard, coarse-grained, siliceous sandstone. This term is especially applied to such sandstones that are quarried for building material. British gritstone was used for millstones to mill flour, to grind wood into pulp for ...

with a tiled roof, and is

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 ...

. The church wall and gate piers are Grade II listed. The Parish Hall was built in 1834 or 1844 as the Headingley National School, and is Grade II listed, as is the former Parochial Institute in Bennett Road, built in 1877 by George Corson and now used as offices.

Services

Worship at the church is in the liberal catholic tradition of the Church of England, with both Sunday services being sung by the church's choir. Sunday *10:00 am Parish Eucharist (Sung) *06:30 pm Evensong (Sung) Tuesday * 08:00 pm Compline (Said) Wednesday *10:30 am Holy Communion (Said)

Incumbents of Headingley

References

External links