Description

SOWERBY BRIDGE HIGH STREET
SE 0426
(north side, off),
5/91 Luddenden
1.10.85 Church of St Mary the
Blessed Virgin
GV II
Church. 1816-17 by Thomas Taylor of Leeds, alterations and extensions 1866 and 1910.
Coursed squared stone, Welsh slate roof. Gothic style. West tower with south porch
(now vestry) and north addition, nave, chancel. Tower: 2 stages. Offset clasping
buttresses rise into crocketed finials. Embattled pent porch on south with blocked
doorway. West doorway with 2-light window above, both with hoodmoulds. All windows
with Y-tracery. 2-light belfry openings, southern one with later clock face.
Embattled parapet. Nave: 4 bays defined by offset pilaster buttresses. Plinth.
3-light intersecting tracery window on left, others of 2 cusped lights with trefoils
over, all with hoodmoulds. Cornice with gutter spouts; embattled gables. North
windows of 3 lights with intersecting tracery. Tracery all of 1866. Chancel: 1866,
extended 1910. 3 bays, lower and narrower than nave. Plinth, offset buttresses.
2-light Perpendicular-style windows; arched opening under right hand window. Raised
verge with gable cross. 5-light east window with rectilinear tracery. Interior: nave
has attached octagonal columns rising to window-head height Panelled roofs. In
tower double stair with ramped handrail on straight and wavy iron balusters leads up
to gallery (restored 1985/86). At back of church font dated 1662 has fluted base with
rolled top supporting octagonal basin with carved panels to sides, one dated. Near to
it is earlier tub font. Near the Victorian pulpit is an early C19 font with octagonal
base, concave shaft and small cyma-moulded bowl. Some C18 monuments including one in
south porch to James Farrer of Ewood Hall, d.1718, having swags and cherubs beneath a
cartouche surmounted by arms with festoons. In south-east wall of nave brass memorial
plate to William Grimshaw, d.1763, incumbent of Haworth who introduced Methodism to
that area. Benefaction boards in tower. This church is the third to be built on the
site. A cross wall being inserted in nave and other alterations being undertaken at
the time of resurvey.
J A Heginbottom, The Parish Church of St Mary the Blessed Virgin, Luddenden with
Luddenden Foot, A Brief History and Guide (1984).

Listing NGR: SE0413426223

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26427889

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

• 
  Drawing up a Local Listed Building Consent Order: Historic England Advice Note 6
• 
  Period property manual, victorian house manual 2 books collection set by ian rock
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Churches: An Architectural Guide (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Kent: North East and East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)