Description

SD 92 SW TODMORDEN (former M.B.) HONEY HOLE ROAD

5/150 The Unitarian Church
(formerly listed as
Unitarian Church,
bankside)
22.11.66

G.V. I

Church. 1865 to 1869 by John Gibson for Samuel, John and Joshua Fielden. The
alignment of the church does not correspond to the elaborate Gothic employed.
Nave and aisles, transepts and chancel, porch to ritual west end and large tower
and spire attached to 6th bay of nave (on ritual south side) covering another
entrance. Pitch faced stone with ashlar dressings, slate roof. 7-bay nave with
2-light windows with traceried heads. Set back buttresses and string with carved
heads and flowers. Straight parapet. Ritual west end has elaborate rose window
in gable above enclosed rectangular porch. This has deeply moulded doorways in
its 3 sides. Beyond the nave, but in line with its walls are the gabled transept
facades each of 2 bays, with taller 2-light windows and spherical triangle above.
The very short one bay chancel has a large 5-light window in its end wall. 3-stage
tower with angle buttresses and 2-light belfry windows. Octagonal stone spire
connected by flyers to the pinnacles and with tall lucarnes in the principal faces.
The bottom stage forms an open porch with a palm vault with banded webbing. Tall
doorway with deeply moulded arch surrounding door and cusped mandorla with stained
glass. The church was prominently sited to form a landmark visible from Dobroyd
Castle (q.v.)

Interior: 7-bay nave with pointed arches carried on Devonshire marble columns to
arcade to aisles. Brattished rail, hammer-beam roof truss carried on marble
collonnetes. Aisles have similar arched-braced roof. Chancel arch carried on
coupled marble collonnettes. Chancel has banded stone arched roof of 5 bays.
Open arcades to chapels, now used as vestry and organ chamber, have fine lierne
vaulted roofs with banded stone enriched with carved bosses at junction of ribs.
All capitals are enriched with foliage carving.

Furnishings: Choir stalls and pews original with fine carved poppy heads and plate
tracery. Pulpit similarly carved carried on collonnettes of differing coloured
marbles. Font has similar base with carved white marble bowl. Chancel window of
stained glass by J B Capronnier (Brussels, 1868) of Scenes of the Life of Christ.
Memorial tablets in aisle to the founders. Aisles also retain original decorative
gas brackets (converted to electricity) and also candelabras to choir stalls.
The lavish decorative scheme remains intact "This church survives complete as
one of the most elaborate Non conformist churches to adopt the style and arrangements
of the Established Church during the High Gothic Revival Ken Powell, The Fall
of Zion (SAVE Britain's Heritage, 1980) unpaginated". N. Pevsner, Yorkshire West
Riding London, 1979), p.521.

Listing NGR: SD9356723861

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Todmorden Unitarian Church at Wikipedia
• Todmorden Unitarian Church official website
• Wikidata Q7812786

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

• 
  For the Record
• 
  Nottinghamshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Worcestershire Revised Edition (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair
• 
  Pevsner's Architectural Glossary (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Introductions)
• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)