Description

919/20/1147 HALIFAX ROAD
29-SEP-78 BIRCHENCLIFFE
(North side)
CHURCH OF ST PHILIP THE APOSTLE

(Formerly listed as:
ROCK ROAD
BIRCHENCLIFFE
CHURCH OF ST PHILIP)

II
DATES OF MAIN PHASES, NAME OF ARCHITECT: Parish church of 1878 by J.N. Cross.

MATERIALS: Coursed sandstone with freestone dressings and graded-slate roofs with ridge tiles.

PLAN: Nave with north aisle and north-west porch, lower chancel with south organ chamber.

EXTERIOR: Parish church in Decorated style, with steep roofs incorporating gabled ventilators to the nave, and asymmetrical but uncompleted tower, the lower stage of which is the porch. The buttressed 4-bay nave has 2-light south windows, triple trefoil-headed north clerestorey windows and west front with diagonal buttresses, 2 single-light windows with pointed trefoil tracery lights, below a circle with 3 tracery quatrefoils. The north aisle has paired trefoil-headed windows. The porch is storeyed and forms the lower 2 stages of an uncompleted tower, which has diagonal buttresses and was finished off by a saddleback roof and louvres in the gable. It has a pointed north doorway with continuous moulding, west lancet and west stair-turret doorway. The upper storey has small quatrefoil windows in bold surrounds. The chancel has a 3-light east window and diagonal buttresses and 2 single-light traceried north windows. The organ chamber is under a lean-to roof and has pointed windows and doorway with continuous chamfer.

INTERIOR: The nave has an arched-brace roof with 2 tiers of windbraces and scissor braces. Common rafters are decorated with stencilled rosettes and chevrons. The 3-bay nave arcade is on round piers and has finely moulded arches. There are blind arches on the south and east faces of the tower base. The chancel arch has a continuous moulding and inner order on slender shafts. The chancel roof has cusped arched braces on corbels, with a single tier of windbraces and painted polygonal rafters behind. Walls are plastered. There are floorboards beneath the pews.

PRINCIPAL FIXTURES: The font is Perpendicular style, octagonal with cusped panels and with wooden cover. Interesting benches have unusually thin X-shape ends. The polygonal freestone pulpit has blind cusped arches inlaid with tiles representing the 4 seasons. The pulpit has painted inscriptions on tile panels. The 5-bay chancel screen has main lights with intricate tracery, and a cornice and brattishing. Choir stalls have ends with finials and open-arcaded frontals. The sanctuary has a Gothic panelled dado dated 1923, integral with the reredos, which has blind-tracery panels with low-relief carvings of lilies, under a canopy.

HISTORY: Parish church of 1878 by J.N. Cross (fl. 1868-83), architect of Liverpool. It was intended to have a north tower, and perhaps a spire, but it was not completed. Most of the furnishings are integral with the building of the church.

SOURCES:
Lambeth Palace Library, Incorporated Church Building Society Archives, file 07921.

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: The Church of St Philip the Apostle, Birchencliffe, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* It is a relatively modest Gothic-Revival church built in a single phase, which retains external character and has a well-preserved interior with good-quality timber roofs.
* Its furnishings make a strong contribution to the late C19 character of the interior, and include a pulpit of definite quality.

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q26525433

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.

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