Description

LEEDS

SE2733 WESLEY ROAD, Armley
714-1/33/502 (East side)
26/09/63 Church of St Bartholomew
(Formerly Listed as:
CHURCH ROAD, Armley
(South side (off))
Church of St Bartholomew)

GV II*

Anglican church. Nave aisles and transepts 1872-77. By Henry
Walker and Joseph Athron. Tower, porches and vestry completed
c1900. Coursed sandstone quarried in Horsforth, ashlar, slate
roof. Gothic Revival style.
Lancets. Tower over crossing with octagonal bell stage with
pinnacles and short octagonal spire. Clerestory has 6 pairs of
lancets, low aisles have 5 lancets and projecting gabled
porches. W end with tripartite lancets and turrets. Polygonal
apse has 7 lancets. Rose window in transept gables over 2 rows
of 3 lancets. N porch.
INTERIOR: spacious, faced internally with limestone from
Ancaster, nave of 6 bays with quatrefoil columns of Greenmoor
stone, attached columns rise to tie-beam trusses with angels
holding shields. Chancel: vaulted ceiling, reredos erected
1877 has alabaster carvings of the Magi, crucifixion and Old
Testament figures above, black, red and white altar steps,
mosaic panels in Pre-Raphaelite style depicting Annunciation
and life of Christ; lower-level mosaics depicting angels
symbolising Prayer and Peace and 3 saints date from 1920s.
Finely-carved choir, clergy stalls, screen. Pulpit of
alabaster and marble, with open cusped arches, heads between,
copied from that at the shrine of St Sedbald in Neurenburg. A
stone double arcade supports the organ chamber with the
Schulze Organ, fine carved case by Walker and Athron has 5
angels playing musical instruments (see below).
West end: windows depict parables of Jesus and archangels;
mosaic below of Christ's Baptism watched by saints and
martyrs; octagonal arcaded font of red and black marbles. Fine
wooden glazed screen form inner porches to N and S doors.
MEMORIAL SCULPTURE: at W end of N aisle Benjamin Gott of
Armley House, d.1839, by Joseph Gott, the pink veined marble
base has a darkened plaque with tribute which includes the
words: '...he maintained with inflexible uprightness/ the
character of a merchant/ with impartial justice the office of
a magistrate/ and with unshaken confidence the warmth of
friendship/ he was always ready to promote the welfare of the

town of Leeds...'; S aisle has 'Faith comforting the Mourner',
commemorating Benjamin and Elizabeth Gott's 2 sons who died in
Paris and Athens.
Built with Christ Church (qv) to accommodate the rapidly
expanding population of south Leeds, the church replaced a
small chapel, the foundations of which, with Gott vault, are
in churchyard to N. The organ was first installed in the
grounds of Meanwood Towers (qv) by TS Kennedy, a gift to his
wife; it was taken to Harrogate before being installed here
and it has been described as 'undoubtedly the grandest example
of a modern Gothic organ in England' (Freeman, 'English Organ
Cases', quoted in Pevsner).

Listing NGR: SE2730133209

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• St Bartholomew's Church, Armley at Wikipedia
• St Bartholomew's Church, Armley official website
• Wikidata Q7592592

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

• 
  Gloucestershire 1: The Cotswolds: Cotswolds Pt. 1 (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Berkshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Oxfordshire: North and West (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  England's Post-War Listed Buildings
• 
  Historic Environment Law: Planning, Listed Buildings, Monuments, Conservation Areas and Objects by Harwood, Richard (2012) Paperback
• 
  Gwent/Monmouthshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of Wales)