St James' Church, Birstwith Explained

St James' Church is the parish church of Birstwith, a village in North Yorkshire in England.

The church was commissioned by John Frederick Greenwood, a local mill owner. It was designed by Rohde Hawkins and built between 1856 and 1857, in a late 13th-/early 14th-century Gothic style. A vestry and organ chamber were added in 1887. The church was Grade II listed in 1987.[1]

The church is built in gritstone with grey slate roofs. It consists of a nave, north and south aisles, a north porch, a chancel, a vestry and organ chamber, and a west steeple. The 100 foot steeple has a tower with three stages, diagonal buttresses, a band, bell openings with pointed arches and hood moulds, and a broach spire with one tier of lucarnes. Inside, there are pews probably dating from 1887, a chancel arch with carvings of grapes and wheat, and a reredos with figures in alabaster and glass mosaic. The organ was made by Binns, and the National Churches Trust states that the church has "some splendid stained glass".[2]

See also

References

  1. Book: Leach, Peter. Pevsner . Nikolaus . Nikolaus Pevsner . The Buildings of England. Yorkshire West Riding: Leeds, Bradford and the North. . 2009 . New Haven and London . 978-0-300-12665-5.
  2. Web site: St James the Apostle . National Churches Trust . 15 March 2024.

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