Church of St Philip the Apostle

Details

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.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

407006

Legacy System:

LBS

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