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1/0/10173 ST CHAD'S ROAD
08-OCT-10 (East side)
PARISH CHURCH OF ST CHAD
II
Church, Anglican, of 1912-14, by Nicol & Nicol of Birmingham.
MATERIALS: narrow stone bricks, coursed, with Westmorland slate roofs and Staffordshire sandstone piers in the nave.
PLAN: The nave has aisles on each side and the apsidal ended sanctuary is matched by another apse to the north aisle. At the west end is a baptistery between two entrances. There is a porch on the north side and on the south side the falling ground level allows for boiler room and storage beneath the south aisle. There are vestries to either side at the east end.
EXTERIOR: the west end has a central projecting baptistery between two entrances. A large 4-light round-headed window with geometric style tracery is set between shallow buttresses which end in square capitals from which springs the arched gable. Below the window is a raised pattern in stone bricks and below that a foundation plaque inscribed: "To the greater glory of God/ and/ in the faith of our blessed redeemer/ this stone was laid by/ the Viscountess Mountgarret/ on the 17th February 1912/ in the name of the Holy Trinity", with the names of the vicar, Arthur W Goodwin, and two wardens below. Above the baptistery in the apex of the nave gable is a bell housing with a single bell, cast by Taylors of Loughborough in 1913. The nave walls end in shallow buttresses with deep modillion cornices, while to either side the aisles each have an entrance within a projecting porch with sloping lateral battered buttresses and small round arched side windows. The wooden panelled double doors are round-arched with wrought iron door furniture.
The north elevation has a three-bay aisle with a mono-pitch roof with modillion cornice; each of the bays is defined by a battered buttress and arcading with a round arched window in each bay. To the east of the aisle the three-bay Lady Chapel with a higher roof and modillion cornice. The bays are defined by battered buttresses and arcading, with angle buttresses at the corner. The western bay has a porch similar in style to those at the east end. The remaining two bays each contain triple round-arched windows. The chapel ends in a rounded apse with a domed roof. A single storey flat-roofed sacristy extends east of the Lady Chapel with a single round-arched window. The six nave bays are arcaded with two evenly spaced round arched clerestorey windows in each bay. Above is a modillion cornice and plain parapet and the nave ends in a domed apse. A highly ornate iron rain hopper is situated above the north porch.
The south elevation mirrors the north except that the aisle extends for the full six bays of the nave with no Lady Chapel, and the two west bays of the aisle have arcaded round-arched doors below, leading to a single space for storage, boilers etc. The choir vestry at the east end has two windows.
The apse at the east end has four battered buttresses dividing the five bays each with a round arched window, and a modillion cornice below the leaded dome. Each bay has a raised lozenge pattern in stone bricks below the window. The Lady Chapel apse to the right (north) has battered buttresses with blind windows between. The sacristy and vestry each have a recessed arcade panel containing two round arched windows. Between, projecting from the apse, is a corridor with a central door in an arcaded panel flanked by a small round arched window to each side. A modillion cornice runs beneath the flat roofs of the vestries and corridor.
INTERIOR: the apsidal sanctuary is defined by a semi-circular arch without capitals. The walls of the apse are entirely covered in opus sectile mosaic. The decoration is in green with gold vertical lines at the base with a wide blue band above, an inscription in red on gold reading 'ET INCARNATUS EST DE SPIRITU SANCTO EX MARIA VIRGINE ET HOMO FACTUS EST' above that, and topped by a figure of Christ in Majesty on a gold background. Five round arched windows evenly spaced above the inscription bear stained images of five archangels (Raphael, Gabriel, Michael, Uriel and Chamuel), with the Greek letters alpha and omega between the central two windows. A baldachino in polished oak stands over the altar, the pattern of the mosaic behind echoed in its arch. The raised platform for the altar is in marble. A door to the left leads to the sacristy. Beyond the altar rail are choir pews to either side in polished wood with geometric carved detail. The roof of the church is barrel vaulted in timber, with trusses between each of the clerestorey windows. The nave is divided from the aisles and Lady Chapel by six semi-circular arches with dentilled decoration, supported on pillars with plain basket capitals: piers and arches are in red Staffordshire sandstone. To the south side is the organ sited behind the eastern two arches. The hexagonal pulpit in polished wood is attached to the second pillar on the north side. The Lady Chapel with its apsidal end is also decorated with mosaics, having a central figure of the Virgin Mary carrying Jesus standing on a rainbow, set in a background of gold weave with vertical green bands, panelled blue below and above, the upper portion set with stars. A carved inscription dedicates the mosaic to the memory of Benjamin and May Goodwin, parents of the vicar, and was paid for by him. A door to the right leads to the sacristy. Stained glass in the Lady Chapel windows is from St Augustine's Abbey in Canterbury, used in new settings to form crosses at the apex of each window. The north porch opens from the Lady Chapel, with double wooden doors with central circular leaded glass panels and wrought iron door furniture, and a semi-circular overlight in wood with a central circular leaded glass light. The two west doors are similar. The floor is parquet throughout the nave, aisles and Lady Chapel. The baptistery at the west end has a marble floor and is wood panelled to half height, with a stone font reportedly from the previous church. The choir vestry, which has fitted cupboards, is accessed from the east end of the south aisle, and is linked to the sacristy by a corridor running behind the sanctuary. There is a further war memorial fashioned out of part of an aeroplane propeller near the west end.
HISTORY: The parish of St Chad in Bradford was created in 1910 out of parts of two pre-existing parishes, St. Paul's in Manningham and St. Philip's in Girlington. A small iron church to the south of the current building was used initially, later converted to a Sunday School. The church was built in 1912-14, designed by Nicol and Nicol with funding from Viscount Mountgarret, lord of the manor of Bradford, at a cost of c.£7000. It was built in the grounds of Manningham Lodge which was demolished at around the same time. Viscountess Mountgarret laid the foundation stone in 1912.
Internal work on the opus sectile mosaic decoration of the Lady Chapel was dedicated in 1913 to the family of the vicar, Arthur W. Goodwin, but current research has not confirmed the designer or maker though it is likely to be by James Powell & Sons of Whitefriars, London. The local newspaper report on the consecration of the church in October 1913 states that neither the Lady Chapel or the main apse mosaics were finished at this time. Both mosaics (opus sectile work) were finished in 1919, when the stained glass windows in the main apse were also inserted as a war memorial to the fallen of the First World War. The stained glass and mosaic work was completed by James Powell & Sons to designs by Charles Hardgrave. Three private donors contributed to the windows, with the majority of the mosaics paid for by Rev Goodwin.
James Powell and Sons were pre-eminent in producing glass for much of the C19 and into the C20. They became associated with leading designers such as Edward Burne-Jones, William de Morgan and Philip Webb, and produced glass for William Morris's Red House. Opus sectile is a decorative technique using cut pieces of glass of different sizes, a technique rediscovered and refined by Powells in the late C19, reusing waste glass to produce opaque coloured pieces. Charles Hardgrave (1848-post 1920) was Powell's chief designer by 1880, with a speciality in opus sectile and mural decorations. The sketch and cartoon provided for St Chad's in 1919 were among the last he produced before his death.
The first organ, built in 1922 by Morgan & Smith, was replaced in 1988 by a three-manual Binns. The Sunday School has been replaced by a late C20 vicarage but architects' plans show that the church is unaltered.
SOURCES
Beckett, P.; letter from Tile & Architectural Ceramics Society, 22/06/2010
St Chad's Parish Magazine, 1911-1921
St Chad's Vestry Minute Books 1911-1919
www.lynnpearson.co.uk/Surrey.pdf, accessed 21/06/2010
www.tilesoc.org.uk/pdf/opuslist.pdf, accessed 21/06/2010
www.whitefriars.com/about_whitefriars.php, accessed 21/06/2010
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION
The church of St Chad, Bradford, built in 1912-14 and designed by Nicol & Nicol, is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architecture: the Byzantine Revival design of Nicol & Nicol is impressive, with double apses at the east end, a balancing baptistery at the west end and blind round arched arcading to the aisles.
* Decorative scheme: the interior has an integrated decorative scheme of very high quality, encompassing mosaic tiling in the two apses, baldachino, doors, pulpit, choir pews etc.
* Materials and craftsmanship: good quality materials are used throughout, and there is a high level of craftsmanship in details such as the door furniture as well as the mosaic and stained glass work by the nationally important firm of James Powell and Sons of London.
* Intactness: the church has remained intact without any significant alteration from its inception.
This List entry has been amended to add the source for War Memorials Register. This source was not used in the compilation of this List entry but is added here as a guide for further reading, 16 August 2017.
