Leeds Parish Church

Leeds Minster, or the Minster and Parish Church of Saint Peter-at-Leeds (formerly Leeds Parish Church) is the minster church of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the site of the oldest church in the city and is of architectural and liturgical significance. A church is recorded on the site as early as the 7th century, although the present structure is a Gothic Revival one, designed by Robert Dennis Chantrell and completed in 1841. It is dedicated to Saint Peter and was the Parish Church of Leeds before receiving the honorific title of "Minster" in 2012. It has been designated a Grade I listed building by Historic England.

History

The building

A church at ''Ledes'' is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086, although it is likely that there had been a church on the same site for much longer, as evidenced by the fragments of Anglo-Scandinavian stone crosses (known as the Leeds Cross) found on the site during the construction of the current church. The church was rebuilt twice, after a fire in the 14th century, and again in the 19th century. Walter Farquhar Hook, Vicar of Leeds from 1837 until preferment as Dean of Chichester in 1859 was responsible for the construction of the present building, and of the revitalisation of the Anglican church throughout Leeds as a whole. The architect was Robert Dennis Chantrell.

It was originally intended only to remodel the church in order to provide space for a larger congregation. In November 1837 a scheme was approved under which the tower would have been moved from the crossing to the north side, the chancel widened to the same breadth as the nave, and the north aisle roof raised. When work began, however, it was discovered that much of the structure was in a perilous condition, and it was decided to replace the church completely. The new building was the largest new church in England built since Sir Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral erected after the Great Fire of London and consecrated in 1707. The new parish church was rebuilt by voluntary contributions from the townspeople at a cost of over £29,000 and consecrated on 2 September 1841. Florence Nightingale and Dr Edward Bouverie Pusey were among the congregation and Dr Samuel Sebastian Wesley played the organ.

The east end was altered between 1870 and 1880.

The parish church became Leeds Minster in a ceremony on Sunday 2 September 2012, on the 171st anniversary of the consecration of the building. Leeds is one of three minster churches in the county of West Yorkshire, the other two being Dewsbury Minster and Halifax Minster; there are two cathedrals in the county, Bradford Cathedral and Wakefield Cathedral, and Ripon Cathedral, in North Yorkshire, is in the Anglican Diocese of Leeds.

The parish

The rambling parish of Leeds covered an area of 21,000 acres. It included in it the out-townships of Allerton, Armley, Beeston, Bramley, Farnley, Gipton, Headingley, Holbeck, Hunslet and Wortley; Adel and Whitkirk were separate parishes. On founding the Benedictine Priory of the Holy Trinity, York in 1089 Ralph Paynel granted it the right to appoint the priest and collect the tithes from the parish of Leeds. Over years, many out-townships established local chapels of ease to save parishioners the trek to the parish church: Bramley's, founded by monks at Kirkstall Abbey, may have been first, followed by Farnley's from about 1240, Beeston's from 1597, Headingley's from 1616, and Armley and Wortley's from 1649. In the town itself, the parish church was supplemented by St John's Church on New Briggate in 1634 and Holy Trinity Church on Boar Lane in 1727 (both of which remained in the Parish of Leeds). The nineteenth century saw a large number of new Commissioners' Churches built throughout the parish.David Thornton, ''Leeds: A Historical Dictionary of People, Places and Events'' (Huddersfield: Northern Heritage Publications, 2013), s.v. ''PARISH(ES)''.

Following the English Reformation, the right to appoint the parish's priest passed between different owners until 1588, when a group of parishioners bought it, putting it in the hands of Leeds's people.

A proposal in 1650 to divide the parish came to nothing, but in 1826 St. Mark's Church in Woodhouse gained its own parish district and in 1829 St Stephen's Church in Kirkstall followed suit. However, in the 1840s two parliamentary acts provided for the creation of a wave of parishes: the Spiritual Care of Populous Parishes Act of 1843 and Walter Hook's the Leeds Vicarage Act of 1844. Under the former act were created the parishes of St. Andrew's (1845); St. Philip's (1847); Holy Trinity, Meanwood (1849); All Saints (1850); St. John's, Little Holbeck (1850); St. Matthew's, Little London (1851); St. Jude's, Hunslet (1853); St. John's, Wortley; St. Michael's, Buslingthorpe; St. Matthias's, Burley; St Barnabas, Little Holbeck (1854). Under the latter act were created the parishes of St John's Church, Briggate (1845); St. Saviour's (1846); St. Mary's, Hunslet (1847); and St. Michael's, Farnley (1851).

Architecture

Cruciform in plan, the minster is built in ashlar stone with slate roofs, in an imitation of the English Gothic style of the late 14th century, a period of transition from the Decorated to the Perpendicular. The church is long and wide, its tower rising to . The chancel and nave each have four bays of equal length with clerestories and tall aisles. The tower is situated at the centre of north aisle. Below the tower on the north side is the main entrance. The tower has four unequal stages with panelled sides and corner buttresses terminating in crocketed turrets with openwork battlements and crocketted pinnacles. The clock was made by Potts of Leeds.

Furnishings, fittings, glass and treasures

The windows exhibit Perpendicular tracery and there is a five-light east window from 1846 containing glass collected on the continent. At the east end the sanctuary has a marble arcade with mosaics by Salviati of Venice, and the reredos is made of coloured marble and alabaster by George Edmund Street.

A peal of 13 bells was cast by Mears in 1842. These bells were then recast into the current peal by John Taylor of Loughborough in 1932. The tenor bell weighs .

The organ, parts of which date from 1841 and earlier, is essentially a Harrison and Harrison of 1914 vintage, but incorporating significant amounts of pipework by Edmund Schulze. It was restored in 1927 and 1949 by Harrison and Harrison; in 1965 by Wood, Wordsworth and in 1997 by Andrew Carter. The restoration of the blowing plant and refurbishment of the blower house were undertaken in 1997 by Allfab Engineering of Methley.

Among many artefacts and memorials in the Minster are the Anglo-Saxon Leeds Cross (an Anglian cross to the south of the marble pavement known as the altar flat) the pieces of which were discovered in 1838 when the medieval church was demolished. There is also a brass commemorating Captain Oates of Scott's Antarctic expedition, who had Leeds connections. Flemish stained glass enhances the apse of Chantrell's interior – he designed the windows to fit the glass – and of more recent date (1997) is Sally Scott's Angel Screen at the north tower porch entrance, an example of contemporary glass engraving and a gift from the family of Lord Marshall of Leeds. The Christopher Beckett memorial and most of the architectural sculpture is by Robert Mawer.''Leeds Times'', Saturday 18 November 1854 p5: The late Mr Mawer", and p.8: "Deaths"

Outside in the churchyard, facing out onto Kirkgate, is the Leeds Rifles War Memorial, which was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens and unveiled on 13 November 1921. It is separately a grade II listed building.

Minster

The Minster and Parish Church of Saint Peter-at-Leeds is in the Diocese of Leeds (which has its cathedrals at Ripon, Wakefield and Bradford), in the ''Parish of Leeds City'' along with the Georgian Church of Holy Trinity, Boar Lane and the congregation of St Mary's Lincoln Green worshipping weekly in the Hall of St Peter's Church of England Primary School, Cromwell Street, Burmantofts. The minster is at the easternmost extremity of the city centre, within a precinct bordering two of the city's oldest thoroughfares – Kirkgate (now part of the Inner City Loop Road) to the north, and The Calls to the south. Another ancient pathway, High Court Ings, connects the western precinct with High Court.

The Reverend Canon Sam Corley is the Priest-in-Charge and Rector-Designate of Leeds Minster, he was licensed at Leeds Minster on 6 October 2015

Work with young people undertaken by the parish includes ''The Market Place'' drop-in centre.

During choir terms there are at least three choral services each week sung by an adult chamber choir of skilled volunteers and choral scholars drawn from Leeds and York Universities as well as Leeds College of Music. There is a weekly organ recital from September to July inclusive on Fridays at 12.30pm, featuring the resident organists and guest recitalists.

Leeds Minster is a member of the Greater Churches Group. Its mission and vision for future service to the city, the diocese and the Church of England are a constant care and concern of those who seek to serve the church and parish. Sir John Betjeman in a BBC
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