Joseph Ireland (1841) was an English architect who designed

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

Church building A church, church building, church house, or chapel is a building used for Christian worship services and Christian activities. The earliest identified Christian church is a house church founded between 233 AD and 256 AD. ''Church'' is also ...

s in the early nineteenth century. He specialized in

Romanesque revival architecture Romanesque Revival (or Neo-Romanesque) is a style of building employed beginning in the mid-19th century inspired by the 11th- and 12th-century Romanesque architecture. Unlike the historic Romanesque style, Romanesque Revival buildings tended t ...

and worked with

Joseph John Scoles Joseph John Scoles (1798–1863) was an English Gothic Revival architect, who designed many Roman Catholic churches. Early life and education Scoles was born in London on 27 June 1798, the son of Roman Catholic parents Matthew Scoles, a joiner, ...

Life

Ireland was born into a Catholic family from Crofton, near

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 109,766 in the 2021 census, up from 99,251 in the 2011 census. The city is the administrative centre of the wider Metropolit ...

. He worked almost entirely for

patrons, notably the

Vicar Apostolic of the Midland District The Vicariate Apostolic of the Midland District (later of the Central District) was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by a vicar apostolic) who was a titular bishop. The Apostolic Vicar ...

John Milner John David Milner (December 28, 1949 – January 4, 2000) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a first baseman and left fielder from to for the New York Mets, Pittsburgh Pirates and the Montreal ...

. From 1812 until 1819, he employed

, a relative, as an apprentice. From 1816 to 1818, he was the architect of

Church of All Saints, Hassop The Church of All Saints is a Roman Catholic parish church in Hassop, Derbyshire. Built in 1816–17, the architect was Joseph Ireland. It is a Grade I listed building. History Francis Eyre of Hassop Hall built the original chapel between 18 ...

, originally built as a private chapel for

Hassop Hall Hassop Hall is a 17th-century country house near Bakewell, Derbyshire, which was operated as a hotel until it closed on 29 September 2019. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The Manor was owned by the Foljambe family until the 14th cent ...

and its owner Francis Eyre. The design was based on

Inigo Jones Inigo Jones (15 July 1573 – 21 June 1652) was an English architect who was the first significant Architecture of England, architect in England in the early modern era and the first to employ Vitruvius, Vitruvian rules of proportion and symmet ...

St Paul's Covent Garden St Paul's Church is a Church of England parish church located in Bedford Street, Covent Garden, central London. It was designed by Inigo Jones as part of a commission for the 4th Earl of Bedford in 1631 to create "houses and buildings fit for ...

. In 1821, he built a Greek-style chapel beside

Houghton Hall Houghton Hall ( ) is a country house in the parish of Houghton in Norfolk, England. It is the residence of the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley. It was commissioned by the '' de facto'' first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in 1722, ...

for Charles Langdale who had inherited the estate. In 1824, he was behind the initial plans for St Austin's Church in

. In 1826, the

Society of Jesus The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rome. It was founded in 1540 ...

set up a mission there and building work started on the church the following year. For the next two years, he worked on St Peter and St Paul Church in Wolverhampton and a chapel for the

Dominican Order The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic Church, Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilians, Castilian priest named Saint Dominic, Dominic de Gu ...

Hinckley Hinckley is a market town in south-west Leicestershire, England, administered by Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council. Hinckley is the third largest settlement in Leicestershire, after Leicester and Loughborough, and is about halfway between L ...

. The priory in Hinckley was the centre for the Dominicans in Britain and the chapel was dedicated to St Peter. It was demolished in 1976. Other works included Holy Cross Church in

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

from 1817 to 1819, St Mary's the Mount Church in

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

in 1825. In 1829 he built a chapel at Tixhall Hall, Staffordshire for the Clifford family; it was dismantled following the sale of the estate in 1840 and rebuilt as St John the Baptist Church at

Great Haywood Great Haywood is a village in the civil parish of Colwich, in the Borough of Stafford in the county of Staffordshire, England, just off the A51 and about northwest of Rugeley and southeast of the town of Stafford. Geography Haywood lies ...

Nikolaus Pevsner Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner (30 January 1902 – 18 August 1983) was a German-British art historian and architectural historian best known for his monumental 46-volume series of county-by-county guides, ''The Buildings of England'' (195 ...

, when writing about Catholic churches in Staffordshire praised Joseph Ireland writing, "The finest Catholic churches are Late Georgian Classical. They are the churches of Wolverhampton and Walsall, both of 1825-7 ... both by Ireland."

Churches

File:St John the Baptist Catholic Church, Great Haywood - geograph.org.uk - 60582.jpg, St John the Baptist Church, Great Haywood File:Hassop - All Saints Catholic Church - geograph.org.uk - 977884.jpg, All Saints Church, Hassop St Austin's Catholic Church - Wentworth Terrace - geograph.org.uk - 654095.jpg, St Austin's Church, Wakefield St Mary's the Mount - geograph.org.uk - 1032947.jpg, St Mary the Mount Church, Walsall Wolverhampton Catholic Church of St Peter and St Paul.JPG, St Peter and St Paul Church, Wolverhampton *

Grace Congregatiobal Church of Harlem Grace may refer to: Places United States * Grace, Idaho, a city * Grace (CTA station), Chicago Transit Authority's Howard Line, Illinois * Little Goose Creek (Kentucky), location of Grace post office * Grace, Carroll County, Missouri, an uninc ...

, formerly a Presbyterian Church built in 1892

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ireland, Joseph English ecclesiastical architects Romanesque Revival architects 1780s births 1841 deaths Ireland, Joseph

Life

Churches

See also

References