Weight: 504 lbs Bell 1 of 1
Founded by Naylor, Vickers & Co 1868
Dove Bell ID: 59044 Tower ID: 22939 - View Tower Listed: No Canons: Removed Cracked: No
Rashcliffe and Lockwood: St Stephen
Overview
Grid reference: SE 138 156
Visiting and facilities
Building is closed for worship
Sold for conversion to secular uses.
Building
Ground Plan Description and Dimensions
Ground plan:
Cruciform plan with 5-bay nave, transepts, chancel, south porch, south-east tower over vestry, north-east organ chamber.
Dimensions:
Nave 24m (82ft) x 7m (22ft), 3-bay chancel 7m (22ft) long.
Footprint of Church buildings: 493 m²
Description of Archaeology and History
Rashcliffe is a southern suburb of Huddersfield but historically in Almondsbury parish and deanery. There is a hill settlement and fort occupied since the Neolithic with an Iron Age fort and Norman castle, a Scheduled Monument, to the south-east of Rashcliffe. The area and site of the church, which is terraced into a steep slope, has no known specific archaeological potential but reference should be made to the Historic Environment Record is any development on or near the site is contemplated.
Huddersfield became known as a centre of wool manufacturing, and the market town developed rapidly throughout the 18th and 19th century through the expansion of textile mills and related industries. Rashcliffe was a settlement which developed south of Huddersfield for the mill workers in the 19th century, originally part of Almondbury parish, then Lockwood.
The church of St Stephen was built in 1864 by Blackmoor & Mitchell-Withers, at a cost of £2,300. There was a refurnishing in about 1920, and there is much of this date in the church. The church was listed Grade II in 1978 (amended 2010). St Stephen’s church was partially converted in the 1970s to create parish rooms at the west end.
Exterior Description
A dignified church in the Early Decorated style with low walls and steeply pitched roofs. The 3-stage tower is in the angle of the chancel and south transept, and has a south-west turret, set-back buttresses, and a tall broach spire. There is a segmental-pointed south doorway, narrow windows in the middle stage, and 2-light belfry openings under steep gables carried up above the eaves.
The nave has 2-light plate-tracery north and south windows and large 5-light west window. The south porch has low raked buttresses, entrance with nook shafts and simple boarded doors. The pointed north doorway has a tympanum of 3 blind trefoils, and the weather course of an intended porch. The transepts are two bays long, with paired cusped windows, and end walls with large rose windows, over cusped single windows on the south side. The chancel has a 4-light east window and single-light north and south windows. The vestry is gabled to the east with trefoils in the gable and stack in the north wall.
Building Fabric and Features
Nave
19th century 5-bay nave
Transept
19th century x2
Chancel
19th century
Porch
19th century south
Tower (component)
19th century south east
Vestry
19th century beneath tower
Organ Loft
19th century north east chamber
Building Materials
Sandstone
19th century coursed and squared local sandstone
Slate
19th century roof incorporating bands of lozenge-pattern slates
Interior
Interior Description
The interior is plastered and whitewashed. Only one bay of the aisleless nave is part of the main body of the church, the other three screened off for parish rooms, kitchen and toilets. The former chancel screen of c 1920 has been moved and now frames the doorway in the nave partition. In the south transept a memorial chapel has been screened off by a wooden screen brought from St Matthew, Primrose Hill, London in 1972. There is a large war memorial reredos in this chapel, and light-stained furniture possibly brought from elsewhere. Red carpets.
The nave and transepts have arch-braced roofs on short corbelled shafts, with three tiers of plain wind-braces forming interesting shapes at the crossing, and decorated with 20th-century stenciling. There are dark-stained benches in the east bay of the nave and transepts, which have thin shaped arm rests and backs with diagonal boarding. A pointed arch to the north organ chamber from the transept with a wooden screen. The narrow steeply pointed chancel arch has an inner order on shafts. The chancel roof is closely-spaced scissor braces. There are choir stalls with carved ends, the chancel has Gothic panelling in the sanctuary incorporating a painted reredos. It also has a Terrazzo floor.
Fixtures and fittings
Altar
20th century chest with carved front with IHS c 1920, dark-stained chest with painted shields in south chapel
Reredos
19th century the chancel has a painting on canvas of the Transfiguration, local work, in the south transept chapel, WWI memorial timber reredos in the form of a central arch framing the window
Rail
19th century oak altar rail on scrolled iron uprights, plain light stained wood to chapel
Lectern
19th century brass moulded pedestal and desk, and wooden eagle
Font (component)
20th century 1970s, a translucent orb of fractured Perspex with detachable lid, on a frame of two curved metal sheets, by a student from a local Arts college
Stained Glass (window)
19th / 20th century east window 1860s and three windows of 1920s in the nave
Plaque (component)
19th / 20th century several brass plaques to vicars, parishioners, and one large plain stone tablet to Peter McGregor 1915
Bells
Portable Furnishings and Artworks
registers from 1864
Churchyard
Grid reference: SE 138 156
Burial and War Grave Information
It is unknown whether the building is consecrated.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has been used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard is used for burial.
It is unknown whether the churchyard has war graves.
National Heritage record for England designations
There are no records of National Heritage assets within the curtilage of this site.
Environment
Ancient, Veteran & Notable Trees
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
There are no records of Ancient, Veteran or Notable Trees within the curtilage of this site.
Renewables
| Renewable | Installed |
|---|---|
| Solar PV Panels | No |
| Solar Thermal Panels | No |
| Biomass | No |
| Wind Turbine | No |
| Air Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | No |
| Ev Charging | No |
Species summary
There are no records of species within the curtilage of this site.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
'Seek advice' Species
More information on species and action to be taken upon discovery.
Caring for God's Acre is a conservation charity working to support groups and individuals to investigate, care for, and enjoy the wildlife and heritage treasures found within churchyards and other burial grounds. Look on their website for information and advice and please contact their staff directly. They can help you manage this churchyard for people and wildlife.
To learn more about all the species recorded against this church, go to the Burial Ground Portal within the NBN Atlas. You can check the spread of records through the years, discovering what has been recorded and when, plus what discoveries might remain to be uncovered.
Further information
Sources
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