St Andrew’s Church in Huddersfield was constructed in 1870 by WH Crossland, an architect from Leeds who trained under Sir George Gilbert Scott. Crossland designed several Yorkshire churches in the Decorated style and worked on notable secular projects, including Rochdale Town Hall and Holloway College in Surrey. The building project was tendered in March 1869, with the stone-laying ceremony held on July 21, 1870. The church, built at a cost of £4,167, could accommodate 550 seated worshippers and was consecrated on August 10, 1880.
Built with coursed sandstone from the local Crosland Hill quarries and featuring graded-slate roofs, the church has an aisled nave with a south porch, south transept, west choir vestry, chancel with south vestry, south transeptal organ chamber, and a north chapel continuous with the nave aisle. Above the main door is a sculpted figure of Christ in a mandorla, surrounded by vines.
A Grade II listed building now overgrown with weeds
In 1914, the west choir vestry was added by Huddersfield architect William Cooper. The church became redundant in 1975 but was used by a local Roman Catholic congregation until around 2001. It was Grade II listed in September 1978 for being “a well-designed and prominently sited former parish church retaining C19 character and detail”.
The former church property has been put up for sale multiple times, and in 2008, planning permission was granted to convert it into a restaurant. However, little progress has been made since then, and the current ownership is unclear.
As I approached this building, the design stunned me. These older churches really show character, and you can immediately imagine how it looked in its prime. But amongst the beautiful brickwork and stained-glass windows were overgrown weeds and trees, an old rotting wooden fence to prevent people from gaining access, and boarded-up windows.
A beautiful building that needs new life
As I got into the building, I was shocked to see the state it was in after all these years of sitting derelict. Nature and vandals have taken their toll on the Grade II listed property. Floorboards were non-existent, and there was graffiti and litter everywhere, not to mention the amount of bird excrement! But thankfully, the most beautiful parts of the church inside still remain – the stained-glass windows, lovely tile work, and most importantly, the building itself.
With a relatively new coffee chain and hotel next door, this decaying building looks out of place and I’m sure is a sad sight for locals. Maybe in the near future, the plans for a restaurant will go ahead, or perhaps the church could be converted into a school. Who knows? But time is of the essence: in 2017 the church was named on the Victorian Society’s annual list of England’s most endangered buildings, “at risk of being lost forever”.
As long as we can preserve this beautiful, listed building and give it new life, I think after 150 years, and vacant for the last few, a touch-up and conversion into something more appropriate for the times would be delightful.
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