Description

DALTON HOLME MAIN STREET (south Dalton)
SE 94 NE
(east side)
2/29 Church of Saint Mary
7.2.68
GV I
Church. 1858-61 by J L Pearson for the third Lord Hotham. Ashlar, slate
roofs. 3-stage west tower with spire, 3-bay nave with 2-bay south porch,
2-bay north and south transepts, 3-bay chancel with 2-bay north and south
chapels and north vestry. Entire church built in geometrical style. West
tower: moulded plinth, moulded band with blank quatrefoils; pilaster
buttresses above with blank quatrefoils. Corbelled offsets. Small 2-light
pointed window with geometrical tracery under a hoodmould. Belfry stage:
3-light pointed belfry openings with elaborate mid-wall shafts and bar
tracery under gablets with blank quatrefoils. A balustrade of trefoil-
headed openings with filleted handrail runs across at sill level. Clasping
polygonal buttresses to each quoin, each with blank arcading to the upper
portion under octagonal spires, flank the belfry openings. Carved corbel
table of 5 ornate bands: foliage, rosettes, and cusped zigzag; low parapet.
Octagonal spire with 2 tiers of 2-light lucarnes with geometrical tracery
under gablets, each with short flanking pinnacles and finial. Weather-vane.
Pointed 4-light west window with geometrical tracery, nook-shafts and ball-
flower ornament. South porch: 6 steps with flanking walls and ramped
tubular bronze handrails to main door: pointed, on paired nook-shafts with
foliage carving to capitals and turned bases. To the spandrels are paired
pointed niches, with muntins, under crocketed gablets with finials. To the
gable are paired trefoil-headed lights, with a quatrefoil over, all under a
pointed arch flanked to right and to left by blank quatrefoils. Carved
leaves to raked cornice. North and south elevations have 4 trefoil-headed
openings on attached shafts with ornate capitals. Lizards and gryffins to
hoodmoulds. Carved foliage to corbel table. Crested stone ridge to roof.
Moulded plinth, buttress with offsets and gablet, moulded sill band. Nave:
two 3-light pointed windows both with geometrical tracery and nook-shafts
with carved capitals under plain hoodmoulds. Similar, though plainer,
fenestration to north wall. Carved corbel-table and steeply-pitched roof
with coped gable and brattished ridge. Transepts: high double-hollow-
chamfered plinth, clasping buttresses with carved offsets. Pointed south
window of 4 lights with geometrical tracery, nook-shafts, and hoodmould.
Springer level band of blank quatrefoils and circles. 3-light pointed
window to gable with attached shafts beneath blank quatrefoils: blank
quatrefoils with foliage to right and to left. Cross finial. The north
transept is essentially similar: it differs only in the tracery of the
principal window. Chancel: clasping buttresses, projecting gabled porch to
south chapel with boarded door under cinquefoil head in pointed opening with
attached shafts with foliage capitals. Foliage carving beneath billet
ornament to eaves. Pointed east window of 3 lights with geometrical tracery
flanked at springer level by a band of blank quatrefoils with rosettes to
centres. East bay of chancel has sill band of quatrefoils in lozenges
beneath tripartite window, of 2 centre lights flanked by single lights, all
pointed with geometrical tracery,with hoodmould to centre light and gablets
to outer lights. Muntins between the lights have blank arcading and poppy-
head finials. Foliage band to eaves. Chancel east wall: all bands run
across the east wall: the upper two interrupted by a pointed window of
5 lights with geometrical tracery flanked to right and to left by blank
trefoil-headed openings under gablets with muntins with blank tracery and
finials. To the gable: lozenges with blank quatrefoils and rosettes to
right and left beneath a spherical triangle with geometrical tracery. Ball
flower to raked cornices, cross finial to coped gable. North chapel:
trefoil-headed door under nodding cinquefoil head. Circular window with
tracery of 5 quatrefoils in circles to gable. North vestry: pointed north
window of 2 lights with geometrical tracery under hoodmould on nook-shafts
with circular abaci and bases. Springer level band of quatrefoils.
Interior: ribbed vault to south porch. The interior is characterised by
pointed or trefoil-headed blank arcading, with ornate capitals to nook-
shafts, to all plain surfaces: particularly elaborate in the chancel east
bay. Tower arch: pointed, of 2 orders on nook-shafts. White brick vault
with central ribbed ring to tower chamber. Nave: blank arcading of paired
trefoil-headed openings on attached shafts. Clustered vaulting-shafts
(although the body of the church is not vaulted) to each bay division. The
principal shafts rest on carved corbels. North and south transept arches:
pointed, on paired attached shafts with carved capitals and moulded bases.
Pierced quatrefoils to spandrels. Carved cornice of quatrefoils, scallops,
and foliage to full length of nave, both sides. Chancel arch is similar to
transept arches: painted around is the quotation:

"I was glad when they said unto me,
let us go into the house of the Lord."

Quatrefoil opening flanked by small pointed windows with attached shafts
over. Paired pointed arches from transepts to chancel chapels: slender
shaft under quatrefoil surrounded by foliage bosses, all under pointed arch
with attached shafts. North and south chancel arcades of 2 pointed arches
on paired attached and central shafts,all with ornate carved capitals and
moulded bases and under hoodmoulds stopped with foliage. Attached shafts at
bay intervals running up to elaborate cornice with foliage and geometrical
ornament. East bay: pointed blank arcading on attached shafts to all walls;
foliage to arch fascias. Hoodmoulds throughout. Sill band of carved
foliage above. Detached geometrical arcading to north and south windows.
Attached shafts with annuli to east window. Nail-head to hoodmould. South
chancel chapel is the Hotham family chapel: central monument to Sir John
Hotham, died 1689: attributed to Bushnell. Reclining white marble figure on
black marble slab supported by 4 kneeling Virtues on a raised black marble
base. Beneath the effigy is a skeleton. On the walls of the chapel are 8
tablets: all of white marble with plain black lettering. Hanging here and
in the transepts are funeral hatchments. Font: quatrefoil tub on central
cylindrical pier and short clustered shafts.

Listing NGR: SE9673045558

External Links

• Historic England Listing
• Wikidata Q17534045

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

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  Huddersfield in 50 Buildings
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  Pioneers of Modern Design: From William Morris to Walter Gropius (Penguin Art & Architecture)
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  Bedfordshire, Huntingdonshire, and Peterborough (Pevsner Architectural Guides): Written by Charles O'Brien, 2014 Edition, Publisher: Yale University Press [Hardcover]
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  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)