Sacred Heart

Introduction

Sacred Heart Church in Howden, within the Diocese of Leeds, was built in 1850-52 by architect J A Hansom.

History

The Church of the Sacred Heart was opened on 3rd July 1851. In 1853 the parish was handed over to the Diocese of Beverley, with Fr Thomas Danson as first Parish Priest, who remained for 28 years. Frederic Harold Sunderland of Howden and William Thompson of Hazlewood Castle were major benefactors, as suggested by two plaques in the church.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is aligned north-south, so the points used in the description are ecclesiastical rather than cardinal. The church consists of a nave, side aisles and full height apsidal chancel, with a choir loft and narthex beneath. The carved wooden high altar has survived reordering, although detached from its reredos which has been lost. A side altar with intricately carved reredos started life in the original chapel at Everingham Hall and is considerably older than the Sacred Heart Church.

The gabled west front has a trefoil-headed double-leaf door in a pointed arch on round shafts with plain capitals, flanked by trefoil-cusped single-light windows, two tall trefoil-cusped lancets and a trefoil above. To the left is an octagonal 2-stage staircase turret with narrow square-headed windows, a string course between stages, a band of trefoils to the top and a pyramidal roof. To the right is a stepped buttress with gablet; aisle west windows are 2-light trefoil-cusped windows with quatrefoils punched through the spandrels.

Aisle bays are articulated by stepped buttresses with gablets, with paired trefoil-headed lancets to the aisles and paired quatrefoils to the clerestory except for a single one to the westernmost bay. The east window of the south aisle has 3-stepped trefoil-cusped lights with quatrefoils above, while the east window of the north aisle is obscured by the presbytery. The chancel has a string course and 5 trefoil-cusped windows. The interior has arcades of pointed arches on octagonal piers. It is thought that the numerous figures carved in the front face of the side altar are members of the Maxwell-Constable family.

Parish life

The parish supports the Emmaus Rough Sleepers team in Goole, holding details of the service. In 2008, the Sacred Heart Parish was merged with that of St Joseph in Goole, and a parish priest was appointed for the combined parish.