St. Columba

Introduction

The church name was originally dedicated to St Columcille and later changed to St Columba, a more common form of the same saint's name.

History

The foundation stone for the new church was laid on 7 October 1933. The church opened on 4 August 1934 under the name St Columcille's and was served by St Mary's Parish. St Columcille's became a separate Parish in 1941. In 1994 the Parish was extended by the amalgamation of St Bernadette's of Mixenden with St Columba's. The Special Collection for Catholic Care raised £315.91 at St Malachy's and £204.90 at St Columba's.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is built of Haworth stone with a Welsh slate roof in free late Gothic style. The gabled east end faces the street with polygonal turret-like projections linked by a Gothic arch and a parapet, enclosing a canopied niche with a sculpture of St Columba. The sacristies are in a single storey over the basement extension to the right with plain mullioned windows and a parapet. A bell-cote of two polygonal turrets with arched tops, linked by walling from which a single bell hangs, rises through the eaves on the north side at the junction of nave and sanctuary.

The sanctuary has two-light windows set high up with a vesica-shaped arrangement. The nave has three-light windows under four-centred arches with Perp-derived tracery of strongly grid-like form. The west front echoes the east whilst forming a porch with gallery over. The sanctuary has a Gothic altar piece dated 1865 by Thomas Earp, originally at St Mary's, brought to St Columba's in 1934.

The pulpit is also by Earp, from St Mary's, and removed from its octagonal base. Communion rails are of the same pattern as the gallery fronts. Distinctive Stations of the Cross carved in relief with integral frames from which the figure scenes break out, finished in a coarse adzed effect.