St. Joseph

Introduction

Saint Joseph's Church in Ingrow, in the Diocese of Leeds, was opened on 17 July 1934 on land given in 1929 by Mrs Mahony. The church is a 1930s essay in the Norman style, designed by architect Godfrey Clarke. The parish of Saint Joseph was created in 1942.

History

The first Mass was said in the school chapel on 22 November 1926. The school opened in 1922 at a cost of £14,000, more than double the pre-war estimate. The church was re-ordered in 1970-71 by Bartlett & Purnell.

The parish is twinned with the Parish of St Joseph, Matli in Pakistan and supports a TB outreach programme there. The home parish pledges £3,000 each year to fund one outreach worker within the tuberculosis project of its twin parish in Matli.

Architecture and furnishings

The church is cruciform with aisles, ambulatory and small projections in the western re-entrant angles. The west front has a doorway with four orders of mouldings and a wheel window above. The interior has five-bay nave arcades on stout piers with plain capitals and moulded arches. The circular baptistery off the south transept has a stone rib vault and a circular font with lattice-work around the bowl.

The sanctuary has a mosaic floor, altered for the re-ordering in 1970-71. The altar is in Ancaster stone with a mensa of Ashburton marble, dating from 1970-71. The tabernacle by the Art Metal Guild of Clerkenwell, London, and the tabernacle throne date from 1970-71. The freestanding organ in the south transept is of 1974 by Laycock & Bannister.

The War Memorial was made from the former pulpit removed during the re-ordering of 1970-71. The north transept has a circular window with cusped surround, while the south transept window has plate tracery of a circle surrounded by eight smaller circles. The sanctuary has a three-level design with a continuous arcade, chevron-decorated arches, and a triforium with intersecting arches. The chapels have stone altars, reredos and canopied niches enclosing life-size statues.