| Leeds Parish Church | |
Parish Church of St Peter-at-Leeds
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| Country | England |
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| Denomination | Church of England |
| Website | www.leedsparishchurch.org.uk |
| History | |
| Dedication | St Peter |
| Administration | |
| Parish | Leeds City |
| Deanery | Allerton |
| Archdeaconry | Leeds |
| Diocese | Ripon and Leeds |
| Province | York |
| Clergy | |
| Rector | The Revd Canon Tony Bundock |
| Vicar(s) | The Reverend Susan Wallace |
| Minister(s) | Canon Ann Nicholl, Lay Minister |
| Laity | |
| Organist/Director of music | Dr Simon Lindley |
| Organist(s) | Mr David Houlder |
| Verger | Mr Iain Howell, Senior Verger & Registrar |
Leeds Parish Church, or the Parish Church of Saint Peter-at-Leeds, in Leeds, West Yorkshire is a large Church of England parish church of major architectural and liturgical significance. It has been designated a grade I listed building by English Heritage. Leeds does not have an Anglican cathedral, but the parish church has close links with the Roman Catholic Cathedral Church of St Anne in Leeds.
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An early 7th century church on this site was burned down in 633 AD. A church at Ledes is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. The church was rebuilt twice, after a fire in the 14th century, and again in the 19th century. Walter Farquhar Hook, Vicar of Leeds from 1837 until preferment as Dean of Chichester in 1859 was responsible for the construction of the present building, and of the re-vitalising of the Anglican church throughout Leeds as a whole. The architect was Robert Dennis Chantrell. At the time of its construction, it was the largest new church in England built since Sir Christopher Wren's St Paul's Cathedral erected after the Great Fire of London and consecrated in 1707. The new parish church was rebuilt by voluntary contributions from the townspeople at a cost of over £29,000 and consecrated on 2 September 1841.[1] Florence Nightingale and Dr Edward Bouverie Pusey were among the congregation and Dr Samuel Sebastian Wesley played the organ.
The east end was altered between 1870 and 1880.[2]
The church is built in ashlar stone with slate roofs[2] in the English Gothic style of the late 14th century, a transition from the Decorated to the Perpendicular, and is cruciform in plan. The church is 180 feet 7 inches long and 86 feet wide, its tower rises to 139 feet. The chancel and nave each have four bays of equal length with clerestories and tall aisles.[1] The tower is situated at the centre of north aisle. Below the tower on the north side is the main entrance. The tower has four unequal stages with panelled sides and corner buttresses terminating in crocketed turrets with openwork battlements and crocketted pinnacles. The clock was made by Potts of Leeds.[2]
The windows exhibit Perpendicular tracery and there is a five-light east window from 1846 containing glass collected on the continent. The east end the sanctuary has a marble arcade with mosaics by Salviati of Venice and the reredos are made of coloured marble and alabaster by George Edmund Street.[2]
A peal of 13 bells in the tower over the north door was cast by Mears and Sons of Whitechapel Bell Foundry from designs by W. Gawk Roger of Leeds. The tenor bell weighs over 35 hundredweight and the entire peal is 162 hundredweight.[1] The organ, parts of which date from 1841 and earlier, is essentially a Harrison and Harrison of 1914 vintage, but incorporating significant amounts of pipework by Edmund Schulze. It was restored in 1927 and 1949 by Harrison and Harrison; in 1965 by Wood, Wordsworth and in 1997 by Andrew Carter. The restoration of the blowing plant and refurbishment of the blower house were undertaken in 1997 by Allfab Engineering of Methley. The Friends of the Music of Leeds Parish Church present free Organ Recitals each Friday at 12.30 pm except during the month of August and during the Christmas Holiday Fortnight and proceeds are devoted to the tuning and maintenance of the instrument.
Among many artefacts and memorials in the church are an Anglian cross on the altar and a brass commemorating Captain Oates of Scott's Antarctic expedition, who had Leeds connections. Flemish stained glass enhances the apse of Chantrell's interior - he designed the windows to fit the glass - and of more recent date (1997) is Sally Scott's Angel Screen at the north tower porch entrance -an example of contemporary glass engraving and gift from the family of Lord Marshall of Leeds.
The parish church, Saint Peter-at-Leeds is in the Anglican Diocese of Ripon and Leeds (which has its cathedral at Ripon), in the Parish of Leeds City along with the Georgian Church of Holy Trinity, Boar Lane, St Mary's Lincoln Green and the Chapel of the Holy Spirit in Centenary House. The church is at the easternmost extremity of the city centre, within a precinct bordering two of the city's oldest thoroughfares - Kirkgate (now part of the Inner City Loop Road) to the north, and The Calls to the south. Another ancient pathway, High Court Ings, connects the western precinct with High Court.
The rector, the third since the establishment of the Parish of Leeds City in 1990, is the Reverend Canon Tony Bundock. Work with young people undertaken by the parish includes The Market Place drop-in centre.[3] St Peter's Church of England Primary School, Burmantofts where the chaplain is the lay minister to St Mary, Lincoln Green and Holy Trinity, Boar Lane, Canon Ann Nicholl. The Reverend Susan Wallace was licensed by the Bishop of Ripon and Leeds in September 2010 to serve as Vicar Choral in the parish.
During choir terms there are at least seven choral services each week, four sung by the boy choristers with the choral scholars and lay Clerks; the remainder sung by the boys, the men or by the girl choristers. Once each term, the boys, girls and men sing together.
Leeds Parish Church is a member of the Greater Churches Group. Its mission and vision for future service to the city, the diocese and the Church of England are a constant care and concern of those who seek to serve the church and parish. Sir John Betjeman in a BBC Broadcast remarked that: "There's High Church, Low Church and Leeds Parish Church".
The church is illuminated at night by floodlights donated by Tetley's brewery.
The building is open to visitors for at least seven hours each day. Parishioner volunteers serve refreshments and light meals in the refectory in the City of Leeds Room constructed in the north-west aisle in 1975.
The church archives are held at the Leeds office of West Yorkshire Archive Service. The church has memorials to families who were prominent in the parish, including the Kitchingman, Fenton, Lodge, Milner, Cookson, and Ibbetsons.[4]
Under the Dioceses Commission's Draft Reorganisation Scheme, a new Anglican Diocese of Leeds would be created, and the diocesan Bishop of Leeds would have the option to designate Leeds Parish Church as Pro-Cathedral and become a seat, with Bradford, Ripon and Wakefield Cathedrals. The administration would remain the same, but the incumbent would be appointed a canon of the diocesan college.[5]
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Edward David Murfet, later Minor Canon at Ripon Cathedral was Priest-in-Charge prior to the establishment of the Parish of Leeds City in 1990 Rectors of Leeds from 1991
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St Peter's is the only parish church in England without a resident choir school to have a programme of weekday choral services additional to Sunday liturgies.[6]
Organists from 1842 include Samuel Sebastian Wesley 1842-1849, Dr Edward Bairstow 1906-1913, Dr Alfred Melville Cook 1937-1956 and Dr Donald Hunt OBE 1957-1975. Organist and Master of the Music, in office since 1975, the ninth musical incumbent since Wesley's day, is Dr Simon Lindley who came to Leeds after service at St Albans Cathedral and churches in the City of London; Lindley is the organist at Leeds Town Hall. He is chairman of the Ecclesiastical Music Trust in his capacity as a director of the English Hymnal Company and President of the Campaign for the Traditional Cathedral Choir. The sub-organist and director of the girls' choir is David Houlder, formerly of Liverpool Cathedral and for a long period director of music at the Bluecoat School.
In Autumn 2009, Ashley Francis Roy began work as animateur for Chorister Outreach in two primary schools near the church; the post was supported by the Church Urban Fund. Boy choristers attend church each weekday except Thursday, Friday evenings, Saturday mornings and twice on Sundays. Boy choristers attend St Peter's C of E Primary School in Burmantofts, Abbey Grange C of E Academy, Cardinal Heenan Roman Catholic High School, Brudenell Primary School and Whingate Primary School.
The adult choir consists of lay clerks (including former boy choristers), choral scholars (undergraduates from the University of Leeds and Leeds College of Music) and supernumerary singers - altos, tenors and basses. During term time, Evensong is sung by the full choir on Wednesday and Friday evenings, by the boys on Monday and the men on Thursday. A semi-professional adult chamber choir, Saint Peter's Singers of Leeds was founded in 1977 and meets for rehearsals on Sunday evening during term time and present regular concerts and sing at choral services each season including at the end of each summer term, a memorial Evensong for John Barrie Hanson - a member of the singers and choir.
The choir has been associated with the Royal School of Church Music since the early 1930s through links with Sir Sydney Nicholson, RSCM founder and churchwarden, Herbert Bacon Smith. Simon Lindley is one of the RSCM's longest serving special commissioners and has directed RSCM courses on four continents. The girls' choir formed in 1997 by Jonathan Lilley, meet weekly on Saturdays (sometimes singing for morning worship) and participate in events involving the full choral foundation on special occasions.
Friday lunchtime organ recitals are held weekly between September and July featuring David Houlder, Dr Christopher Newton and Simon Lindley, Sunday evening concerts by Dr Lindley have taken place weekly in August since the restoration of the instrument was completed.
The 200th anniversary celebrations for Samuel Sebastian Wesley, born 14 August 1810, began with Festal Evensong on Sunday 4 July 2010 followed by a Gala Choral Recital. Worship on Sunday 15 August was broadcast on BBC Radio Four. Dr Lindley gave a commemorative recital of Wesley's organ music in the evening and a commemorative recital of music by Wesley at Leeds Town Hall on 13 September.
A rugby league team from Leeds Parish Church joined the Northern Rugby Football Union (now Rugby Football League) in 1896. Leeds Parish Church played for five seasons from 1896–97 to 1900–01 after which it withdrew.