A pleasing, low-key, post-war and pre-Vatican II design.

The mission at Market Weighton sprang from the Langdale’s of Houghton Hall, whose private chapel was demolished in 1959 owing to the expense of repairs needed. A ‘tin’ church was built at Market Weighton in 1905 and the impending loss of the chapel at Houghton gave impetus for the building of a more permanent church, an ambition achieved in 1960. The church cost nearly £13,500. Its architect was John (Jack) Houghton of Hull.

Description

The church is built of brick with shallow pitched roofs clad in sheet metal. Of unequal cruciform plan, the nave forming a commodious rectangular space with a shallow projection for the sanctuary and a narrower but deeper projection for the porch, all of equal height. A copper ‘spike’ in the centre of the roof. The porch is recessed externally with a canopy set within the recess over the entrance and a crucifix on the wall. Lower flat-roofed blocks to either side, set in the re-entrant angles. The north and south sides have glazed upper parts carried into the gables and are blind below. The east wall is blind.

Internally the space is rectangular with the altar on a long wall. The sanctuary is partly recessed in the east projection (side-lit by hidden round-arched windows) but is also brought forward into the main space. The majority of the ceiling is flat and at eaves level, but against the glazed north and south walls is approximately two metres of boarding on the underside of the pitched roof. Simple open-backed pews contemporary with the church as are the chandeliers. The marble altar and shelf for the tabernacle are of later date, as is the wooden ambo. Stations of the Cross brought from the old church and, in their heavy wooden frames, out of place in this crisp modern environment. The octagonal stone font also seems out of place. The west wall has a run of five flat-arched openings, the centre three with doors to the porch or narthex and the outer ones open into small chapels (one the former baptistery).

Amended by AHP 15.01.2021

Heritage Details