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Church change is historic loss
Baker Fold Halifax
I refer to your article "Cash-strapped church could close for good" (Courier, January 15) about St Mary's Church, Illingworth, now vacated by its congregation.
I find it tragic when a building that has served as the centre of a community for 485 years ceases to be used for the function for which it was intended.
The present church does not date from 1525; it was rebuilt in 1777, under the leadership of Rev John Grimshaw, vicar 1748-79. The chancel was not built till 1889; and within the past few years a useful community centre had been added at the west end.
Together with St Mary's Church, Elland, this church links us with the Savile family, lords of the manor of Ovenden for many centuries. In 1925, on the 400th anniversary the Illingworth church's foundation, Hon George Halifax Lumley-Savile, then aged six, eldest son of the 2nd Lord Savile, attended with his mother to receive a red rose, this having been the stipulated annual rent for the site of the building founded by his ancestor in 1525. This boy inherited as 3rd Lord Savile in 1931, and was the Lord Savile who gave Hard-castle Crags to the National Trust in 1950. He died in 2008.
Recently, I was granted the privilege of being shown around the church's interior. Externally, the church does not appear of great architectural interest, but inside it has signs of great beauty, now marred by damp and crumbling plasterwork. I was delighted to be shown the only remaining relic of the Tudor church, a small piece of medieval glass featuring the Virgin Mary (now in safe keeping), and the tombstone of an early owner of Scout Hall, Master Samuel Mitchell.
He died in the 48th year of his age, and in the year of our Lord God 1645." This stone is unusual as burials were not then allowed at Illingworth – residents were interred at Halifax Parish Church.
St Mary's, Illingworth, is the mother church from which many other present-day churches were founded: St John's, Bradshaw; Christ Church, Pellon; St George's Ovenden; and St Andrew's, Holmfield,. It has a history as the most "high church" of the old chapelries of Halifax parish; and also has a glorious musical tradition.
This is the church where Colonel Edward Akroyd was baptised on Christmas Day 1810, and it seems tragic that, in the year which marks the bicentenary of his birth, both this church and All Souls,' Haley Hill, which he founded, are no longer to be used.
How many Calderdale people remember that Prince Charles was involved in helping raise funds for this church some years ago? How many are aware that part of St Mary's even now continues to be used as a valued meeting-place for several Illing-worth community groups? Surely this building can be – as it has been for so long – a great local resource.
Cannot our local council, and the Anglican diocese of Wakefield, in some way liaise with the Illingworth community, and arrange to renovate this valuable local facility? Once it is gone, it would be gone for ever.
David C Glover
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Weather for Halifax
Tuesday 07 February 2012
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