is separated from the nave by a pointed arch, and that to the tower is very lofty. The chancel has five arches on each side, with piers resembling those of the nave but less lofty, as the chancel has a clerestory, which is wanting in the nave. There are two windows of three lights over each arch. The ceiling of the whole is flat, pannelled, and blazoned with arms. The ceiling of the north aisle has some carved figures in the cornice. The chancel has an additional chapel on the north, opening by two pointed arches with octagonal pier. Its east window is of five lights. There is a handsome wood screen across the chancel and its aisles, set at three arches distance from the east end. There are also several of the ancient wood stalls in the chancel, and there is another screen in the south chapel of the nave. The seats of the nave appear to be the original ones placed there about the time of James I., and from being low and with some wood carving, have a much less bad effect than modern pews. There is an old poor-box held by the figure of a man in wood. The altar is raised up several steps and enclosed by ancient rails with some carving. The east window has some fragments of stained glass. The font is octagonal and plain, but having over it a rich wood canopy of tabernacle work. The organ is set in a gallery two arches from the west end. There is also a north gallery. ALL SAINTS, WAKEFIELD. This church in scale is about equal to Halifax, having co-extensive aisles along the nave and chancel, and at the west end a plain tower surmounted by a very lofty though plain spire of stone, which though somewhat heavy at the base is a very conspicuous and ornamental object in the surrounding country. The tower itself has little architectural ornament. Under the battlement is a kind of machicolation, not uncommon in this neighbourhood. The belfry windows are double on each side, with something of an Early English character half obliterated. The exterior has been restored in a modern Gothic fashion, with pannelling and pinnacles, the details of which will not bear criticism. Many of the windows, originally of four lights, have been altered; those of the clerestory are square headed, set in pairs. The interior is very spacious and lofty, but has the usual amount of pews and galleries. The nave has seven pointed arches on each side. The piers on the south are alternately circular and octagonal; on the north, some are circular, some clustered. The ceiling of the nave is pannelled with gilt bosses, the ribs springing from shafts on corbels. In the chancel and the aisles the ceilings are rather richer than in the nave. The arch to the chancel is wide; within it is a fine wood screen, but of defaced character; there are parclose screens in the side of the chancel of better design, also the original stalls. The chancel has five arches, with octagonal piers on each side, and a clerestory as the nave. There are several monuments to the Pilkingtons at the east end of the south aisle. There are a few bits of stained glass and a marble altar. The font is octagonal, bearing the date 1661. There is an organ of considerable size at the west end. ROTHWELL. This church consists of a nave with side aisles, a chancel with north aisle, and a western tower, which last is embattled and crowned with four crocketed pinnacles, and has a niche over the west window. The prevailing features are Perpendicular. The south aisle and clerestory are also embattled and enriched with crocketed pinnacles, and the south aisle, the porch, and the tower have an odd kind of machicolation under the parapet. The windows have been nearly all despoiled of their tracery. Those of the clerestory are square-headed, of two lights. The north aisle and the chancel are modern. The nave opens to the south aisle by five pointed arches on low octagonal piers. The modern arches on the north side and the fitting up of the chancel is in a kind of Gothic form. The font is an octagonal basin, resembling that at Wakefield, with the date 1662, and surmounted by a high cover of wood. There are north, south, and west galleries, and an organ. PONTEFRACT. 1833. The ruined church of All Hallows must, when complete, have been a noble structure. The plan is cruciform, including a nave with aisles, a north and south transept, each having a western aisle, and a chancel which had once a south aisle and a small north chapel. In the centre is a massive square tower, with double belfry windows of Perpendicular character, an open battlement, and four crocketed pinnacles, from which rises a lofty octagon having pinnacles at the angles, the whole forming a rather singular but imposing steeple. There are Decorated and Perpendicular features, but none of earlier date. The nave and the chancel are in a state of ruin, but the transept has been roofed in and fitted up for divine service. The nave is divided from the aisle by four pointed arches, with octagonal pillars. octagonal pillars. The clerestory windows, two over each arch, are Perpendicular, of two lights. There are north and south porches. The windows of the aisles of the nave seem to have been Perpendicular, but have lost their tracery. The west window is very large, and early in the style; the arch of the west doorway reaches above its sill. The southern windows of the chancel are Decorated. The tower arches are large and fine, upon piers having a kind of pilasters with foliated capitals. The transepts having been recently new roofed, form the present church, and the restoration is on the whole neat. There is groining very well executed; and the windows of this portion are all Perpendicular, that at the south end of five lights, at the north of three; there is also a clerestory. The seats and galleries are of Gothic pattern. A half-hexagon recess is thrown out eastward of the tower, for the altar, which is of correct form and well executed. The pulpit is also neat. The font has been restored, and is Perpendicular, octagonal pannelled with shields and foliage. SKELTON. 12 This beautiful little church is a perfect specimen of enriched Early English work. It consists of a nave and chancel, with small side aisles of equal length, included under one high-pitched general roof. In the centre, just over the chancel arch, is an open bell turret, rising to a peaked gable, and pierced with a double lancet arch upon a central pier of clustered shafts, and having on the head, between the two 12 This church is described and engraved in "The Churches of Yorkshire, No. 3." The general features resemble almost exactly the transepts of York Minster. The effect of the high sloping roof is admirable, lights, a circle containing a quatrefoil, and enriched with the toothed ornament. The whole is crowned by a cross of the same style. The south doorway is extremely elegant; the arch deeply recessed with mouldings, some containing the toothed ornament, and shafts, with capitals of varied but finely executed foliage. The doorway is surmounted by a curious triangular pediment, rising considerably above the parapet of the circle, and crowned at its apex by a cross. There are three lancet windows on the north and south sides, with dripstones continued along the small buttresses, and enriched with the tooth moulding. The west end has a long single lancet in the centre, and one smaller at the end of each aisle, in the gable above the middle window, a circular one, all of which are moulded with the toothed ornament. Between the windows are buttresses with triangular heads. The east end has three equal lancets in the centre, with very rich arch mouldings and shafts, flanked by two buttresses, and a single lancet east of each aisle. Over the triple lancet, in the east gable, is a window, in shape a vesica piscis, with toothed mouldings. Both east and west gables are terminated by crosses. The north doorway is plainer than the south, and hidden internally by a monument. The interior is very elegant, and in good condition, much care and expense having been bestowed upon it. The nave is divided from each of its little low aisles by two fine pointed arches, with piers of four clustered shafts having toothed moulding in the capitals. The chancel has one similar arch on each side. The whole is groined in wood, which is modern, but not ill conceived, in the Early English style. The windows terminating the aisles are larger than the others, but all have internally elegant mouldings, and the dripstones toothed and continued as a string course. The triple east window has toothed dripstone and similar arch mouldings, with banded detached shafts, having foliated capitals. The chancel arch resembles those opening to the aisles. The west window in ornament much resembles the eastern; all the ornaments are beautifully executed. On the south side of the altar is a trefoil niche with toothed dripstone, containing a piscina with eight foil orifice, and the basin elegantly moulded. On the north side is a square aumbrye or locker, and at the north-east angle of the chancel, an Early English bracket, probably for a candle or image. The font is a small octagon of Early English character, but very plain, and the sides sloped off to meet the shaft. The interior is unfortunately fitted up with pews, though very neat, and restored by Mrs. Thompson at considerable expense. ST. MARY MAGDALENE, THIRSK. This is a fine church, wholly Perpendicular, and very regular and uniform, consisting of a west tower, and a nave and chancel, with side aisles to the nave only. The tower is large and plain, with strong buttresses, and an embattled parapet. The west window of three lights, as also those of the belfry. Over the west window a small niche containing figures. No west door. There is a south porch of two stories, with the springing of stone ribs for groining. The doorway has good continuous mouldings. The battlement on the whole of the church is pierced, and the buttresses crowned by pinnacles. The interior is lofty and fine, and the tower arch is fine and open. The windows of the aisles are of three lights and large, and those of the clerestory of the nave also of three lights. The nave has six fine arches on each side, with clustered piers of four shafts. The roof of the nave and aisles has some good wood tracery and enriched bosses. The east ends of the aisles are enclosed by wood screens. The chancel is raised on several steps, and below it is a vaulted chamber used as a grammar school. The chancel arch is low and has been altered. The east window a fine one of five lights, the side windows of three lights, with contracted arches, and of late period. South of the altar are three good sedilia, cinquefoiled with square flowers in the mouldings, and pinnacles between them. The base is pannelled. East of the sedilia is a niche with water drain. There is a little stained glass in the aisle windows of rich colouring. The font is a plain octagon basin, with a lofty wood cover of tabernacle work. The organ is in a modern Gothic case, but only played by barrels. ST. NICHOLAS, DUNNINGTON. 1834. This church in its original state was a small and very inconvenient structure, consisting of a nave with of a |
