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St. Joseph’s Church is a Roman Catholic church in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Bradford architect Edward Simpson and built between 1885-1887. It is located on the corner of Manchester Road and Pakington Street, in the ward of Little Horton, near to St. Luke’s hospital. It is one of the oldest Catholic churches in West Yorkshire that was modified by a father-son architectural team—J. H. Langtry-Langton in the 1930s and later by his son Peter Langtry-Langton in 1964. The building is listed as Grade II.

History

Irish Catholics migrate to Bradford

Bradford began attracting Irish immigrants  from around 1800, with the city’s first Catholic Church, St. Mary’s (now Regency Hall) built in 1825 to accommodate them. With the passing of the Catholic Relief Act of 1829,  more Irish immigrated to Bradford due to the available textile jobs, and various Catholic Churches and schools began opening throughout the city. The parish of St. Joseph began on Grafton Street, around the corner from its current location, in 1868.

With the potato famine in Ireland, the Irish migration numbers had risen significantly, and the church of St. Joseph’s was built on Pakington Street to accommodate them. The doors were opened on the 14th of September 1887, the Feast of the Triumph of the Cross. Fifty years later, the church was consecrated on the same feast day, the 14th of September 1937.

At the beginning of the twentieth century, the management of the school was taken over by Passionist sisters.

The Great War

Like many places throughout the country, Bradford lost a number of fallen soldiers during WWI. A memorial commemorating those who gave their lives was commissioned along the east side of the entrance, along the wall. This memorial was dedicated in a ceremony attended by the Right Reverend Joseph Cowgill, Bishop of Leeds, on 11th April, 1924.

The War Memorials Register lists the memorial and the names engraved, with photos. The Register number is 28663.

Poles settle in St. Joseph’s parish

Bradford saw a great increase in Polish immigrants after Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Many Poles settled around the ward of Little Horton and made St. Joseph’s their parish home. Canon Bolesław Martynellis served as the first Polish parish priest for the church. The Polish community began to make up a significant portion of the congregation at St. Joseph’s, and in the spring of 1948, the parishioners funded the shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa, built in a small niche on the east wall. This shrine was solemnly consecrated on 15th of August that year by Bishop John Carmel Heenan (later Cardinal Heenan).

A new Salesian priest named Fr. Henryk Boryński arrived to work at the parish, (date?) and during his ten months in service, he established the Parish Council, the Catholic Association of Polish Youth, the Parish Choir and the Living Rosary. Father Boryński had served in the Polish army and after moving to England in (date?) he was an outspoken critic of communism. did not work long in Bradford because his service was interrupted by a mysterious disappearance on July 13, 1953, which was never explained. He was a beloved personality among the other Poles and many cite his brief tenure as the height of Polish involvement at St. Joseph’s, after which time the Polish congregants decided to build their own church, which resulted in the Polish Catholic Church of Our Lady of Częstochowa.

Architecture

The altar backdrop consists of five statues under canopies.

Above is a later canopy or baldacchino. The three side chapels (Sacred Heart and St Patrick to the left and the former  Lady Chapel to the right,  behind  the organ) had striking and characteristic marble altars, reredos and communion rails designed by Jack Langtry-Langton in the 1930s. The Lady Chapel was converted into a meeting room in the 1970s with the insertion of a false ceiling and removal of Langtry-Langton’s altar etc. The marble facing is in store. It is intended to reconvert the  meeting room to a Lady Chapel but sadly it is not considered  feasible to reinstate the altar. The main double communion rails to the sanctuary are also part of the Langtry-Langton phase of work. Late Victorian stained glass in the main windows at either end, unattributed. The substantial marble font with inlay reliefs has been moved from the original baptistery into the nave.

List description

II

Roman Catholic Church. 1885-87, designed by Edward Simpson, altered c. 1935-37 and extended 1964 by J H Langtry-Langton. Coursed stone with ashlar dressings and slate roofs. Gothic Revival style. Nave and chancel under a single roof, aisles and double transepts. West front has single storey lean-to porch added 1964 with triangular headed central doorway flanked by single 3-light mullion windows. West gable has broad central lancet window with cusped lower tracery and flanking shafts topped with carved figure under canopies, which stand either side of a central crucifixion. Flanking lower and narrower lancet also have cusped tracery. The north aisle ends, to west, in a half-octagonal baptistery, which has a gable to each face over a circular window each with six tracery cusps, and below two square openings each containing a quatrefoil. South aisle ends in original porch, which would have formed the base of a tower, with pointed arched entrance doorway. Nave has 3 pairs of clerestory windows on either side, and no aisle windows below. Each window is made up of two plain lancets and a linking quatrefoil. Double transepts also have similar 2- light windows with lower tracery and a linking upper mandala or vesica. Chancel has 3 lancet windows to north and 2 to the south. East end has large central pointed arched window with 2-lights and a linking mandala.

INTERIOR has tall and broad chancel arch. Nave has two double chamfered and pointed arched arcades supported on octagonal piers to south and a similar 3 arched arcade to north. Shallow and low western arch to porch. Transepts have tall double-arched arcades. Fine quality decorative timber roofs to nave, chancel and aisles. Large painted ‘stations of the cross’ adorn the upper sections of the aisle walls. Original organ, wooden pews and carved stone reredos with 5 figures under a later carved wooden canopy. Floors, communion rail, and choir stalls all replaced 1937 to mark the building’s Golden Jubilee. Figures of saints under canopies. The three side chapels have marble altars added 1937. This fine quality Gothic Revival style Victorian church survives well, with very interesting and high quality later alterations and additions.

HERITAGE DETAILS

Architect: Edward Simpson (altered by J. H. Langtry-Langton)

Original Date: 1885

Conservation Area: No

Listed Grade: Grade II

Wikimedia | © OpenStreetMap

53°46'57.248"N, 1°45'31.158"W

OS grid reference

SE1599831835

Location

Bradford

Country

England

Denomination

Roman Catholic

Website

StJosephsChurchBradford.co.uk

History

Status

Parish church

Dedication

Saint Joseph

Consecrated

1937

Architecture

Functional status

Active

Heritage designation

Grade II listed

Designated

2003

Architect(s)

Edward Simpson

Groundbreaking

1852

Completed

13 July 1853

Administration

Diocese

Leeds

Deanery

Bradford[2]

Parish

St Joseph's Bradford