ST STEPHENS CHURCH

Church Lane, East Hardwick, WF8 3DW

Contact: Pete Hargreaves, Church Warden

Email: peterhargreaves@hotmail.co.uk

St Stephens is a well used and welcoming church and is central to all activity within the small village of East Hardwick. As well as the traditional services many other special services are held here annually including Plough Sunday and the Masons founders’ service.

The foundation stone for St Stephens Church was laid on 23^rd October 1872 with Masonic ceremony by the Marquis of Ripon who was the Grand Master of The United Lodge of England. The church was consecrated by Dr Thompson, Archbishop of York on 24^th November 1874.

Built of local Ackworth stone, the church is cruciform in shape having north and south transepts at the intersection of the Nave and Chancel. It is built in the Gothic style with steeply pitched roofs covered with natural blue slate. The double arched main entrance doors are framed in a stone archway with a carved pillar to either side. It has a 13.5 metre high castellated tower sandwiched in between the south transept and the south facing entrance porch. The tower was an addition when the original wooden turret was removed in 1926 and it contains the original ring of three bells in an oak frame. Unusually the bells are manufactured from steel by Vickers & Sons & Co. of Brightside, Sheffield. In the base of the bell tower is a smaller unhung bell taken from the old Chapel, built circa 1653, for use in the school when the chapel was demolished. It has an argent loop with two cannons and carries a band of decoration including the marks SS/EBOR (Samuel Smith -1 or 11-of York. Access to the tower is via a Jacobs ladder. Note! There will be no access to the tower for visitors. Also removed from the Chapel and now in church is the octagonal stone font complete with wooden petal shaped cover.

Internally the roof is lined in pitch pine and ribbed with large wooden arches supported on stone plinths set in the walls. The four gothic stone arches at the intersection of the Nave, Chancel, south and north transepts each have equally majestic wooden arches meeting in the centre where the original wooden turret was positioned.

In the chancel either side of the approach to the alter rail are choir stalls. The church organ, built by booths of Wakefield in 1874, and still in use today though of poor quality, is located on the north wall. There is a raised carved stone pulpit located in front of the organ. To the south side of the chancel is an oak lecturn. In the east gable are three arched stained glass windows with dedications in the bottom sections:

Left:                  And he said “ Lay not thine hands upon the lad”

Centre:             And he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice “Lord lay not this sin to their charge” (St Stephen, Martyr, being stoned)

Right:                Rachael weeping for her children.

The font is situated in the south transept. Access to the tower is also from here. A wall clock from the village school is hung on the south wall.

There are five stained glass windows in the south transept, two new ones facing east and three original ones facing south:

First east window is the Millennium window. “Shine as a light to the world” Installed 2001.

Second east window: “Confess the Faith of Christ Crucified” installed 2003

Left South window: Eli said “if he call thee say Speak Lord for thy servant heareth” 1893.

Centre south window, Jesus said “Whom sleekest thou. I am the resurrection and the life” 1892

Right south window “From a child thy has known the holy scriptures” 1893

In the base of the bell tower there is one stained glass window, South facing, “Suffer little children”.

The Nave has fixed pitch pine pews along either side with a central stone flagged aisle. The north transept has had a kitchen and disabled toilet facilities built into it recently. A pitch pine screen built to mirror the arched windows maintains the “church atmosphere”.

There are various monuments on the walls of the church brasses stone and marble. Some are to the memory of people who have served St Stephens church and some are from the demolished chapel, including one with a Latin inscription. There is also an oak board listing all the Clergy who have served at St Stephens over the years.

In the north transept near the entrance to the vestry are two wall hung canvasses, The Ten Commandments and The Lord’s Prayer, both in need of some restoration.

In the church grounds are gravestones and monuments. One monument of particular note is that of Thomas William Tew, said to be the driving force behind building the new church. He was founder master of the St Oswald Lodge of Freemasons, Pontefract and chairman of the trustees who founded the church.

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