PARISH CHURCH OF SAINT MARY MAGDALENE

Contact: Father John Butterworth

Tel: 01924 823150 Email: johnbutterworth@blueyonder.co.uk

Saint Mary Magdalene’s (Church of England) is the Parish Church of Outwood, on the A61, two miles north of Wakefield and seven miles south of Leeds.

The church was opened in 1858 ,designed by architect William Hey Dykes, who worked within the Pugin style but at the less extravagant end of the market. Thus Saint Mary Magdalene’s had the look of a simple mediaeval English church without tower or spire, but with a turret for a single bell.  In the 1880’s the increasing population necessitated an extension and architect J T Micklethwaite designed and built the present south aisle and Lady Chapel.

The south aisle is wider and higher than the north, and has a boarded ceiling in contrast with exposed roof timbers of the older parts, as well as larger windows. The original pews from the southern side of the nave appear to have been moved to the southern side of the new south aisle and new pews made to span across the southern half of the nave and the northern side of the new aisle. Some gravestones are incorporated into the floor of the new aisle presumably indicating that the aisle was built out over existing graves.

The Lady Chapel was financed by the retired first Vicar, James Stewart Gammell, who had come into a family inheritance, and who in 1867 obtained the altar now in the Lady Chapel from Wakefield Cathedral. This altar is retained in the traditional English mediaeval position against the east wall surrounded by riddel-posts and curtains on three sides. Gammell also obtained the first set of Eucharistic vestments for the priest to wear, and brass cross and candlesticks for the altar,.

Also in the chapel are a bronze bas-relief memorial to a First World War solider by Albert Bruce-Joy (1920) and a 1950’s wooden altar rail by Thompson of Kilburn bearing his distinctive mouse mark. The windows are by Harry Grylls (1931) depicting The Adoration of the Christ Child by Shepherds and Magi and The Angel of the Resurrection.

The east window of the chancel is by Baguley of Newcastle (1871) with vignettes of various New Testament events, particularly those involving Saint Mary Magdalene. Edwardian stained-glass in the north aisle includes some by Heaton Butler and Payne. The artists of the south aisle windows depicting The Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple (1899) and The Parable of the Good Samaritan (1890) have not been identified.

The carved reredos of The Ascension dates from 1933, the wooden rood screen from 1919, the locally-carved pulpit from 1895, the inner porch with Saint Mary Magdalene from 1894, the oak choir stalls from 1893. Local craftsman Harold Mason made the 1971 wooden paschal candle stand in the Moore/Hepworth style. The pipe organ is by Binns of Bramley (1893).

The vestry was built in 1909 to commemorate the church’s 50th anniversary and refurbished for the 150th anniversary in 2008. The social area at the west end of the north aisle includes an oak-panelled galley-kitchen and toilet completed in 2009. In the 1980’s the chapel screen and the archways were completely glazed to form a more practical place for regular daily worship. Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer and the celebration of the Eucharist normally take place here each day of the week except Monday. The main event each week is the Parish Mass celebrated at the free-standing nave altar at 10.00am on Sundays.

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