The Church of St John the Divine, designed by William Swinden Barber, was built as a mission church in 1892–1893 in the parish of St James, Chapelthorpe, Crigglestone, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It is Grade II listed. It was funded by local benefactor Mary Mackie in memory of her husband. It is of Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts design. The exterior is small, plain and simple and the interior is low church; nevertheless the interior contains a fine scissor-truss roof which retains its original 1892 stencil paintings. The church closed in 2018. In 2020 the church was purchased with a view to conversion into a four-bedroom home: plans were approved by Wakefield Council in 2024.
Location The building is located just off Denby Dale Road in Calder Grove, Crigglestone, on the south-west edge of Wakefield. At the time of construction, this was a coal-mining and rural area.Keith Wainwright, Crigglestone Backtrack 4: past reflections of a rural parish (ca. 1996) pp.54–47, in Wakefield local studies library Crigglestone Community-led Plan 2011: History section by Keith Wainwright Retrieved 23 April 2014
Founders and benefactors The building was commissioned in memory of her husband John Mackie, JP (1836–1891), by Mrs Mary Elizabeth Mackie (1844–1922) of Watford Villa, New Mills, Derbyshire and of Cliff House, Calder Grove Crigglestone. She also commissioned St James the Less Church and some almshouses in New Mills, designed by the same architect (W.S. Barber) in 1878–1880. The two buildings are not dissimilar.Springbank Arts: the architect William Swinden Barber Retrieved 18 February 2014
John Mackie's father was Robert Jefferson Mackie, a rich local corn factor from a Scottish family, whose eldest son was Robert Bownas Mackie, Liberal MP for Wakefield 1880–1885. R.J. Mackie's fourth son was John, who received an education at Wesley College, Sheffield plus the gift of Cliff House which carried attached benefits. Thus Mackie was a landowner, the owner of Cliff Colliery and of the Freeclay works in Crigglestone, and a local benefactor. In 1866 he married Mary Elizabeth Ingham, daughter of James Ingham, the owner of a calico print works at New Mills, Derbyshire.
Thereafter, the couple spent half their time in New Mills, and the other half in Calder Grove. Mackie paid for a new school at nearby Painthorpe, completed in 1875. In Derbyshire in the same year he became chairman of the New Mill School Board, and later on was a council representative for New Mills and an alderman on Derbyshire County Council. Back in Crigglestone in 1885, Mackie became chairman of the Liberal Association. While at Calder Grove, he served as a Sunday school teacher, was at one time a delegate to the Diocesan conference, and in 1899 was elected Wakefield YMCA's president. He died unexpectedly at the age of 54 after catching a chill at his and Mary's 25th wedding anniversary celebrations at Crigglestone. He was given a big funeral and buried in Derbyshire. A granite drinking fountain was erected at New Mills in his memory.
During her married life in Calder Grove, Mary Mackie organised yearly soirees in the new schoolroom for the local working people, and founded the Criggleston Girls' Friendly Society. Besides erecting the Church of St John the Divine, Calder Grove, in her husband's memory, Mrs Mackie also funded a stained glass east window in the Church of St James, Chapelthorpe in 1892; the window was destroyed by fire in 1951. She also built an institute in Dirtcar, Crigglestone, in 1904. This was dismantled and re-erected next to St John's in 1914 for use as a church hall, and demolished in 2014.
History Plans were approved for a church in the "Early English style of architecture" by the Ecclesiastical Commission in April 1892 at a building cost of £1,300. The Wakefield Conservative MP Colonel Albany Hawkes Charlesworth donated the land and gave £100 towards costs. The church was consecrated by the Bishop of Wakefield on Tuesday 23 May 1893; his sermon was based on John xvi.14, He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. The congregation at the dedication service included Mrs Mackie, her brother in law and other relatives, people from "leading families in the locality" including Briggs, Thompson and Cartwright, and numerous local clergy. Some of the local gentry had already "contributed liberally" towards the cost of building, and the sum of £32 16s 11d was collected after the service.Leeds Times Saturday 27 May 1893: "Chat in the porch" Retrieved 21 April 2014Leeds Mercury 24 May 1893: "The Mackie memorial church, Calder Grove" Retrieved 21 April 2014
Architect
William Swinden Barber (1832–1908) was a Gothic Revival and Arts and Crafts architect based in Halifax and Brighouse, who had a long career in which he produced many churches and other buildings in the area. Many of his works are now Grade II listed buildings. Some of his major designs which would have made his reputation and recommended him for this task are the mansion Spring Hall, Halifax (1871), the Victoria Cross at Akroydon (1875), and the large Church of St Jude, Savile Park, Halifax (1888).The Holdworths: Spring Hall, Halifax Retrieved 18 February 2014 Additionally, Barber had already designed Mrs Mackie's first funded church, St James the Less at New Mills, Derbyshire (1880), which is of similar design to St John the Divine, and was dedicated to her parents. It is now a listed building and the Springbank Arts Centre.
Building
The building is on the City of Wakefield Metropolitan Council, 2008, List of buildings, Scheduled Ancient Monuments and Buildings of Local Interest (p. 47). That is to say, it is locally listed, but is not listed by English Heritage.It is locally listed under no.3078/1687/PRN:10,878, and appears on the 1905, 6 in to 1 mile, OS map, sheet 248 SW.
1893 description The building was described in Leeds newspapers in 1893 as "a Mission church in the Early English style." It is built of Elland stone with Huddersfield stone dressing. The nave has an open-timberwork roof and at the time of the consecration it was long. The chancel was long. The original pews, which as of April 2014 had been re-varnished but were still in place, were of stained and varnished red deal. The east window, installed in 1893, is a memorial to John Mackie.
Exterior
This is a mature work by the architect who retired in 1898. The nave and chancel are combined structurally into one space with four walls, one roof overall, and no columns or aisles. There is a basic porch leading into the nave on the north side. A combined lean-to on the south side houses the organ chamber and vestry, which share an arched opening into the chancel. The exterior combines a simple Victorian low church aspect using just the basics of Gothic Revival architecture. Thus, apart from two small crosses on the apexes of the roof and porch,See image of east gable cross: :File:St John Calder Grove 039.jpgSee image of porch cross: :File:St John Calder Grove 008.jpgThe original plans show a cross on the bell gable and none over the east elevation. See image :File:St John Calder Grove plans 1h.jpg there are only two other decorations: the shaped drip moulding over the west window,See image: :File:St John Calder Grove 006.jpg and the minimal moulding at the base of the porch archway.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove 012.jpgSee image: :File:St John Calder Grove 009.jpgFor building structure, see the original plans
Interior
There is a contrast between the plain exterior of the building, and its interior. Seen unexpectedly by the visitor upon entrance is the scissor-truss roof,See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 012.jpg which after more than a century retains rare stencil paintings by Powell Bros of Leeds on the chancel beams.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 005.jpg Beneath the paint on the plastered north and south walls of the nave are hidden stencil paintings and possibly spirit frescoes by the same artists, revealed in a pre–1914 photograph in the church archives.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 004.jpg The structure is intentionally plain and simple, but Barber has still managed to include a few small columns by recessing the three-light nave windows into the wall, and fitting a single slender supporting column into each recess.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 055.jpg and see plan: :File:St John Calder Grove plans 4g.jpg
There are four stained glass windows in the chancel - in Gothic Revival style but without tracery. The east window of 1893, dedicated to John Mackie the husband of its benefactor, shows Jesus Christ and the Lamb of God.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 031.jpg The two north chancel windows show John the Baptist (1908)See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 022.jpg and John the Divine, probably of the same decade.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 036.jpg The south chancel window shows the Virgin and Child, also of the first decade of the 20th century.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 038.jpg
The church still contains fixtures and furnishings designed and commissioned by Barber. This includes the wrought iron bolt,See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 072.jpg and door-handle plates on the porch door.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove 042.jpg It also includes the carved wooden pulpit,See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 014.jpg altar-front,See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 029.jpg pews,See plan for pews: :File:St John Calder Grove plans 5a.jpg and choir stalls,See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 017.jpgSee plan for choir stalls: :File:St John Calder Grove plans 3a.jpg and the carved stone font.See image: :File:St John Calder Grove interior 064.jpg
There is an early 20th century pipe organ. The bell gable incorporates the original bell of 1893 by Mears & Stainbank.The Church of England: St John the Divine, Calder Grove Retrieved 19 February 2014Georgedawson.homestead.com: list of Wakefield churches and bells Retrieved 28 February 2014 The bell rope passes through a hole in the roof and hangs inside the west window.
The building has a cut bench mark on the exterior north side.Bench Mark Database: Cut Mark: Calder Grove, Church of St John the Divine Retrieved 19 February 2014
Repairs and re-ordering In 1903 the east end of the chancel collapsed, having subsided into old mine-workings below. The chancel was rebuilt to Barber's original plans, re-using the same materials. The stencils on the east wall were lost at that time.Information from church archives: local newspaper cutting, source unknown If one compares the original plans of 1892 to photographs of the existing building in 2014, it can be seen that the stone cross intended for the roof gable above the chancel has been at some point removed to the porch gable. The metal cross which was originally fixed atop the bell gable is now fixed on the roof over the chancel. (illustrated below)
As of 2014, the interior plaster on the west wall has been replaced several times due to dampness possibly caused by inadequate flashing between the bell gable and roof tiles, together with the fact that the bell rope must pass through a hole in the roof. This means that any original stencils beneath the later paint on the west wall are now gone.Information from church archives During a 21st-century interior re-ordering, Barber's original altar was dismantled, and only its carved wooden front remains, standing against the east wall. At the same time, Barber's designed and commissioned dark-varnished pews and choir stalls were stripped and re-varnished in a light colour.Information from church archives. See also images in gallery above