Photograph - Mono (Document ID: 100756)
Two exterior shots of St. Mary's Church, Gibbet Street, Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Author: J Townsend
Date: 1975
Location: Halifax
Format: Photograph - Mono
Document ID: 100756
Library ID: 087252
The foundation stone for St Mary's (or St Marie's) Catholic Church on Gibbet Street was laid in 1836, and the church officially opened in 1839. It was built at a time of mainstream intolerance towards Roman Catholics and the building was referred to in the local press as a 'Popish Mass house'. It was the first Roman Catholic building founded in Halifax after the Reformation.
When the east wall collapsed in a storm in 1863, the church was closed for two years. After this, it became a base for the expansion of the RC community in Calderdale, establishing St Mary's Infant School in the vicinity, and churches in Hebden Bridge (St Thomas of Canterbury) and Luddenden Foot (St Walburgha), with a new parish at St Bernard's in Range Lane, Halifax.
The early 20th century was generally a boom time for the local Catholic Church: 1902 - St Patrick's, West Vale; 1920 - St Patrick & Sacred Heart, Sowerby Bridge; 1921 - Our Lady of Lourdes and St Malachy, Ovenden.
Between 1923 and 1926, the edifice was enlarged, and the altars moved and increased in size.
In 1978, the church received a new stained glass window and two further ones in the 1980s. A new centre aisle was added in 1982.
Still standing 2003.
This photo is by Jack Townsend of the Halifax Photographic Society.
