The Church of St Thomas the Apostle, Killinghall, is an Anglican parish church in Killinghall, North Yorkshire, England. It was designed in 1879 by William Swinden Barber when the parish of Ripley was split to create the additional parish of Killinghall, and a new building was required to accommodate a growing congregation. It was opened in 1880. Among the early vicars posted in this benefice were two canons, Sydney Robert Elliston and Lindsay Shorland-Ball, and the Venerable Robert Collier, an Irish missionary who served in India and Africa.
Context, funding and founding Before St Thomas' was built, the Anglicans of Killinghall were obliged to walk to Ripley church every Sunday, making attendance difficult for the elderly and infirm. In latter years the schoolroom at Killinghall was licensed for public worship, but as the Bishop of Ripon said, "There were not those influences about it which belonged to a consecrated building."
In the 1870s the village of Killinghall, in the parish of Ripley, was increasing in size, and by 1879 had a population of 6,200 who needed a church closer than the one at Ripley. Killinghall consequently became a separate parish. The endowment for this parish came from the sale of a glebe farm at Ripley.London Gazette, no.24791, p.7319: Friday 12 December 1879 More than an acre of land for the church and its approaches was donated by Dr and Mrs Beaumont of Knaresborough, and donations were given by local landowners and friends of the project. This allowed the church committee to plan a vicarage also. Beaumont later agreed to sell the adjoining two acres of land to the committee for £200, and this was earmarked for the burial ground. The committee received a grant of £1,500 from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, and expected to have to raise £3,000 for a church building to accommodate 400–500 persons, and £1,500 for the vicarage. However, in return for the vicarage grant, the new vicar Reverend R.K. Smith had to pay the Commissioners £214 per annum. This sum equalled the whole of his stipend, apart from the use of the vicarage which was not yet built. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday 28–30 August 1879, a bazaar was held under the auspices of Miss Ingilby of Ripley Castle, to raise over £300 towards the cost of the church. This event was designed to attract the gentry of Harrogate, who arrived in large numbers by carriage.The York Herald (York, England), Tuesday, 2 September 1879; pg. 7; Issue 7036. British Library Newspapers, Part II: 1800–1900: "Local and District, Harrogate"
By July 1880, the cost of the church building had risen to over £4,000, raised by subscription and fundraising. (Also on microfilm at Victoria Library, Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England) By 1930, the value of the building was estimated at £14,000, and by 1980 the value was £400,000.
Building
The foundation stone was laid on Saturday 26 April 1879 by Sir Henry Day Ingilby of Ripley Castle, witnessed by an audience of 300.The Hull Packet and East Riding Times (Hull, England), Friday, 2 May 1879; Issue 4889. British Library Newspapers, Part I: 1800–1900 "District News"The York Herald (York, England), Saturday, 3 May 1879; pg. 5; Issue 6932. British Library Newspapers, Part II: 1800–1900: "District News: Harrogate"
The church was designed in the style of the second or Curvinilear Period of Decorated Gothic of 1290 to 1350. Due to cost, the decoration of capitals and vaulting are minimal or non-existent, but there is some tracery in the windows, and varied carved finials under some arches. The church is built of dressed ashlar blocks of Killinghall stone, while the boundary wall, also built in 1880, has contrasting rough coping to blend with the contemporary local style. The west wall faces the highway, and has two aisle-end, two-light windows, whose tracery is in the form of a Canterbury cross. The North Porch is surmounted by a St Thomas Cross. The remaining windows of the church have trefoil lights or are plain lancets, except for the east window which has four lights. The north porch is square, and faced what was then the most populous part of the village. However the porch was converted into a lavatory around 2015.
The mason was James Simpson of Harrogate, who constructed several local buildings of stone from Killinghall quarry, including the adjacent Methodist Chapel (1869). According to Killinghall historian Colin Waite, "It could well be that James used the same stone to build St Thomas's," and the Pateley Bridge and Nidderdale Herald'''s 1880 article about the consecration said that it was local stone. James Simpson was the father of David Simpson, who was mayor of Harrogate four times, who built Harrogate's Grand Hotel (1903), and who developed Harrogate's Duchy Estate for the Duchy of Lancaster. The carpenter and joiner was William Bellerby of York.William Bellerby was a pupil of George Fowler Jones Mr Baynes of Ripon was the slater, and Mr Fortune of Harrogate was the plasterer. John Naylor of Halifax was the plumber and glazier. The painters were Hirst and Barraclough of Brighouse. Mr Rawe of Ripley was clerk of the works. The value of work and materials as of 1880 was around £3,000.
Bells and clock
The bellcote contains two bells. The larger one, original to the church and measuring , was founded in 1879 by Mears and Stainbank. It is hung for use with a bellrope, being in its original position within the bellcote, with a full metal wheel. The smaller one is connected to the clock, which as of 2016 was awaiting repair. This bell measures and was founded by John Taylor of Loughborough, possibly in the 1930s when the turret clock mechanism was installed. It has been added at a lower level on the east side of the bellcote, and is struck by a clock hammer. Both bells are inscribed with the maker's name, and the larger one has the date 1879.Ripon and Leeds Bells: Killinghall St Thomas the Apostle SE285584 The clock bell, clock face and turret mechanism by Potts of Leeds was donated by the daughters of George Lewis, who died aged 91 in 1932, having served as churchwarden for 41 years.
Interior
Between the nave and the north and south aisles are two arcades each of four doubly-chamfered arches, supported by circular columns with octagonal capitals. The chancel floor is three steps above that of the nave. It contains choir stalls designed by the architect William Swinden Barber on either side, and in a 1905–1908 chancel reordering these were augmented by two clergy seats and two prayer desks for the choir. The original choir stalls were described in 1880 as being "plain but very solid construction", like the nave pews which were also designed by the architect. On the south side of the chancel is the organ chamber, and on the north side is the vestry which has access through the north wall and into the chancel. The chancel arch was built "as lofty as possible", being the "chief internal feature of the structure". All the woodwork is made of pitch pine, and was originally treated or varnished to appear as close as possible to its natural colour, although the roof timbers looked warmer than the pews when new. The nave is by , and the north and south aisles are by . The chancel is by . The organ chamber contained no organ at first, when it measured internally by . At the consecration, a harmonium was used in default of the absent organ, and the church still contains a harmonium which may date back to 1880.
The font and pulpit, designed by the architect and sculpted by Charles Mawer of Leeds,Charles Mawer (active 1861–1881) carved the capitals in St Matthews Lightcliffe, also designed by Barber are made of Caen stone, and were paid for by Lady Ingilby. The nave and chancel originally had plain brass gas lamp standards made by Hardman's Works, and there was hot-air heating apparatus supplied by Grundy. The books were given by Mrs and the Misses Lloyd of Hazelcroft. Plate used for communion service was given by Mrs W. Strother, and the chairs in the chancel were given by Mr H. Cautley. The surplices and linen were given by the vicar of Killinghall Reverend R.K. Smith and his wife. Thomas Strother presented the altar in memory of his mother who died in 1863. Dinah Cautley (d.1910) paid for the oak chancel screen in 1905.
Organ The pipe organ, built by William Andrews of Bradford, was installed in 1908. It has a carved oak case, copperplate script on ivory drawstops and a radiating and concave pedalboard. It was renovated in 1992 by J.M. Spinks of Leeds. Dinah Cautley (d.1910) donated the two-manual organ, which in its time was one of the largest in Nidderdale.
Memorial plaques There is a brass plaque presented by Lady Ingilby in memory of churchwarden George Lewis (d.1932). There are three memorial tablets commemorating the Strother family, including John Marmaduke Strother MC, Second Lieutenant, killed in action aged 24 in 1917. He is also remembered on the Arras Memorial and the Killinghall War Memorial. His tablet was engraved by Jesper of Harrogate. Dinah Cautley, a major benefactor to the church, has a tablet in the nave to her memory, recording her death in 1910 at age 79. She was the aunt of Henry Cautley MP. There is a tablet dedicated to a judge, Frederick McCulloch Jowitt CBE (d.1921).
There is a tablet in honour of Arthur Keightley Smith (1886–1942), son of the church's first vicar, who was lost at sea near Sumatra in World War II. Canon Elliston (d.1943), the church's second vicar, and the organist George Thomas Woods, are also remembered with a tablet. William Watson Mitchell (d.1933) also has a tablet in his memory.
1905–1908 re-ordering
In 1905, Canon Elliston and churchwardens Andus Hirst and George Lewis petitioned the Bishop of Ripon William Boyd Carpenter for a faculty to take down and remove the altar and rails, the clergy choir stalls and the prayer desks from the chancel. The wanted to remove the communion rail steps under the chancel arch, and all of the floor east of them. They wanted to raise the chancel floor by four inches, and to replace the chancel steps with Pateley Bridge stone. They planned a new chancel floor of the same stone, laid in squares and diamonds. There would be a new chancel screen, and an asphalt concrete floor overlaid with pitch pine under the choir stalls. They wanted a new altar of Austrian wainscot oak, and rails around it. Above the altar, they planned a retable with brass cross, flower vases and candlesticks. They wanted a wooden dado around the three chancel walls. They wanted to re-fix Barber's original pitch-pine choir stalls, but planned additional pitch pine seats for clergy, and new desks for the choir boys. They wanted a new carved oak chancel screen with a cross on top. They also wanted wrought iron gates in the chancel screen "to prevent the entrance of strangers into the chancel, who visit the church during the summer months, when it is left open for private prayer." The cost was estimated at £265, to be raised by voluntary contribution (in the event the cost of the chancel screen was donated by Dinah Cautley). They stated that the congregation had approved these plans. Elliston was given permission on 10 November 1905. to complete the project within the following three years.West Yorkshire Archive service, Morley: Document RD/AF2/19/26 (1905) Killinghall faculty
William Swinden Barber, who had originally designed the building, had retired and moved to Hampshire, so C. Hodgson Fowler designed the reordering and drew up the plans.1898 Electoral Register for BrighouseUnited Kingdom Census 1901: RG13/990/p.10
Stained glass
South aisle