Mount St Mary's-The Famine church Leeds

phill.d · May 5, 2008

Well a Sunday dawned and I was about to make my first visit to a church for many years. Mount St Mary's in Leeds is a massive cathedral sized church and I wasn't disappointed with the trip.

The pics look better clicked full size.

The church was opened in 1857 funded entirely by the Irish community who had settled in this part of Leeds to flee the potato famine. The church was known locally as the church of famine.

The congregation dwindled and the church closed it's doors for the last time in 1989.

I was massively impressed by the scale of the church once inside.

The altar had been smashed along with some of the hands and faces on the statues.

Thankfully the statues higher up were still intact.

Repent all ye sinners.

The Presbertry had suffered an arson attack and the floors were in a dangerous state.

These are just a few of the pics from the day. The other pics and history of the church are here
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=265602590&blogID=389969200

ashless · May 5, 2008

Even though i'm in no way religious it really does pi*s me off that people set fire to these beautiful and historic places

Great site, great pics

phill.d · May 5, 2008

ashless said:
Even though i'm in no way religious it really does pi*s me off that people set fire to these beautiful and historic places

Great site, great pics

Thankfully the fire hadn't spread to the church. There was one inscription on one of the smashed statues that said '''Remember me when I shalt visit your kingdom''' I kinda hope the big man upstairs does remember the moron concerened lol. :icon_evil

skittles · May 5, 2008

ashless said:
Even though i'm in no way religious it really does pi*s me off that people set fire to these beautiful and historic places

Great site, great pics

The owners p!55 me off too, instead of properly securing these buildings and at least keeping them water tight they just leave them. Its a sin!

phill.d · May 5, 2008

skittles said:
The owners p!55 me off too, instead of properly securing these buildings and at least keeping them water tight they just leave them. Its a sin!

Well the church has been closed 19years. I guess it depends on how long the place was empty before the owners bought it. I can say the places was like Fort Knox. It wasn't an easy walk in, There has been a fair amount of effort to keep the scum out. Also there was temporary roofing and the East wall has been shored up. It looks like they are doing there best to kept it in a decent shape at least.

fire*fly · May 5, 2008

what an amazing place, a proper shame that these idiots can't just look & have to destroy!

skittles · May 5, 2008

phill.d said:
Well the church has been closed 19years. I guess it depends on how long the place was empty before the owners bought it. I can say the places was like Fort Knox. It wasn't an easy walk in, There has been a fair amount of effort to keep the scum out. Also there was temporary roofing and the East wall has been shored up. It looks like they are doing there best to kept it in a decent shape at least.

19 years ago the entrances and windows should have been bricked up and so should the status to protect them

Its not just this church - and other buildings - but you come across such examples all the time

But congratulations on the photos they are very good

sqwasher · May 5, 2008

Great pics & report as always Mr D! Amazing how many confession boxes there is in there! Great history also on your site! Cheers...

phill.d · May 5, 2008

sqwasher said:
Great pics & report as always Mr D! Amazing how many confession boxes there is in there! Great history also on your site! Cheers...

Thanks Sqwasher. I had to laugh about the confession of Yosser Hughes while I was there looking at the sinners boxes. I put a link to it from my pictures.
I'm Desperate Dan, Giza job :mrgreen:

Dirus_Strictus · May 6, 2008

skittles said:
19 years ago the entrances and windows should have been bricked up and so should the status to protect them

Its not just this church - and other buildings - but you come across such examples all the time

But congratulations on the photos they are very good

Major damage to the building occurred whilst it was still owned by the Church Authorities. Subsequent Grade 2* listing made sure that it stood for years and slowly decayed further. The regeneration of the area is only a fairly recent venture, and the delay in developing the area played a major part the ruination process. When the local population moved out, there was no local voice of concern.

Whilst I personally think that Listing, can cause major problems for certain categories of buildings. Sadly this Government's abolition of the 2* listing, and the underhandedness of Leeds City planners/English Heritage, means that most of this site will be demolished. Only the Pugin designed Chancel and Transepts will be restored. The Aisles and Nave will be replaced by a bloody great block of flats, as will the Presbytery.

Quite frankly they should demolish the whole site, if bastardisation is the only plan the idiots can come up with.

BFG316 · May 6, 2008

Great photos there matey.

Foxylady · May 6, 2008

Shame such a gorgeous building has been left to decay and I echo other people's views about the morons who can't leave things alone. The carved stonework is beautiful and great photos, Phill.

boxfrenzy · May 6, 2008

Really glad you did this one mate, the photo's look amazing and really do the building justice. The criminality of allowing this place to be half demolished is beyond belief, and I can only hope that some of the stonework and carvings are saved, and don't just end up in a skip.

The photograph of the fireplace in the presbytery is awesome. Is that a crucifix on the wall above? Cool light too.
We can only hope that the plight of yet another great Leeds building is raised and someone with influence and money sees the sorry state it now is. Yorkshire Evening Post are you reading?

phill.d · May 6, 2008

boxfrenzy said:
Really glad you did this one mate, the photo's look amazing and really do the building justice. The criminality of allowing this place to be half demolished is beyond belief, and I can only hope that some of the stonework and carvings are saved, and don't just end up in a skip.
The photograph of the fireplace in the presbytery is awesome. Is that a crucifix on the wall above? Cool light too.
We can only hope that the plight of yet another great Leeds building is raised and someone with influence and money sees the sorry state it now is. Yorkshire Evening Post are you reading?

Thanks Foxy and Box.
Yeah mate you have my sentiments exactly about the plans to demolish half the church. It will be criminal if it happens I agree. I know what your saying about people not been aware of how it looks inside, Out of site and out of mind. It leaves you in a tricky position really when there's so much controversy over it's future. If the Y.E.P ran the story and helped raise awareness to save the building then that's the right thing, but then again there's always the negative part of this game when folk get slatted if the places get shut down because of it. You can't win mate!

NobodyGirl · May 6, 2008

WOW! amazing place, and they are some awesome photos!

nursepayne · May 7, 2008

Philld, this is poss one of the best reports I've seen on a church in the UK, its PACKED with amazing sculptures left.
I'm miffed its up in Leeds though, everything I want to see seems to be near there.
I think theres some type of northern conspiracy going on

Good job on finding this place!
payno~~

phill.d · May 7, 2008

Thanks Guys. It is an amazing place NursePain. I can't take the credit for finding it tho. It's been done a few times before, It still makes a nice change from some of the more visited places I think :mrgreen:

pdtnc · May 9, 2008

weird how these churches have to close, the lack of congregation I suppose that, the UKs religious decline?
great shots, lovely place....

James W Bell · May 22, 2008

MSM Photography

It's not an easy place to photograph. My 4mp compact had some teething troubles in there alright. If it hadn't been for PhotoShop my own endeavours would have been brought to an end!

Nikons like Phill's are best for places with limited light source like this!

Cheers

J

Lightbuoy · May 22, 2008

Nice work Phil

Those tiles are beautiful -in fact the whole place looks beautiful (in a decaying sort of way)

Cheers matey,

Lb

Mount St Mary's-The Famine church Leeds

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