St Paul's

Today was a visit to Dewsbury to the grave of my mother inlaw & lay new flowers.



The Church and Parish

Hanging Heaton: mentioned in the Domesday Book under the name 'Etun'. The prefix 'Hanging' refers to a steep hillside hanging above lower ground. Heaton means 'High Farm': - thus Hanging Heaton was a lonely hillside farmstead. The church did not appear until the nineteenth century and was one of the so-called 'million churches', built to celebrate the victory of the Duke of Wellington at the battle of Waterloo in 1815. Parliament gave a grant of one million pounds so that a grateful nation could build churches as a way of saying thank you to God for a safe deliverance.

The church was built in the Gothic style of stone excavated from the immediate area. Mr Thomas Taylor of Leeds designed the building to have a nave, aisles and a tower with pinnacles at the west end. Also at the west end, there was a gallery which accommodated the organ, the choir, and about thirty of the congregation.