SE2421 : Dewsbury Minster
taken 1 year ago, near to Dewsbury, Kirklees, England
Radical alterations have been made to Dewsbury Minster in modern times. An organ loft created in 1978 was converted into the St Paulinus Chapel in 1994, and a mezzanine floor was added to form an upper hall and the parish office. In a reordering in 2005, the east end of the building was converted for community, heritage and refectory facilities, so that the altar is now situated at the west end in front of the west tower.
In 1884 the medieval east end of Dewsbury Minster was demolished and an extension in the Decorated Gothic style was built that doubled the size of the church. It added two transepts and a chancel with a "morning chapel" and vestries on the north side, and a lady chapel to the south - both with entrance porches. This created a traditional cross-shaped structure. A large stained-glass window was installed at the new east end. (The pre-extension east window survives in the new refectory.) It is the interiors of all of this Victorian development that have been re-purposed in stages beginning in 1978. The organ loft created in the crossing at that time has now been transformed into the east-facing upper-floor St Paulinus chapel. (Another organ from a redundant daughter church was installed at ground level at the east end of the south aisle.) All other adaptations are for secular use, but the original structural features of the Victorian restoration have been retained.