Leeds Minster: The ancient church which is a magnificent relic of Victorian Leeds

During the reign of Edward III, however, it too was destroyed by fire.

Not much is known about the church until the 18th century, when the founder of Methodism John Wesley paid several visits.

That church was demolished in the 1830s on the orders of a new vicar, Dr. Walter Farquhar Hook, a High Anglican Tory who feared for the Godliness of his congregation when he saw the state of the medieval structure and had it replaced with today’s building.

It was designed in the style of the Gothic Revival by Robert Chantrell, was consecrated in 1841, and contains several memorials and monuments from the old church.

New fittings included Gothic galleries and a particularly elevated pulpit.

Dr. Hook, who died in 1875, was accorded a fine memorial which can be seen to the left of the altar.

Whilst in Leeds he built 21 other churches, 27 schools and 23 vicarages.

Today the interior of the church is a magnificent relic of Victorian Leeds and also contains the city’s oldest historical monument, a partly remodelled 10th century memorial cross that was uncovered when the old building was being demolished.

This was initially claimed by the architect, Robert Chantrell, and had to be retrieved from his garden near Brighton.

In the churchyard is a Sir Edwin Lutyens-designed memorial to members of the Leeds Rifles regiment killed in World War I. It is now a Grade II-listed structure.

In 2012 the parish church was awarded the honorific title of Leeds Minster.