ST. JOHN'S CHURCH, HOYLANDSWAINE

The Church of St John the Evangelist at Hoylandswaine is a small, simple, Victorian parish church consecrated in 1869 to serve the needs of a parish of (then) c.900 souls living in this upland Pennine village, two miles from Penistone. Its congregation was employed mostly as agricultural workers, nailmakers and miners.

With an adjacent vicarage and new village school, it was built on land donated by Francis W T V Wentworth of Wentworth Castle, Stainborough and the buildings were largely funded by the Stanhope family of nearby Cannon Hall. The church cost around £3,000 to build.

The architect commissioned by the Spencer Stanhopes to design the buildings, was William Henry Crossland, a well-known and highly successful architect who had been a pupil of George Gilbert Scott. By the end of his life, Crossland had built seventeen churches and restored at least another thirteen. He was the architect of a number of buildings including in his native Huddersfield as well as three very significant buildings of the Victorian era– Rochdale Town Hall, Holloway Sanitorium at Virginia Water and the Royal Holloway College at Egham.

Built of local stone, the church is rectangular in shape with a large tower at the west end rising to seventy feet with battlements and pinnacles. However, although its design is simple, this solid place of worship has artistic connections which mark it out for special attention.

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