22/06/2026
History Monday
Church Lane
We continue our series of how local streets came by their names. Today it is the turn of the lane directly opposite the front door of this pub, Church Lane, which shouldn’t need much explanation. It is the lane that leads to the beautiful church of All Saints. A former Vicar, Nicholas Clews liked to say that our local church stands on some of the oldest consecrated ground in this country. He was right. People have been walking along Church Lane to get to church for near on a thousand years.
The eminent historian of Victorian times Joseph Hunter of Sheffield visited Featherstone in 1850 and wrote about All Saints Church. He said that there was a church here in the time of King Stephen (1135-1154). He knew this because he had access to documents that showed Hugh de Laval of Pontefract Castle had given the church to the monastery of St Oswald at Nostell, before that it had been held by the monks of St John at Pontefract and before that it is likely there was a Saxon church here in the years before the conquest.
Nostell then held the rights for All Saints until the time of Henry Eighth who gave the patronage of this church to the Dean and Chapter of Christ Church College, Oxford. The oldest remains are parts of the north wall of the nave, which date from the 1300's. The church had a massive restoration in the 1880's and most of the south side, the aspect we see from the roadside was rebuilt. Mr Alexander Alexander, an engineer at Ackton Hall Colliery was a witness to the Victorian restoration. He left papers that told stories of what the church must have looked like. He described black oak box pews with doors to them and Turkey red cushions to sit on. He said there was a musician’s gallery under the tower and a double decker pulpit. He also mentions a "squint." The proper name is hagioscope. In ancient churches these were holes in walls at eye level that led to tunnels into side chapels. Many people call them lepers windows, believing that they were designed to allow lepers and undesirables to see a church service without coming into contact with the rest of the congregation.
The three bells here were hung in a renovated belfry in 1883. They are called John, Peter and James. There is an inscription on John that says, "May John's bell sound for many years." Langdale Sunderland, the civil war cavalryman is said to have had the oak framing for the bells erected. His initials LS and the date 1681 are still carved into the wood. Sunderland's tomb is still here. Another prominent tomb here is that of Nicholas Fairfax, who was married to Isobel Beckwith of Ackton Hall. he was the younger son of Thomas, First Viscount Fairfax of Emley. He and Isobel had a daughter called Catherine, who married Thomas Waterton of Walton. And she was the great grandmother of the very famous naturalist and explorer, Charles Waterton. Nicholas Fairfax was a distant cousin of Black Tom Fairfax, who besieged Pontefract Castle during the English Civil war. It is this Fairfax for whom the nearby Fairfax Avenue is named.
There is an unusual font here. It is carved from magnesian limestone and bears the name of John de Baghill and his wife Katherine. They were early benefactors. Hunter also mentions the font features the arms of John Nevil, Marquis Montacute and the Scargill family of Stapleton.
The parish registers were started on the first day of Elizabeth's reign, November 9 1558. They are well kept, but missing some months in 1645. The bubonic plague came to Featherstone in August that year and its first victim was Richard Turner, the parish clerk.
The first recorded vicar was Thomas de Thurnam in 1310. There is a list of all the vicars to the present day inside. The Reverend Thomas Hinde and his son we popular vicars here in Victorian times and between them stayed for 64 years. The man who replaced them, Rev Stebbings was here for thirty from 1887. He was a controversial vicar often at loggerheads with his parishioners. He resigned a year after moving to Wakefield. He was asked at a vestry meeting, "When are you coming home?" He replied that he never would because Featherstone did not suit his health.
There are some interesting stones in the graveyard. Mrs Heywood of Ackton Hall has a tomb here. As does "Ossie" Wilkes, local strongman and scrap metal dealer. Local stories say that not long before he died, Ossie paid for the church bells to be sent to the Whitechapel Foundry to be renewed and he footed the bill for their renewal. There are no less than 7 listed monuments in the churchyard which are exquisitely carved dating back to the 16 and 1700’s. There is also a listed stone seven metres south west of the porch. It is a single upright shaft of limestone dating back to the mediaeval times.
The church clock was set going on the first day of the 20th century by Mrs St John Durnford, wife of the manager at Ackton Hall Colliery. It is still weighted by Victorian pennies, placed there on that day.
