The Church here meets in this wonderful building, dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Both the people and the building aim to make God known to his world today.

Lady Alicia de Lacy is credited with asking the Pope to upgrade a chapel in Mirfield to a parish after her servant was murdered en route to Dewsbury for a Christmas service. She appointed Richard de Vavasour vicar in 1247 but a church was not built until 1261. John Heton of Castle Hall built the Rectory about 1300 and it was occupied by rectors until 1401. Now privately owned, it stands 200 yards from the church in Pinfold Lane; its long south wall, probably dating from its foundation, is a good example of post and pan type construction. A 13th century pillar was found in the Vicarage garden in 1871 and incorporated into Choir Vestry by Scott.

Queen Phillipa, wife of Edward III, presented the living to the Prioress of Kirklees in 1347. On the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, the advowson (patronage, or the right to appoint the Vicar) passed to the Saville family who sold it in 1601 to John Armytage of Kirklees Hall. In 1655, Rev Robert Allenson was ejected and did not return to his duties at the Restoration. Sermons were preached by casual curates, one of whom was pilloried in Leeds, Wakefield, Bradford and Huddersfield for declaring Charles II an idolater in 1666. Extensions on the north side of the church ware nevertheless provided, in degrees, for the local gentry.

Sir George Armytage, honoured by Charles II, appointed a new vicar in 1676. A tablet at the rear of the nave shows that subsequent vicars stayed for long periods. Joseph Ismay’s diary chronicles the changing pattern of life in Mirfield as the Calder assumed importance as a waterway in a developing industrial area.

Mr. E.T. Ingham of Blake Hall, which stood until the nineteen thirties near the south of the Church site, bought the patronage and appointed Ralph Maude vicar in 1827. Anne Bronte (1820—1849) later spent nine "unhappy" months there as governess, but Mrs. Ingham thought her "ungrateful".

By 1826, the parish had 5040 people. The 13th century tower became part of the new church whose architecturally undistinguished nave and chancel were demolished in 1873 and their stones used for secular purposes. The pinnacles of the tower were replaced by a pyramid roof and it stands east of today’s church. The site was enclosed by railings and is now a Garden of Rest dedicated to the memory of Edward Hargrave, Vicar, 1956 - 71. The tomb of Richard Thorpe, a prominent dissenter and first benefactor of a school in Mirfield in 1667, is covered by a slab retrieved from a cellar in 1883. The tablet marking the tomb of Rev Ismay, 1739 - 78, supposedly beneath the High Altar was not traced. Another wall tablet lists charitable donations made in 1745 by local gentry.

The present church, consecrated in 1871 by the Bishop of Ripon, is the third to stand on the site of Castle Hall, granted as one of 214 manors to the de Lacy family after William the Conqueror seized it from Lord Alruic.

Designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, the foremost architect of his day, it was built by Milners of Mirfield from stone quarried in St. Michael’s Mount, Huddersfield. Subscriptions had been raised from 1865 onwards and, including furniture, it cost £35,000. The Nave is 87’ long by 27’ wide and 64’ high. The aisles are 13’ 62 wide. The Chancel is 40’ x 27’ and the Tower is 139’ high with a circumference of 120’. An initial gift of £3,000 for building the tower by the family of Joseph Lee was insufficient so the family of Joshua Ingham added another £5500.

Ralph Maude, a most remarkable Victorian Vicar of Mirfield, inspired the building of the original Christ Church, Battyeford, 1839;

 St. John’s, Hopton, 1846;

Inside the Church are many typical examples of Victorian stained glass windows with their own legends. In the Lady Chapel a modern window incorporates a likeness of Joseph Allott, organist from 1924 to 1956.

Ralph Maude gave the marble and granite font; his parishioners gave the pulpit in his memory. The oak panels in the sanctuary and the Eagle Lectern, a gift of J.S. Hirst, are particularly fine. The Reredos is made of alabaster and has cups, bases and panels of Derbyshire spar; the divisional clustered shafts are of Cornish spar. The outer niches of the Reredos are each filled with Salvisti Mosaics depicting angels with musical instruments. In 1986, Woods of Huddersfield completely restored the 1926 Walker organ retaining only the pipes and casing, at a cost of £24,000, to provide excellent accompaniment for the Church’s worship.

Standing in the Lady Chapel is the Mirfield Stone, carved on four sides and dating from the l0th / llth century. Above it, is a good example of a restored 16th century Book of Homilies containing 12 homilies or sermons to help clergy "lacking in learning" to prepare scholarly ones themselves. A slab in the Lady Chapel commemorates those who died in 1631 Mirfield Plague.

The font in the South Aisle was provided when the 1662 Book of Common Prayer was published. The Madonna and Child standing nearby is a recent gift to the church. Beneath the Tower, near a plaque recording the laying of the Foundation Stone, hangs a flagstone once said to contain a hammer dropped into it during the building of the tower - actually, it is the remnant of an embedded stanchion! At the rear of the Nave is a book case made from ancient oak pews, the War Memorial and Memorial Book, and an artist’s impression of the 1826 Church.

The interior of the Church has gradually changed with taste and worship practice. A major re-ordering was undertaken in 1993 when the central Altar was created. In 1999 the kitchen and toilet area by the west door was created.

The clock has three 8’ dials and strikes every quarter hour. It was electrified in 1976 when modern lighting was installed. There are 10 bells cast in 1871 which weigh over 6.5 tons: they have been overhauled in 1937 and 1984: lengthy and elaborate changes have often been rung. The flagpole in the Churchyard celebrates the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. The Church has been floodlit since its centenary in 1971, first with a gift acknowledged in the west of the church and then with a newly installed system in 2000.

Standing about 100 yards east of the church is the Parish Centre, opened in 1973. It is much used by Church and community groups and for social functions, and is available for public hire. The Parish Centre incorporates the Church House which was given to the Church in 1881 as a curate’s house! It now houses the Centre Caretaker, a meeting room, the Parish Office, a counselling room and various storage rooms.

Ivy Lodge, at the top of Pinfold Lane, served as the vicarage after Ismay lived there in 1740 until Nevin built a large one in Crowlees Rd in 1873. Marsden sold this and vicars returned to Ivy Lodge until the vicarage opposite the church was built in 1935. In the 1990s the current Vicarage was built in its garden.

Today, the church serves a largely residential parish of just under 9,000 people. The congregation is lively and welcoming and ready to meet the challenges placed upon the Church in the 21^st century. We want to be rooted in the faith that has sustained people through the centuries, ready to present the good news of Jesus to the people of today, and open to the future to which God calls us. As you look around our Church pray that we might be equipped for the task.