The History of St Saviour's Church

The history of S. Saviour’s Church has its origins in a tiny mission church which was opened by the Rt Revd Brown-Borthwick in 1878. As the first vicar of All Saints Church in the Falsgrave he was keen to see that residents in the new housing being built on the northern side of his parish, had a place of worship within easy reach. A year later, the mission had been named S. Aidan’s and a remarkable man had been appointed to oversee its development. The Revd. William Frecheville Ramsden had come from S. Saviour’s Church in Leeds at the request of the Archbishop of York Rt Revd. William Maclagan. He refused to accept the stipend for his work as curate of All Saints and missioner to S. Aidan’s. Fr. Ramsden during his ten year curacy at Leeds had been powerfully influenced by the catholic worship and priestly ministry he had seen there. Dr Pusey (Professor of Hebrew at Oxford University) who had built the church in Leeds, had been at the forefront of the Tractanan Movement.

 So successful was Fr Ramsden’s work that by 1898 the mission room situated in what is now known as Lower Prospect Road, was proving inadequate. In March of 1898 the Additional Curates Society gave a grant to appoint another curate to share in the work That same year funds were raised to purchase a site on Gladstone Road on which an iron church was built, which became affectionately known as “the tin tabernacle”. In 1901 the adjacent piece of land was purchased and the foundation to a permanent church laid in the December of that year. The new church was not dedicated to S. Aidan, but to S. Saviour, a tangible reminder of Fr Ramsden’s formative years in Leeds.

 The building was designed by J. T. Micklethwaite, surveyor to Westminster Abbey and S. George’s Chapel, Windsor. The following year it became obvious that insufficient funds were available to allow the completion of the building. With the completion of the north aisle in 1902 the building was consecrated with a view to its being completed when funds allowed. However the building of the adjacent church of S. Columba’s, and the intervention of two World Wars, made the completion of S. Saviour’s Church impracticable.

 Fr Ramsden was to remain vicar for 39 years. The church became a separate ecclesiastical parish from All Saints in 1904. In the 1970’s All Saints Church was closed and eventually demolished. The parish was once again united, this time under S. Saviour’s Church, hence its current designation: The Parish of S. Saviour with All Saints.