page_title: Catherine Mawer
section_title: St Stephen's Church, Bowling Old Lane, 1859–1860
hierarchical_section_title: Catherine Mawer / Works by Catherine Mawer / St Stephen's Church, Bowling Old Lane, 1859–1860
caption_attribution_description: The east end
context_page_description: Catherine Mawer was an architectural sculptor who worked alongside her husband Robert Mawer, then following his death in 1854 she ran the family stone yard as a master sculptor at Great George Street, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, until 1859. The other master sculptor in her 1854–1859 company, which was known as Mrs Mawer, was her nephew William Ingle who supervised the stone yard and onsite works from 1854. Her apprentices were Matthew Taylor, Benjamin Payler, and her son Charles Mawer. All the apprentices later had independent careers as sculptors. After her son came of age in 1870, she continued working alongside Charles and her nephew William in the partnership Mawer and Ingle at the same address. Catherine was a founder member of the Mawer Group, which comprised all of the above Leeds architectural sculptors. During her lifetime, the Mawer group produced some strongly lifelike and often unflattering portraits, full of movement, including portraits of men with overhanging moustaches and cavernous mouths. These portraits continued after the deaths of Robert Mawer and William Ingle, but stopped appearing at her death in 1877.
context_section_description: This is a Grade II listed building. The church in Newton Street, West Bowling, Bradford, was designed by Mallinson and Healey of Bradford. The foundation stone was laid on 2 July 1859, and the building was consecrated on Tuesday 24 April 1860 by the Bishop of Ripon. This was one of seven churches for which Charles Hardy was a major benefactor. This building of 611 sittings had a nave with aisles, a chancel with a hexagonal apse, and a tower with belfry at the north-west corner. The 27-inch bell was of cast steel, by Naylor and Vickers of Sheffield. Over the main entrance, which was via a recessed doorway on the north side, was the inscription: "Blessed is that man that maketh the Lord his trust" (Psalm 40:4). There were four dormer windows on each side of the nave roof instead of a clerestory. The first incumbent was the Rev. T.A. Stowell M.A., who was previously the curate of Bolton, in Calverley.
  
  The Leeds Intelligencer reported: 
  "The font, which is at the west end of the nave, is of Caen stone, octagonal, supported on marble pillars, and enriched with carvings of the evangelistic symbols. Around the base is the legend: As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Romans 8:14). It is the work of Mr. (sic) Mawer, of Leeds, and does great credit to his taste and skill." (Leeds Intelligencer 28 April 1860)
  In 1859 when the commission was taken up, Robert Mawer was dead and Charles Mawer had not completed his apprenticeship, so it is reasonable to suppose that the author of the font was Catherine Mawer. As of 2018 the original Caen stone font is not visible; in the nave is a smaller, late nineteenth century Derbyshire alabaster font without the Evangelists' symbols or any inscription. In 1887 the building was enlarged and renovated by architect M. Brayshaw; a Caen stone and alabaster reredos and a chancel window by Powell were added.
   Media related to St Stephen's Church, Bowling at Wikimedia Commons
caption: Apse of St Stephen, West Bowling
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