To meet the needs of a rapidly growing population in South Bank, a Mission Chapel had been built in South Bank Avenue in 1900, which we saw earlier, as an outreach centre for St. Clement’s Church in Scarcroft Rd.
In 1922 land was bought near Campleshon Lane by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners to build a church of St Chad, with additional land being conveyed in 1926. There was a series of fund-raising events staged to support the ‘Argles Memorial Church’, named after the long serving vicar of St Clements, Rev. Canon Argles, who had died in 1920. For example a bazaar had been held in the Assembly Rooms in York, which raised £1400.
Architectural plans were drawn up by the celebrated architect Walter Brierley in 1924, and building work started on the new church, to be officially named the Church of St. Chad on the Knavesmire. It opened in 1926, as a Chapel of Ease to St. Mary Bishophill Senior, at a cost of £10,300. The church is built in brick throughout and comprises a 'nave', originally intended as a chancel, of three bays and a Lady Chapel at the east end. The present structure represents only half the original plan, of which many features were left uncompleted, including the tower, due to Brierley's death. The Church is a Grade II listed building because of its innovative structural form.
In 1928 the parish of St. Chad was separated and constituted as a consolidated chapelry under southern St. Mary’s Bishophill.
In 1927 St Chad’s Greys Scouts were formed, with a Scout Band created in 1947 by Fred Weatherley and Bryan Jowsey. Plans were drawn up in 1964 to build the uncompleted west tower, which was finally opened in 1967, and in 1970 a new church hall was built alongside the west tower. Sadly in 2001 the Scouts hut was completely destroyed by fire
The Church is a Grade II Historic England listed building, a notable example of work by Walter Brierley.
