Geograph - photograph every grid square

All Saints' Church Dewsbury "A Mother Church of West Yorkshire", was founded in C.E. 627 by Paulinus the first Bishop of York. The Parish stretched for 400 square miles. There are nine ancient churches left in the Kirklees area, All Saints being the Mother church. In 1992 Saxon stonework was discovered, establishing that the church was originally a minster. In 1993 All Saints was therefore restored to Minster status, the first such church to have that distinction since the Reformation. A Grade II* listed building, the oldest parts date from the thirteenth century; most of the exterior is from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Tower was designed in 1767 by John Carr who was born in Horbury.

Radical alterations have been made to Dewsbury Minster in modern times. An organ loft created in 1978 was converted into the St Paulinus Chapel in 1994, and a mezzanine floor was added to form an upper hall and the parish office. In a reordering in 2005, the east end of the building was converted for community, heritage and refectory facilities, so that the altar is now situated at the west end in front of the west tower.