St Gregory’s is of historical importance as an early manifestation of revived open Catholic observance in the Chorley area. The church has been  subject  to  many  changes,  of  which  the  distinctive  and  unusual tower (1845) is of particular interest. 

Mass was said at nearby Burgh Hall (demolished) from 1755-70 and a permanent church established by Fr John Chadwick in an altered farm building on or near the site of the present church in 1774. This was sited in open countryside on land leased from a local landowner, Edward Weld. A larger church was built in 1814 under Fr Richard Thompson after the land was given to the church in 1810. It cost £3,333 and was possibly designed by Thomas Burgess (also responsible for St Bede’s, Chorley, qv) although his involvement may have been limited to altering the farm building. Fr Henry Greenhalgh added the aisles in 1831-2,  and  the  tower,  baptistery,  porch and  confessionals  in  1845 (architect unknown). The interior was subsequently remodelled to the designs of Matthew Honan, whose plans are dated 25 November 1910. More alterations took place in the mid- and later twentieth century.

Description

See list description, below. The aisles, west front and tower are of stone, the chancel of partially exposed brick. Flanking the west entrance are two niches containing stone statues of Our Lady of Dolours and St Gregory. A niche on the second stage of the tower contains a statue of Christ carrying the Cross.

The main body of the church is of five bays, without structural division between nave and  chancel,  terminating in an apse with a five-bay blind arcade with fluted Corinthian pilasters. The ceiling is coffered. This scheme of fibrous plaster beams, a Vitruvian scroll frieze and classical cornice was introduced by Honan in 1910. A west gallery on Tuscan columns with a panelled front was shortened by Honan in 1910. The western entrance area is  flanked by a baptistery and confessionals, with a staircase to the gallery. Baptistery with mosaic applied in the 1960s (possibly 1966), no longer used for its intended purpose. The remodelled aisle arcades take the form of large, square columns; Honan added fibrous plaster arches to the aisles and fibrous plaster Corinthian pilasters to the columns in 1910, but these have since been truncated, probably when green marble facings were applied to the column bases in about 1936.

The stained glass is all nineteenth century, except one window at the west end of 1963 and a millennium window by Design Lights. The aisles each contain a Portland stone altar; that on the south side is by Edmund Kirby, designed in 1890. A chancel screen was removed by Honan in 1910 and the chancel was simply reordered in the late twentieth century with the addition of a stepped stage and simple, smaller altar by Terry Sarsfield.

Other furnishings include a brass dated 1846 on the north wall, possibly by Hardman, and a statue of the Virgin Mary in the south aisle. Externally, a small memorial to the north of the entrance commemorates the Reverend Henry Canon Greenhalgh.

List description

II

Church, 1814-15, enlarged 1831, with facade 1845. Pebble-dashed brick with slate roof, ashlar aisles and north front. Nave; aisles; narthex and 4-stage tower with belfry. North front (in Italian Renaissance style) consists of single-storey pedimented narthex divided into 3 bays by panelled pilasters, the centre of the pediment broken by a pedimented 2nd storey (with corner pilasters and central coved niche with statue of Christ carrying cross); this forms the 2nd stage of the tower which has at 4th stage a belfry of 4 aedicules surmounted by a belvedere with ogee cap terminating in a cross; at ground floor level the centre of the facade has a round-headed entrance with voussoirs, Tuscan columns and fanlight with radiating glazing bars, and each flanking bay has a coved niche with a statue. North end of each aisle has a round-headed doorway with Tuscan columns. Nave has 5 lunettes; aisles have square tripartite windows except at south end which is of 3 stepped round-headed lights. Convex south end of nave has 3 blind round-headed arches with an impost band. Interior: wide nave and concave sanctuary in one vessel, the sanctuary having engaged giant Corinthian columns with blind round-headed panels between them; tops of similar Corinthian columns between lunettes of nave rise to moulded frieze and cornice with modillions which carry round the whole; flat panelled ceiling; gallery at north end carried on single and coupled Tuscan columns had entablature with egg-and-dart decoration and panelled parapet similarly decorated.

Listing NGR: SD5838815988

Heritage Details