A competent lancet Gothic design by Matthew Honan, typical of the cheaper kind of church being built around the turn of the twentieth century.

The church was established in a part of the expanding industrial town during the early twentieth century. The architect was Matthew Honan of Liverpool, an architect of promise who was killed in the Great War. Fr Motherway, a curate at Sacred Heart (qv) was the first resident priest. The Lady Chapel was fitted out as a memorial to him in 1918 after his death. The sanctuary was extended in 1935.

Description

Of hard red brick with red sandstone dressings. West bellcote, short aisles, polygonal apse. Simple lancet style with a triplet of stepped lancets, west end. Southwest link to a red brick presbytery. The interior has a narthex with a former baptistery, north side, a west gallery, simple arch-braced timber roof and arcades of octagonal stone piers. The sanctuary is panelled to dado height and there is a forward altar and pulpit with carved figures, both probably original and moved as part of a reordering. Chapels have carved Gothic reredoses with statues of the Virgin Mary, north side, and the Sacred Heart, south side. Stained glass is principally of early and mid-twentieth century date including nave windows and a west window by Hardman. The attached presbytery is a standard domestic design for the period.

Heritage Details