Church built in the heart of the cotton district, with an unremarkable brick exterior and impressive internal volume and fittings.

St Joseph’s was built in the centre of the cotton mill district, and is dedicated to St Joseph the Worker. It was built from designs by the Liverpool architect James O’Byrne and opened in 1874. The adjoining school was built earlier, in 1864.

The church cost £8,000. In 1897 a further £2,000 was spent on improvements, including the decoration of the chancel and the side chapels and the fine Stations of the Cross. The flooring of the chancel and side chapels is of marble mosaic. The glass of the east window is by Mayer of Munich.

List description

II

Roman Catholic church. 1873-74, by J. O’Byrne. Red brick with sandstone dressings, slate roof. Nave, aisles, sanctuary and side chapels in one vessel (under one roof except for transeptal gables to chapels), with west porch, and attached vestry on north side. The wide gabled west front is tripartite, with buttresses, a porch clasped by these with a gabled centre containing a deep 2-centred arched brick doorway moulded in 4 orders, with coupled doors, and a coped gable with a lancet carried out as a parapet to sides which have similar lancets. Above the porch is a stepped group of 3 very tall 2- centre-arched 2-light windows with multifoil tracery, set in a round- headed blank arch, and on each side is a similar window with a hoodmould. The side walls are 6 bays, buttressed, with tall triple lancet windows in each bay and a multifoil in the gable at the east end. The sanctuary has 5 stepped lancets.

INTERIOR: aisle arcades with columns of polished pink granite, stiff-leaf caps, and 2-centred double-chamfered arches with linked hoodmoulds; barrel-vaulted ceiling; west choir gallery with wooden arcaded front and projected semi-octagonal conductors stand; large elaborately carved Gothic reredos including marble shafts, central crocketed canopy with spire, and side arcades with life-size statues under crocketed gablets; marble octagonal pulpit with statues in arched niches and curved staircase; stained glass windows by Mayer of Munich and Casolini of St Helens. Built in centre of large cotton- mill district, and dedicated to St Joseph (the worker).

Heritage Details