A small rural church in an attractive landscaped setting, built in Gothic Revival style in the 1890s to serve the growing industrial community of Broadbottom. The church is a local landmark, stone-built and notable for its little-altered interior with a fine set of Gothic altars by Boulton of Cheltenham.

Mass was said in Broadbottom during the late eighteenth century in property belonging to Charles Bostock, and from 1875 in the committee room of the village Co-operative store. The present church was founded by Canon Sabela from St Charles in Hadfield and built on land given by Lord Howard of Glossop, son of the Duke of Norfolk. The church was formally opened in August 1896 at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Bagshawe. The builders were Messrs Storrs of Stalybridge and the building cost £2,500. In 1936 the sanctuary was adorned with mural paintings of the newly-canonised St Thomas More and St John Fisher, and local martyrs, and with Christ the King over the chancel arch; these have since been covered or removed.

Broadbottom became an independent parish in 1971 with a presbytery built in 1980 in Gamesley, a nearby post-war estate, but is now served from Hadfield.

Description

The church is built in a simple Gothic style with pointed windows, steep roof and vertical  proportions. The plan consists of four-bay nave, apsidal sanctuary with sacristy to the east, west end with porch and bellcote facing the road and a gabled projection to the south originally for confessionals and vestry. The stone-built structure has a Welsh slate roof, with elevations articulated with stepped buttresses and projecting bays for north and south windows lighting the side altars. The west end faces the road with gabled bellcote above a niche with a statue of Our Lady. The nave windows are glazed with plain leaded glass, the sanctuary windows are filled with 1890s stained glass by Edmonson of Manchester, given by Lord Howard.

The attractive, well-lit interior is unaltered spatially and retains a good set of 1890s fittings. The open roof has arch-braced scissor trusses on stone corbels, and exposed rafters, walls are plain and painted white with decoration reserved for the east wall with moulded sanctuary arch and blind arches behind east side altars. The nave floor is laid with pine boards, but the sanctuary floor and steps are hidden by carpet. Intact fittings include the Gothic-style Caen stone high altar and two side altars, with crocketed pinnacles, niches and marble columns, made by Boulton of Cheltenham and given by local families. The octagonal font was the gift of George Turner. The sanctuary was reordered in 1973 when the communion rails and pulpit were removed and a plain wooden forward altar provided. Pews are open-backed pine. The sacristy has original fittings including  cast-iron corner  fireplace, coloured glass panels to inner pine door and fitted vestment chest. The church was originally lit by gas and now has modern wall-mounted lighting with radiators run from a gas-fired boiler.

Heritage Details