The church was of some architectural interest as a pioneering work by Weightman & Bullen, which influenced the form of other churches in the Archdiocese. It was closed in 2011 and subsequently demolished.

A temporary church was built in 1933, a chapel-of-ease to All Saints, Golborne. It stood alongside the present presbytery. A separate parish was established in 1956 and Archbishop Heenan laid the foundation stone for a new church on 28 September 1958. The church was opened by the Archbishop on June 3 1959, whereupon the old church became the parish hall (replaced in 1992 by a new hall linking the church and presbytery).

Built from designs by Weightman & Bullen, this was the first centrally-planned church to be built in this part of Lancashire. It was reordered in the late 1980s. In 1989 a bell from St Lewis’, Croft was installed in the bell tower. The church was closed in 2011 and demolished in 2017 after it was rejected for listing.

Description (2007)

The church is hexagonal in plan. Attached to one side is a single storey flat-roofed baptistery and vestibule from which rises an open-framed concrete belfry tower. On the opposite side of the church is a full-height sanctuary; the intervening sides have side chapels in low flat-roofed projections. The main building has a concrete frame with spaces between filled at lower level by red brick panels and at upper level by large windows in hardwood frames, rising to the roofline. The roof is a folded structure, covered in copper.

The interior is tall and very light. The lower walls are plain plastered and painted; the windows are filled with a mixture of clear and blue-tinted glass. The folded roof is expressed internally. The sanctuary has large side windows with coloured glass and a blind east wall with a contemporary patterned finish and an altar canopy.  The side chapels are reached by simple openings cut in the wall.  The furnishings are equally simple, with what are presumably the original benches in the nave.

Entry amended by AHP 2.1.2021

Heritage Details