Salford originated as a medieval settlement which grew up along the banks of the River Irwell and Chapel Street is part of the historic core of the settlement. The area became popular and fashionable for elegant public buildings and residences at the turn of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Later in the century the peripheral areas became built up with dense housing and industry. Clearances from the 1960s were followed by decline and, more recently, regeneration.

Following the collapse of the original St Mary’s Mulberry Street (qv) in 1835, some of the money collected for the establishment of a new church was used to buy land at Hunts Bank in Manchester. It soon became clear that this location would be engulfed by works associated with the establishment of the railway (Victoria Station, opened 1844) and the land was therefore sold and a plot on Chapel Street, Salford acquired instead. A.W.N. Pugin drew up proposals for a church in 1842, but in the event he withdrew, citing ‘a point of principle’, and designs were instead prepared by Matthew Hadfield of Weightman & Hadfield. This was reputed to be the first Catholic church since the Reformation to adopt a cruciform plan. It was certainly one of the largest, most ambitious and impressive Catholic churches of its day. The cost was said to be in the region of £18,000 and the building was a dramatic demonstration of the confidence of the Catholic church in England.  The building was inaugurated in 1844 and 6,000 people are said to have attended the laying of the foundation stone by Dr Sharples, Vicar Apostolic. Principal benefactors included the Leeming and Lee families. When it was opened in 1848 the service was attended by Catholics from all over the country, including eight English bishops. The various fixtures and fittings included a magnificent reredos by George Goldie, sanctuary furnishings by Goldie and Weightman & Hadfield, metalwork by Hardman and choir furnishings by Lane & Lewis.

With the restoration of the Catholic hierarchy by Pope Pius IX in 1850 the Diocese of Salford was created and the church elevated to the status of a cathedral. The building is discussed by Charles Eastlake in his seminal book The History of the Gothic Revival published in 1872, and merited a full-page illustration.

Various repairs and restorations included one in 1881 when the spire was damaged by a storm. A new chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was designed by P.P. Pugin and completed in 1884. With the debt finally paid off in 1890, the church was consecrated. The building was subject to a reordering in 1972 by Cassidy & Ashton when a new sanctuary with altar was formed in the crossing. More controversially, another reordering in 1983 resulted in the removal or mutilation of the high altar, pulpit, side altars and other furnishings, with alteration of the choir furnishings. More work in 1990 involved the destruction of Goldie’s reredos, leaving only the base.

A major further phase of work was finished in 2009 when the ancillary buildings of the Cathedral, originally a seminary, library, a former Victorian school and parts of the former Salford Corporation Education Offices were converted to provide diocesan offices, a conference centre and shop, with scope for extending the range of facilities within the Education Office premises. This work was undertaken by Michael Taylor of Bate & Taylor Architects and the project won local awards for conservation and regeneration awarded by Salford City Council.

In 2026 a £22m repair and restoration project, titled Revealing the Glory, was completed. This included the reinstatement of rich polychromy on the wall and roof surfaces and on the statuary and screens (the colour scheme a creative reimagining rather than an archaeological recreation), a new altar, ambo and font in Derbyshire marble (the altar in the western bay of the chancel rather than under the crossing as previously), reinstatement of screens at the sides of the chancel (timber rather than stone), new limestone and encaustic tile floors, an increase in nave seating by the removal of a western porch and the creation of a new side entrance and piazza. The hanging crucifix has been returned to the chancel arch and a Calvary from the church of St Joseph, Ordsall (closed in 2020) set up in the north transept. The work was overseen by conservation architect Chris Cotton and funded in part by the Albert Gubay Charitable Foundation.

Description

All orientations given are liturgical. The list entry (below) covers the main elements of the building. It describes the south transept as an addition of 1884, but this seems to be an error perhaps owed to the fact that a new chapel was established in the transept at that time. Both transepts are shown on the large scale map of Manchester and Salford published in 1850-1. The design is essentially an assemblage of motifs from the English medieval precedents of Newark (Nottinghamshire), Howden Minster (South Yorkshire), and Selby Abbey (North Yorkshire). All appeared in Edmund Sharpe’s Architectural Parallels of 1848 and many of the details are reproduced exactly, suggesting Hadfield had access to Sharpe’s material. The reproduction of motifs from a restricted range of sources was common in church architecture of the 1840s, and this example is particularly successful in blending the different elements convincingly. The interior stonework has had its polychromy restored, replacing twentieth century neutral colours. In the north and south corners respectively are the Lee and Leeming chantry chapels, with stone tomb recesses and brass memorials by Hardman. The Lady Chapel, with a reredos with Marian texts and emblems, occupies the centre of the space. In the south transept the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament was designed by P.P. Pugin of 1884. Fittings include a marble altar and effigy of St Aurelius by R.B. Boulton and panelling with paintings on a gold ground is by Joseph Alphege Pippett. The metalwork by Hardman, Powell & Co. seems largely to have disappeared, but new iron railings have been added in the south transept and at west end of the aisles. The north transept east chapel is a war memorial, with a large Pieta (now in a north aisle recess), marble panels inscribed with the names of the dead, and stained glass, probably by Hardman, with censing angels on each side and an east window on the theme of sacrifice. On the west wall of the transept the altar of Mary Queen of the most Holy Rosary with painting on a gold ground is from 1886 and likely to be by P.P. Pugin and J.A. Pippett (it was originally located in a recess in the west wall of the south transept).

Stained glass is generally of high quality, much of it probably by Hardman. It includes a window (chancel south side) with the architect M.E. Hadfield and designer of the furnishings George Goldie in the attitude of donors at the base, with scrolls showing their designs. The east window by William Wailes, dated 1854, is on the theme of the story of Catholicism in England from the conversion of King Ethelbert by St Augustine through to the Restoration of the Hierarchy, including a scene showing Henry VIII. It must be one of the largest and most elaborate windows designed for a Catholic church of the day. Other windows of note include two in the former baptistery at the west end of the north aisle: St Aloysius (Mayer of Munich) and St George (Barrowclough & Sanders). The west window has glass of abstract design installed in 1995 (Linda Walton). Carved Stations of the Cross presented by the de la Salle brothers of Hopwood Hall in 1989 were in turn donated to St Vincent’s school in Liverpool in 2020; their replacements come from the church of St Gregory the Great at Farnworth (closed 2004).

Entry amended by AHP 17.7.2026, with additional information and photos provided by James Crowley.

List descriptions

Cathedral and Cathedral House

GV II*

Roman Catholic cathedral. 1845. By Weightman & Hadfield. S transept added 1884. Coursed and squared stone with Welsh slate roof. c1300 Gothic style, extensively modelled on Selby and Howden. Nave with 2 aisles, central tower and spire, aisled chancel.

EXTERIOR: Cathedral tower rises above nave with paired bell chamber lights in deep, shafted recesses. Angle buttresses terminating in pinnacles with quatrefoil parapet running between them. Brooch spire with 4 tiers of lucarnes. Nave of 4 bays divided by buttresses, each with 3-light Decorated window. Gabled porch to W, with deep moulded doorway with niche over. Paired 2-light Decorated windows to clerestory. N transept with rose window in N wall, and octagonal turret in western angle with scallop-tiled ogival conical roof. 4 bays to chancel, unbuttressed. 3-light Decorated windows, with quatrefoil tracery, reticulated traceried 3-light windows to clerestory. Polygonal turrets on each eastern angle, with low leaded roofs. Large E window of 7 lights with richly reticulated tracery. Octagonal pinnacle turrets each side of W front, with 2-light Decorated windows in each gabled face, and crocketed spirelet. W door in deeply moulded splayed arch, flanked by blind traceried panels. 4-light Decorated window over, with enriched pointed hoodmould and blind traceried panels each side. Gabled buttresses also have traceried panelling, and canopies over statues. 3-light Decorated W windows to aisles. S transept of 2 bays, articulated by gabled buttresses and with corbel table to eaves.

INTERIOR: nave arcade of 4 bays with clustered shafts, and paired arches to clerestory. Clustered shafts to crossing arches. Timber roof to nave, stone vaulting to chancel. Austere internal decoration, relieved by richness of altar furnishings and stained glass. S transept chapel has polished marble altar rails and encaustic tiled floor, oak panelled reredos with gilded painted scenes from the life of Christ. Marble altar, the raised reredos having linenfold panelling above marble quatrefoils with emblematic sculpture, and terminating to SE with statue in niche. High relief sculpted panel to south chancel chapel altar and painted screens, the chapel divided from the ambulatory behind the high altar by a stone canopied memorial. Ambulatory divided from high altar by low stone traceried screen. E altar in ambulatory with elaborately carved reredos. Chancel has mosaic floor, an abstract design with central emblems, all set in a polished marble surround. Between the clerestory windows, over each pier of the chancel arcade, statues of kings and bishops in canopies. N transept chapel altar with figures set behind glazed tracery to returns and frontal. Memorial to Bishop Sharples d1850, a recumbent effigy in moulded recess. Stained glass, possibly by Hardman, in E window and in chancel aisles, one S window dated 1849, the E window dated 1854. Representations of saints, kings and martyrs in medieval idiom. Emblematic glass in S and N aisle windows, with west window of N aisle representing Saint Aloysius, dated 1889, and Durrell memorial window to N, by Barracough and Sanders of Lancaster, 1920. Sacramental window of c1889-90 to N transept.

Cathedral House: originally the Theological College. c1850. Adjoining the cathedral on the E side. Coursed and squared stone with steeply pitched Welsh slate roofs. L-plan with entrance range facing the road behind a courtyard. 3 storeys. 3-window range with central full-height canted bay with polygonal slated roof containing narrow central dormer. Large porch or porte cochere with shallow segmental archway, and paired sash windows above. Similar paired sash windows in flanking bays, all with relieving arches to first floor. Modillion eaves cornice, then steeply gabled dormers, 2 stacks springing from right hand dormer. Projecting wing advanced to the right, a somewhat later addition, though in similar style. 6-window range with moulded arched doorway to right, and relieving arches over 4-pane sash windows of first floor. 3 wide gabled dormers in the roof. Further brick wing extends the line of this wing to rear, and on the angle of the main ranges, a large traceried wooden lantern with continuous band of windows beneath pyramidal roof.

Listing NGR: SJ8278998598

Railings, walls, gate piers and gates

GV II

Railings, walls, gate piers and gates to Cathedral of St John and Cathedral House (qv). c1845. Stone and wrought-iron. Stone flanking walls to cathedral precinct, that on E side divided by pilasters, and with stone gate piers to a pair of later C19 wrought-iron gates. Small arched side gate alongside.

The post +Salford – Cathedral Church of St John the Evangelist appeared first on Taking Stock.

The first Catholic mission in Accrington was established in 1851 by the Jesuits. A first church dedicated to St Oswald was built in Hyndburn Road, on land given by Henry Petre of Dunkenhalgh. A second church, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, was built in a more central position in Blackburn Road and opened on 5 August 1869. The architects were Willson & Nicholl. Its high altar was paid for by James Lomax of Clayton Hall, designed by Cuthbert Pugin, and made by Earley & Powell of Dublin. Due to structural problems the church closed in 2003 and was demolished.

The mission which developed into the parish of St Anne was founded in 1897 by Fr (later Canon) Robert Holmes. Initially, the mission was dedicated to St Augustine and Mass was said in a rented room at the Gospel Temperance Hall, Abbey Street. A site in Cobham Road was bought for £1,500. In 1899, the local builder Hannibal Ramsbottom erected a school-chapel (cost: £3,300). The foundation stone was laid on 22 April 1899 and the church was first used for Mass on Christmas Eve the same year. Around the same time, a presbytery was built north of the school-chapel, leaving space at the north of the site for a future church. Until 1902, a temporary altar was used. By May 1902, a number of new furnishings were installed, including a new high altar, Lady altar, St Joseph’s altar, tabernacle, pulpit, altar rails and Stations of the Cross.

By the early 1920s, the school-chapel had become inadequate and it was decided to erect a new church, as a memorial to those who died in the First World War. On 11 October 1924, the Rt Revd John Stephen Vaughan, Bishop of Sebastopolis, laid the foundation stone. The architects were Gunson, Son & Hill of Manchester and the contractors Mullen and Durkin of Burnley (Haslingden Gazette, 18 October 1924). Bishop Vaughan opened the finished church on 24 May 1925.

In 1928, Bishop Henshaw dedicated a new high altar, by Giles Gilbert Scott. In October 1929, new panelling and new Stations were dedicated. In 1936-7, a new Lady Altar, also by Giles Gilbert Scott, was installed. It was unveiled in April 1937 and consecrated in September that year. The benefactor was Fr Philip Ryan, who donated the money as a thanksgiving gift. The church was consecrated on 26 July 1944 by Bishop Marshall. In 1952, new marble altar rails and a pulpit were installed and a marble sanctuary floor laid. In June 1952, the interior was redecorated, the church roof repaired and the exterior painted. In March 1954, a new organ was installed by Jardine & Co of Manchester, costing £2,200. In July 1962, a new Sacred Heart altar was installed. In 1969-70, a new meeting room was created with a WC, which could be accessed from the presbytery. Around the same time, a timber forward altar was installed. There were further repairs to the church in 1979-80 and in 1989. The school-chapel was demolished in 1987.

Some years before 2006, an additional flat-roofed sacristy was constructed to link the church and the presbytery. About six years ago, a major reordering took place (architect: Peter Woods), which included the removal of the marble altar rails and the pulpit. Marble from the latter was used for the new forward altar, lectern and font. At the west end a new community room was created, divided from the remainder of the nave by a timber screen which replicates the wall panelling.

Description

The church is built of brick, faced with rubble-faced coursed sandstone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The style is neo-Norman. The plan is cruciform, consisting of a nave under a pitched roof, a lower chancel and transepts with hipped roofs. There are flat-roofed sacristies in the angles of the transepts and the chancel, as well as a flat-roofed link to the presbytery.

The west elevation has a small gabled projecting porch with a round-headed recessed doorway. On either side are small windows, round-headed like most of the windows. They are framed by a shallow giant arch which encompasses in its apex a wheel window. Under the gable cross is a simple cross in ashlar. The side bays also have shallow giant arches which contain a pair of lower windows and a larger upper window. These giant arches themselves are set in shallow straight-headed recesses with corbel tables. The north and south nave elevations continue the theme with five round-arched windows under giant arches between thin wall strips and a corbel table under the eaves. The north transept has a doorway in a giant arch to the west, two windows in giant arches to the north, and a window to the east. This is largely mirrored in the south transept, whose west elevation is partly obscured by sacristy additions. The corbel table can also be found on the east nave gable and the chancel gable, which both have gable crosses. The east wall of the chancel has a cross in ashlar, like on the west elevation. It has two round-headed windows in the outer ones of three shallow recessed bays with corbel tables. The chancel has single windows to north and south. The flat-roofed sacristies between transepts and chancel have two (north) and three (south) small round-arched windows to the east.

The five-bay interior has a segmental-curved timber boarded ceiling. There are round arches to the sanctuary and the transepts. The projecting organ gallery is supported on two plain columns. The community room at the west (with toilets and kitchenette) is divided by a finely carved timber screen which replicates the older panelling on the nave walls. At the centre of the screen are two glazed doors.

The sanctuary floor has been slightly extended westwards during the most recent reordering, which also saw the installation of the matching marble font, altar and lectern. The mosaic floor of 1952 has roundels with ecclesiastical symbols. The high altar (1928) was designed by Giles Gilbert Scott. The round-arched reredos has two lower registers of figurative carving on either side of the canopied monstrance throne – of six saints and panels of the Presentation and Christ and the children. The tympanum has angels on either side of the Trinity. The original altar and altar steps remain in situ. On either side of the reredos is panelling with vertical gilded lines.

The north transept has the Lady Altar (1936-7), by Giles Gilbert Scott. This is more classical in flavour than the high altar. Three niches are divided by pilasters. The central pedimented niche holds a (later) statue of the Virgin Mary, while the outer niches have reliefs of the Holy Family with St John the Baptist, and the Nativity. The marble work was executed by Whitehead & Sons of London, the carving was done by Ferdinand Stuflesser of Ortisei, and the gilding was done by Watts & Co. of London. Compared to early photos, the reredos has been slightly altered: The swags have been removed from the central niche, the statue of the Virgin has been replaced, and the cresting of angels has been removed.

Also in the north transept is a pieta and a statue of St Anne. The south transept has an altar dedicated to St Joseph, consisting of a statue in front of a plain marble reredos, as well as a statue of St Patrick.

The post Accrington – St Anne appeared first on Taking Stock.

The mission was founded in 1949. The church was built in 1953-4 with voluntary labour using second-hand stones formerly part of a bank in Haslingden. (A walk-in safe in the sacristy also came from the bank.) Bishop Marshall laid the foundation stone on 19 December 1953. The church was consecrated in 1954.

The church is built in brick faced with rubble-faced coursed stone, with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The plan is oblong, with a narrower west end and chancel. The sacristy is at the northeast.

The west elevation is divided into three bays, of which the central bay projects slightly. At ground floor level is a round-arched doorway with a fluted keystone and leaded fanlight, flanked by two oblong windows. Above are three round-arched windows with voussoirs and imposts, and simplified corbels under the cill. Above the keystone of the central window is a small sculpture of a praying angel. The west gables of the projecting narrow bay at the west and that of the wider nave both have curiously shaped kneelers, which give the outline of the gables an unorthodox shape. The south elevation has seven round-arched windows, with keystones, imposts, cill corbels, and chamfered reveals, which alternate with buttresses. The south sides of nave and chancel both have corbel tables. The east elevation has five round-arched windows below a rose window.

Inside, the narthex under the organ gallery has three arches of exposed brick to the west and a glazed screen to the nave. The gallery is supported on two canted brick pillars. The six-bay nave has tall brick arches of three orders to each window, as well as a brick dado (in English bond) and brick arches to the sacristy and confessionals on the south side. The suspended ceiling is lower than the chancel arch and detracts from the appearance of the interior. A window in the third bay from the east on the south side commemorates the building of the church (2003, Pendle Stained Glass). The east rose window, the five lights below and the easternmost windows on the north and south all have dalle de verre glass by Dom Charles Norris of Buckfast Abbey. The east windows depict the Creation, the window to the north has a cross, and that to the south a dove and a cross.

The pitched roof of the chancel is painted blue with gold crosses fixed to it. The sanctuary area has timber dado panelling, extending beyond the chancel arch into the easternmost nave bay. On either side of the arch are plastered blind arches, framing statues of the Virgin Mary and St Joseph. There are thin timber altar rails. The octagonal font is of polished granite. The forward altar is faced with white stone and black marble. The timber tabernacle stand has a domed canopy. The Stations are painted plaster casts in round-arched frames.

In July 1991, several windows by Dom Charles Norris and the monks of Buckfast Abbey were installed in memory of Jane Greenough. In 2003, a new stained glass window designed by Pendle Stained Glass of Padiham was installed, commemorating the volunteer builders of the church.

Description

The church faces north. This description follows conventional liturgical orientation.

The church is built in brick faced with rubble-faced coursed stone, with ashlar dressings and a slate roof. The plan is oblong, with a narrower west end and chancel. The sacristy is at the northeast.

The west elevation is divided into three bays, of which the central bay projects slightly. At ground floor level is a round-arched doorway with a fluted keystone and leaded fanlight, flanked by two oblong windows. Above are three round-arched windows with voussoirs and imposts, and simplified corbels under the cill. Above the keystone of the central window is a small sculpture of a praying angel. The west gables of the projecting narrow bay at the west and that of the wider nave both have curiously shaped kneelers, which give the outline of the gables an unorthodox shape. The south elevation has seven round-arched windows, with keystones, imposts, cill corbels, and chamfered reveals, which alternate with buttresses. The south sides of nave and chancel both have corbel tables. The east elevation has five round-arched windows below a rose window.

Inside, the narthex under the organ gallery has three arches of exposed brick to the west and a glazed screen to the nave. The gallery is supported on two canted brick pillars. The six-bay nave has tall brick arches of three orders to each window, as well as a brick dado (in English bond) and brick arches to the sacristy and confessionals on the south side. The suspended ceiling is lower than the chancel arch and detracts from the appearance of the interior. A window in the third bay from the east on the south side commemorates the building of the church (2003, Pendle Stained Glass). The east rose window, the five lights below and the easternmost windows on the north and south all have dalle de verre glass by Dom Charles Norris of Buckfast Abbey. The east windows depict the Creation, the window to the north has a cross, and that to the south a dove and a cross.

The pitched roof of the chancel is painted blue with gold crosses fixed to it. The sanctuary area has timber dado panelling, extending beyond the chancel arch into the easternmost nave bay. On either side of the arch are plastered blind arches, framing statues of the Virgin Mary and St Joseph. There are thin timber altar rails. The octagonal font is of polished granite. The forward altar is faced with white stone and black marble. The timber tabernacle stand has a domed canopy. The Stations are painted plaster casts in round-arched frames.

The post Accrington – St Joseph appeared first on Taking Stock.

Before 1931, Mass was said in a room in the village of Huncoat. The chapel was erected in 1931 as chapel-of-ease to Sacred Heart, Accrington (closed 2003 and demolished). The small church (built to seat more than 200) was designed by George Riley of Oswaldtwistle and built largely of timber on brick foundations. The Bishop opened the church in June 1931 and dedicated it to Our Lady of Huncoat.

Since 1950, it has been served from St Joseph, Accrington. The chapel had to close temporarily in February 2013 after a break-in when the tabernacle and two chalices were stolen. It reopened after repairs.

Description

The church is built of timber on brick foundations. The west front and porch are faced in stone. The latter seems to be a later addition. The plan is oblong, with a small porch. The porch has a central round-arched doorway with a fanlight in the shape of a Diocletian window above the door. On the north and south sides are plain doors. Both the west gable and the porch gable have painted crosses. Beside the north entrance is a statue of the Virgin Mary under a small timber gable. The north and south elevations are of timber with seven UPVC windows. There is an entrance to the sacristies at the northeast. The south side has five concrete buttresses, of two different types, one plain, the other with a crow-stepped weathering.

Built into the inside walls of the porch are statues of St Mary Magdalene and a nun under Gothic stone canopies and supported on angel corbels. Over the door to the nave are a simplified corbel table and a stone fragment of a carved eagle. The latter, the statues and the canopies appear to have come from another church, possibly Sacred Heart, Accrington.

The seven-bay interior has a collar-beam roof strengthened with metal ties. At the east end is a hanging crucifix. The altar and reredos are of timber, carved with Gothic detail highlighted with gilding. On either side are statues of the Virgin Mary and the Sacred Heart on timber pedestals and with plain horizontal timber canopies. Two doors lead to the sacristy behind the sanctuary. The octagonal font is of stone, with a brass cover. Over the west door hangs a ceramic plaque of the Virgin Mary in the style of della Robbia. The benches are modern, as are the small carved Stations.

The post Accrington (Huncoat) – Our Lady appeared first on Taking Stock.

Ashton-under-Lyne expanded rapidly as a cotton town from the late eighteenth century, due to investment by the Earls of Stamford. The Ashton mission was initially served from Dukinfield, and a school/chapel was first built in 1852, to serve the growing Catholic community, swelled by an influx of Irish workers. The present church was built in 1858-60 with funds raised by local Catholic workers, led by the Rev. William Crombleholme; he is commemorated on a marble memorial tablet, hung in the narthex. The architect was ‘Mr Pugin of London’ and the contractors were Eaton, Burton and Burrows of Ashton (The Tablet, 17 December 1859). The church was originally designed with a southwest tower and spire, shown in an undated view in the collection of Manchester Libraries, but never built. The Tablet described the church in glowing terms in 1859: ‘when finished, this church will be one of the most perfect models of a parish church we possess…’. In November 1860, the church was dedicated by the Bishop of Salford, when the new altar and reredos were described as ‘chaste and substantial’ (The Tablet, November 1860). In 1868 the church, school and presbytery were attacked by an anti-Catholic mob when windows, doors and interior fittings were damaged; Fr Crombleholme led an appeal for funds to repair it.

In 2003, the parish merged with St Mary’s, and a war memorial from the former is now hung in the narthex.

fiDescription

The church is orientated with the sanctuary roughly to the north, but conventional liturgical compass points will be used in this description. The church consists of a four-bay nave and sanctuary under one roof, with lean-to aisles,  gabled northwest porch and west doorway leading into the narthex with gallery above. The base of the unbuilt tower is to the southwest corner, at the junction of Burlington Street and Cavendish Street, and the sacristy is to the northeast. The church is built of coursed local sandstone, rock-faced with smooth ashlar bands and a chamfered plinth. The steeply-pitched roofs are laid with Welsh slate. The style is late thirteenth century Gothic, with plate tracery and lancets. The west end directly fronts the street with a central pointed arched doorway below five cusped lancets and a gable rose window. The doorway and window hoodmould terminals are uncarved. The aisles are lit by cusped lancets and the clerestory by quatrefoils; windows are protected with grilles or polycarbonate sheets. The five-light east window has simple geometric tracery. The flat-roofed confessionals against the north aisle were added in the early twentieth century.

The interior retains its mid-Victorian spatial character, with a wide nave and aisles and timber west gallery. The arcades have painted plaster pointed arches on cylindrical columns. The arch-braced scissor truss roof is carried on stone corbels with exposed purlins and rafters. Internal walls are plain plastered, and doors and joinery are pine, as are the pews which appear to be the originals. The nave floor is covered with carpet tiles and the sanctuary floor with vinyl. The sanctuary and side chapels have flat east walls; the chapels are lit from the east by small rose windows and two-light plate tracery windows to north and south, all with stained glass, the Sacred Heart chapel to the south has glass in memory of the Crombleholme family. The sanctuary, not defined by an arch, has a painted panelled wagon roof ceiling, and retains a Gothic revival reredos, probably by E. W. Pugin and installed in 1860, now minus its attached high altar. The forward altar does not appear to be original, and the communion rails have been removed in post-Vatican II reordering. The west gallery has a timber front with turned balusters; below it, the steel screen separating nave and narthex was inserted in the late twentieth century. Other fittings include a Gothic  marble memorial to Fr Crombleholme, died 1884, oil on canvas Stations of the Cross,  probably early twentieth century, and an early twentieth century Lady Chapel oak altar and reredos.

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A new post-war parish was created to serve the growing residential area in Hurst Cross, previously served from St Anne’s, Ashton. Fr Kelly built the new church, whose foundation stone was blessed by Bishop Marshall on 5 June 1954.  The first Mass was held on Easter Monday, 1955.

Description 

The church is conventionally orientated with the sanctuary to the east. Less conventionally, it is a two-storey building, with a ground floor parish hall and a first floor church. The church is reached from Lees Road by a reinforced concrete bridge and steps. A brick campanile marks the southwest corner. The structure of the portal-framed building is expressed externally by raking brick buttresses to side elevations.  The west gable end is faced in aggregate panels with a concrete relief depicting St Christopher over a plain three-bay flat-roofed portico.  The aisles are faced in ceramic tiled panels to the upper level with render to the parish hall level. The nave is lit by three-light clerestory windows with smaller windows to the aisles. The shallow-pitched roof is laid with mineral felt.  A two-storey block containing a large sacristy connects to the contemporary presbytery.

Inside, the six-bay upper church has a plain west gallery above a narthex with glazed screen. The aisles have arcades of square brick piers and plain plastered walls. The clerestory windows are leaded with coloured glass margins. The ceiling is lined with acoustic panels and the concrete floor is laid with carpet or linoleum tiles. The reordered sanctuary retains the original polished concrete altar in a forward position; the 1950s altar rails and pulpit have been removed. The east wall is now hung with wallpaper, but was originally fair-faced brick; the Crucifix and painted timber high altar canopy are part of the original arrangement.  The side chapels also retain original 1950s polished concrete altars. The octagonal font with oak cover dates from the late nineteenth or early twentieth century, of unknown provenance. The hardwood pews were designed for the church.

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The mission was founded in 1852 from Rawtenstall. Fr Henry Mulvany was the first mission priest. A garret over Mr Pillington’s ironmonger’s shop in Market Street served as chapel and school. In 1857, part of the present church was built – presumably just the nave, as happened slightly later at Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Haslingden (qv). The Buildings of England attributes the design of the church on stylistic grounds to William Nicholson of Manchester. Loynds also gives it to Nicholson, based on the parallel history of the missions of Bacup and Haslingden: Bishop Turner staffed each with a recently-ordained priest from All Hallows, the seminary in Dublin; Haslingden being founded two years later than Bacup. The churches were built within two years of each other (Bacup 1857, Haslingden 1859), and it is not unlikely that the same architect was used for both.

The church was built in two stages: the nave in 1857, and one further nave bay, the east end and sacristy in the 1880s or early 1890s. The church is rectangular in plan, with a straight-ended chancel, a lean-to southeast chapel and a two-storey sacristy under a pitched roof perpendicular to the church. The materials are rock-faced local stone and slate for the roof.

The west elevation with angle buttresses has a central moulded doorway of three orders, of which the central one has colonettes. The hoodmould rests on corbels sculpted with faces. On either side are pointed trefoil windows. Above is a three-light bar tracery window with a hoodmould on corbels, flanked by lancets. In the gable is an empty niche with a nodding ogee arch under gable cross. The north elevation has six pairs of lancets between buttresses. The buttress to the east nave bay is shorter and the stonework changes – presumably this is the point where the 1857 building was extended eastwards. The south elevation is similar to that at the north, apart from a modern confessional extension towards the west, near the point where the extension of the original presbytery abutted the church. The two-storey sacristy block has a door to the west, and two window bays to the north, with relieving arches to the ground floor windows. The chancel has two high-level vesica windows to the north. The lower east wall is blind, as is the east face of the sacristy. The east gable has three stepped lancets and a small trefoil, as well as a short chimney. To the south, the chancel has three lancet windows. The lean-to southeast chapel has a window of four lancets.

The narthex below the gallery has a 1960s glass screen to the nave. Within the narthex are the gallery stair, a repository, and statues of the Virgin Mary (from the Lourdes grotto outside), St Patrick and St Teresa. The repository at the northwest appears to be a former baptistery, with a two-light stained glass window with the Baptism of Christ to the north. The gallery front has pierced tracery which is now boarded up for health & safety reasons. The six-bay nave has an arch-braced scissor roof. The sanctuary has a fine carved Gothic reredos, with six statues of saints on either side of the canopied monstrance throne over the tabernacle. The original altar has been removed. The new altar and lectern (2012) are made from the marble and alabaster altar rails. Both feature small quatrefoil tracery. On either side of the reredos are small decorative cast-iron radiators.

In front of the Lady Chapel at the southeast are the octagonal stone font and a statue of St Joseph. The Lady altar has a stone and marble altar and reredos with a statue of the Virgin Mary in the central niche above the tabernacle. Between two columns and pilasters in the altar frontal is a marble relief of the Annunciation. To the south is a fine stained glass window with four lights depicting the Annunciation and the vision of Lourdes. The Stations of the Cross are painted plaster cast reliefs. The Sacristy has a cast-iron radiator with a decorative grille.

In 1871, a school and a presbytery were built alongside the church. Between 1884 (the arrival of Fr John Lane, mission priest from 1884 to 1903) and 1892 (map evidence), the church was enlarged with one further nave bay, a new east end, an adjoining two-storey sacristy, and a new high altar. In 1903, an infants’ school was built in nearby Dale Street. The church was consecrated on 2 July 1929. Between c.1930 and c.1963 (according to map evidence), the presbytery was extended towards the church’s liturgical south wall.

By the early 1960s, the school beside the church had moved to a new building in Tong Lane. Initially, the old school building was used as a hall, but in the early 1970s the old school and presbytery were demolished and a new presbytery built (in 1974) on the school site. The former infants’ school in Dale Street was converted to a hall. In 2009, the parishes of Whitworth (qv) and Bacup were amalgamated. The presbytery at Bacup is rented out and the parish priest lives at Whitworth.

In 2012, the sanctuary was reordered under the direction of Christopher Langstone. The alabaster altar rails were dismantled and used to create a new lectern and altar (replacing a timber altar and lectern). The sanctuary was extended forward, new altar servers’ benches and new lighting installed. The sanctuary, sacristy and southeast chapel were redecorated. On 25 October 2012, Bishop Brain dedicated the new altar.

Description

The church faces southwest. The following description follows conventional liturgical orientation.

The church was built in two stages: the nave in 1857, and one further nave bay, the east end and sacristy in the 1880s or early 1890s. The church is rectangular in plan, with a straight-ended chancel, a lean-to southeast chapel and a two-storey sacristy under a pitched roof perpendicular to the church. The materials are rock-faced local stone and slate for the roof.

The west elevation with angle buttresses has a central moulded doorway of three orders, of which the central one has colonettes. The hoodmould rests on corbels sculpted with faces. On either side are pointed trefoil windows. Above is a three-light bar tracery window with a hoodmould on corbels, flanked by lancets. In the gable is an empty niche with a nodding ogee arch under gable cross. The north elevation has six pairs of lancets between buttresses. The buttress to the east nave bay is shorter and the stonework changes – presumably this is the point where the 1857 building was extended eastwards. The south elevation is similar to that at the north, apart from a modern confessional extension towards the west, near the point where the extension of the original presbytery abutted the church. The two-storey sacristy block has a door to the west, and two window bays to the north, with relieving arches to the ground floor windows. The chancel has two high-level vesica windows to the north. The lower east wall is blind, as is the east face of the sacristy. The east gable has three stepped lancets and a small trefoil, as well as a short chimney. To the south, the chancel has three lancet windows. The lean-to southeast chapel has a window of four lancets.

The narthex below the gallery has a 1960s glass screen to the nave. Within the narthex are the gallery stair, a repository, and statues of the Virgin Mary (from the Lourdes grotto outside), St Patrick and St Teresa. The repository at the northwest appears to be a former baptistery, with a two-light stained glass window with the Baptism of Christ to the north. The gallery front has pierced tracery which is now boarded up for health & safety reasons. The six-bay nave has an arch-braced scissor roof. The sanctuary has a fine carved Gothic reredos, with six statues of saints on either side of the canopied monstrance throne over the tabernacle. The original altar has been removed. The new altar and lectern (2012) are made from the marble and alabaster altar rails. Both feature small quatrefoil tracery. On either side of the reredos are small decorative cast-iron radiators.

In front of the Lady Chapel at the southeast are the octagonal stone font and a statue of St Joseph. The Lady altar has a stone and marble altar and reredos with a statue of the Virgin Mary in the central niche above the tabernacle. Between two columns and pilasters in the altar frontal is a marble relief of the Annunciation. To the south is a fine stained glass window with four lights depicting the Annunciation and the vision of Lourdes. The Stations of the Cross are painted plaster cast reliefs. The Sacristy has a cast-iron radiator with a decorative grille.

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Benedictines were active in the Bamber Bridge area from the late seventeenth century onwards. A chapel was built on the Cuerden Hall estate in 1746, about the time the owner Robert Parker married into the Catholic Towneley family. There was also a chapel at Little Mosna, Walton-le-Dale. These were replaced when in 1780 Fr Oswald Eaves OSB bought three acres of land at Brownedge, building a chapel there in the same year. As was common at the time (Catholic church building still being illegal), the church was discreetly hidden away behind the priest’s house. This chapel remained in use until 1826, when Fr Anselm Brewer OSB built a new church with a small tower; this survives in part, incorporated into the present church. His successor, Fr Anselm Walker OSB, converted the original chapel into a house.  In 1861 new schools were built and in 1866 a spire added to the 1826 tower, holding six bells. Fr Walker also further embellished the church interior.

In 1891 Fr Bernard Pozzi OSB commissioned Peter Paul Pugin of Pugin & Pugin to draw up plans for the enlargement of the church. The tower and spire were retained and, according to Gorman (p.7), the lower part of the walls of the nave, including the lancet windows. Certainly the tall lancet windows are more 1820s than 1890s in character. However, Pugin raised the height of the nave walls, adding gables incorporating round windows, a new hammerbeam roof, transepts, and an apsidal sanctuary with ambulatory and side chapels. Longridge and Whittle stone from the Thomas Cotton & Co. quarries was used. The church was thus extended in length by some 100ft, and was now able to seat 1200. The work was completed in 1892 at a cost of £13,000.

In December 1907, The Tablet reported that the ‘handsome and commodious’ new presbytery had been recently completed. In 1912 the Lady altar was installed, under Fr Basil Clarkson OSB. Four years later, subsidence caused by poor foundations necessitated the addition of buttresses (including a flying buttress on the south transept) and the creation of a dry perimeter trench around the church. A number of embellishments were carried out under Fr Anselm Turner OSB (1912-28). In 1918, ten stained glass windows were installed in the nave, to the memory of Benedictines who had served the mission. In 1920 five further windows were installed in the clerestory windows of the sanctuary, to the memory of John Wilson and his family. Those in the nave at least are by A. Seward & Co., Lancaster.  In 1919 large framed Stations of the Cross were installed, supplied by C. Ball Ltd of Dublin and paid for by members of the parish. In 1921 a parish War Memorial was unveiled on Brownedge Green, outside the church. In 1927 the ring of six bells was replaced by a new peal of eight; their blessing (and an early view of the sanctuary). In 1935 five stained glass windows depicting English martyrs were unveiled in the ambulatory.

In 1953 an organ from a former Congregational church in Preston was installed, replacing one which is believed to have dated in part from the late seventeenth century. In the following year a new alabaster altar was installed in the Sacred Heart chapel, and in 1958 stained glass added in the chapel (from the choir of the old abbey church at Ampleforth).

Post-Vatican II reordering saw the removal of the steps behind the high altar in 1970, to allow for westward-facing celebration. Other changes included the erection of a partition separating the Sacred Heart chapel from the rest of the church (since removed).  In the 1990s the sanctuary was extended forwards into the nave, bringing the altar forward, and the tabernacle was moved to the ambulatory (it has since returned to its original position). The altar rail was repositioned and modified. A new baptistery and ambo were also formed in the sanctuary, re-using the old font. More recently, the church has been rewired, redecorated and a new heating system installed. The narthex has been remodelled and new glass entrance doors fitted.

Description

The building is orientated north-south, but this report follows conventional liturgical convention, i.e. is if the high altar was at the east end.

The building is described in the list entry below. This does not bring out the fact that the lower part of the outer walls of the nave, and possibly the tower, date from 1826. This also explains the inaccurate description of the church as ‘Early English’ in style; while this might be true of the 1826 work, the more substantive later work is of hybrid mid-late Gothic character.

The description of the interior can be supplemented by the additional information on furnishings set out above. Further points:

• The sanctuary and ambulatory retain their fine encaustic tile floors
• The pulpit was erected as a memorial to Fr Anselm Walker OSB, who served the mission between 1847 and 1883
• Flanking the sanctuary arch are statues of St Benedict and St Scholastica, in canopied niches
• The original baptistery gives of the north side of the north transept. It is now a war memorial chapel, with a pieta and Roll of Honour
• The open-backed pews have shaped ends and probably date from 1892, with some later ones of Byzantine character in the north transept.

List description

SD52NE WALTON LE DALE BROWNEDGE LANE

5/128 Roman Catholic Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary

II

Church, 1892, by Peter Paul Pugin of Pugin and Pugin; steeple 1867-8 (Pevsner). Stone, slate roof. Early English style. South tower with splay-footed spire, nave with double transepts, and polygonal apsidal chancel embraced by a lower ambulatory. Tower of 3 stages, with angle buttresses, arched and moulded south doorway, 2 cusped lancets with cusped tracery in the head and linked hoodmoulds, triple belfry louvres in square recess on each side; single louvre with hoodmould in each splay of spire. Buttressed 4-bay nave with cross gables to 3 bays; 7 tall lancets, and in each gable a round window with 4 quatrefoils and a hoodmould. Buttressed transepts (and a flying buttress to east transept) with double gables, two 3-light windows with curvilinear tracery. Clerestorey of apse has arched windows with cusped lights and mouchettes, linked by hoodmoulds; ambulatory has rectangular windows with 2 cusped lights. Various flat-roofed offices attached to west transepts link with presbytery (which is not included in the item).

Interior: hammerbeam roof with tie-rods and arch-braced collars, the wall posts supported on slim shafts; double transept arches, and transverse arches in the transepts, are supported by polygonal columns and have hoodmoulds with figured stops; side chapels open off transepts, (west transept arches now filled by glazed screen). Wide chancel arch flanked by tall narrow arches leading into ambulatory of polished columns with octagonal caps; ribbed tunnel vault roof to chancel. Very ornate canopied reredos to each of 3 altars.

Listing NGR: SD5606126218

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The origin of the mission was a Sunday school established in 1894 by Fr Robert Smith of Nelson in an upper room of a stable in Gisburn Road. In 1896, a large freehold plot with fourteen small cottages was bought for £1,000, situated beside Pendle Water. Most of the cottages were demolished – apart from five which were converted into a temporary school. To save money, Fr Smith himself prepared plans for a school building with a chapel on the upper floor but process was halted by the lack of permission from the local authority and of a grant from the board of education. In 1897, construction by voluntary labour started. On 10 April 1897, the Bishop of Salford blessed the foundation stone. On 24 October 1897, he opened the chapel, followed three days later by the school.

In 1914, the parish was erected and six stained glass windows were installed. After the First World War, a pulpit was installed, a gallery built (with a stair and timber from St George’s, Nelson, and a former tram line as a girder), and new Stations were installed. In 1920, a marble war memorial was installed. In 1922, a new presbytery was built near the church. In 1923, an organ was installed, originally from the Wesleyan Chapel in Brierfield, and sometime in the 1920s, a new entrance porch was built. For the golden jubilee in 1947, the church was redecorated and electric light installed. In April 1952, the school was closed and the ground floor converted for use as a hall.

In February 1997, the first floor was found to be unsafe, as the gable end was peeling away from the walls. The church was repaired and reopened on Palm Sunday 1998. About four years ago, Barrowford became part of the Good Shepherd parish which also contains the churches of the Sacred Heart, Colne (qv), and Holy Saviour, Nelson (qv). The presbytery is occupied by a retired priest.

Description

The church was built in 1897 as a two-storey combined church-school. The porch was added in the 1920s. The church is faced in local stone, with a brick or stone backing and rubble infill. The pitched roof is covered in slate. The plan is longitudinal.

The lean-to west porch has a pointed door with a hoodmould, beside a small lancet window. There are two lancets to the north. The parapet of the porch has two central projecting panels to north and west, the former with a blank shield, the latter with a carved IHS and a cross. One blocked lancet window is just visible, beside the lean-to porch roof. The west gable has a small stone gable cross. North and south elevations have five lancet windows each to the church, and oblong windows to the hall below. The boiler house is a small lean-to addition on the south side. The 1920s porch also includes a small bay on the south side, of two lancets to the upper level and two oblong windows below. The east elevation has two pairs of oblong hall windows, two lancets on either side of the foundation stone, and a louvred ventilation opening to the gable. Between the east hall windows is a spreader plate in form of a cross.

The five-bay interior has an open king-post roof with metal ties. Between the two east windows is a shallow pointed niche with a crucifix. The tabernacle is in a gabled niche to the north. The sanctuary furnishings are all of timber. The west gallery is supported on one column and has an open tracery front which has been boarded from behind. Below the gallery is a statue of the Sacred Heart and a First World War memorial in form of a marble plaque. At gallery level, there is a glazed door which leads into the roof space of the lean-to porch. The nave windows have modern stained glass with floral patterns and the IHS monogram; the east windows have stained glass panels depicting St Peter and St Paul. The porch has a fine statue of Our Lady Queen of Heaven.

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The church was built as a chapel-of-ease to St Albans (qv), from designs by Campbell & Driver of Richmond Terrace, Blackburn.  It was built on a sloping site, and was designed to be built in three phases: church, community room and presbytery. The first phase (church, designed to seat 250) was completed in April 1967 at a cost of £32,500. The parish hall was added slightly later, infilling the structural frame below the sanctuary end of the church. The church was blessed and opened on 6 December 1968 by Bishop Holland.  The projected presbytery (presumably anticipating a future separate parish) was not built, and the church continues to be served from St Albans. It was consecrated in 1994.

Description

The church is built on a sloping site, with a slightly later parish hall underneath. It is of portal framed construction, clad in yellow (nave) and purple (sanctuary) brick. It is on a tapered plan, with raised copper-clad roof to the sanctuary, which is top lit with clerestory glazing. The nave roof is clad in slate.  There is a large cross on the windowless gable end of the sanctuary.  Inside, the tapering internal space is plain, with the hidden clerestory providing dramatic top lighting to the sanctuary area.

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