- Church of All Souls, Bolton
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Church of All Souls, Bolton 
All Souls Church, Bolton, from the northeastLocation in Greater Manchester
Church of All Souls, BoltonCoordinates: 53°35′37″N 2°26′02″W / 53.5937°N 2.4339°W OS grid reference SD 713 108 Location Astley Street, Bolton,
Greater ManchesterCountry England Denomination Anglican Website Churches Conservation Trust History Founder(s) Thomas Greenhalgh Dedication All Souls Consecrated 1881 Architecture Functional status Redundant Heritage designation Grade II* Designated 26 April 1974 Architect(s) Paley and Austin Architectural type Church Style Gothic Revival Groundbreaking 1878 Completed 1881 Construction cost £16,500 (£1,230,000 as of 2011) Closed 1986 Specifications Materials Brick with sandstone dressings,
slate roofsThe Church of All Souls, Bolton, is a redundant Anglican church in Astley Street, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England (grid reference SD713108). It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building,[1] and is under the care of the Churches Conservation Trust.[2] As of 2010, the church is being converted in to a community centre.
Contents
Early history
The church was built between 1878 and 1881 and paid for by Thomas Greenhalgh, an Evangelical mill-owner.[3] The local population had grown during the second half of the 19th century, and the church was intended to serve the people working in the nearby mills. It was designed by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin. The church was planned to seat a congregation of about 800, giving them all a good view of the proceedings, and an opportunity to hear the sermon.[4] The contractors were Cordingley and Stopford of Manchester, and the church, without fittings, cost £16,500 (£1,230,000 as of 2011).[5] It was consecrated in 1881 by Dr J. Fraser, Bishop of Manchester.[3] Few changes have been made to the church since then. A war memorial was added to commemorate the parishioners who had died serving in the First World War.[6]
Architecture
Exterior
All Souls is constructed in brick with dressings of Longridge sandstone. The interior is dressed with Stourton stone.[7] The roofs are of slate. Its plan consists of a five-bay nave, a two-bay chancel with a canted apse, an organ chamber to the north, and a chapel and vestry to the south, and a west tower with a protruding north porch and stair turret. There are no aisles. The tower has four stages.[1] It is 118 feet (36 m) high.[7] In the lowest stage is a west door over which is a frieze and a three-light traceried window. The north porch is gabled. The second stage contains a round window. In the third stage are two small windows and a three-light bell opening containing Perpendicular tracery. Around the top of the tower is a traceried parapet with crocketed pinnacles at the corners. The nave is divided into bays by buttresses and at the corners of the east end are octagonal pinnacles with crocketted caps. In the bays are two tiers of three-light windows with Perpendicular tracery. The windows in the chapels are flat-headed. In the chancel the windows are in two tiers, with one of four lights and two of two lights. A parapet decorated with a quatrefoil frieze runs round the top of the chancel.[1]
Interior
The interior is constructed without any pillars, making it a single, undivided space, with a span of 52 feet (16 m), one of the widest for a parish church in England.[7] It was built in this way to give the congregation an excellent view of the chancel from the nave, and the ability to hear the sermon clearly.[4] At the west end is a small gallery.[8] In order to provide the wide interior, the timber roof has a complex structure with rib vaulting. The vaulting is carried on octagonal shafts between the windows. On the sides of the chancel are two-bay arcades. The reredos is in stone, and consists of traceried panels, the outer ones of which are inscribed with prayers and other text.[1] The reredos and the font were designed by John Roddis of Birmingham.[8] The choir stalls, pews, organ case, altar, communion rails, credence table, and pulpit are in oak and were all designed by the architects.[8][9] The stained glass in the apse depicts scenes from the New Testament. It was designed by the architects and made by Clayton and Bell. The windows are dedicated to the memory of Thomas Greenhalgh's brother, Nathaniel. The stained glass in the east chancel windows is dated 1887 and depicts Faith and Hope; it was made by Burlison and Grylls.[9] The two-manual organ was built in 1881 by Isaac Abbott of Leeds.[9][10] The ring consists of eight bells, all cast in 1881 by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough.[11]
Recent history and present day
During the 20th century the size of the local population was declining, and in 1962 the parish was combined with that of St James in Waterloo Road.[4] In 1970 the stained glass windows in the tower were removed. They had depicted the Creation and were made by Shrigley and Hunt, but had been damaged by vandalism.[12] The church closed in 1986 and was vested in the Churches Conservation Trust.[4] As of 2010, All Souls is being converted into a community centre due to open in the spring of 2012.[13][14] The conversion has been assisted by a grant of £3.3 million from the Heritage Lottery Fund.[15][16] Additional money has been provided by the Churches Conservation Trust, Bolton Council, and the waste management company Biffa, although the Northwest Regional Development Agency has withdrawn its promise to provide a grant of £600,000.[17]
See also
- List of churches in Greater Manchester
- Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
- List of ecclesiastical works by Paley and Austin
- List of churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust in Northern England
References
- ^ a b c d "Church of All Souls, Bolton", Heritage Gateway website (Heritage Gateway (English Heritage, Institute of Historic Building Conservation and ALGAO:England)), 2006, http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=475870&resourceID=5, retrieved 22 September 2010
- ^ All Soul's Church, Bolton, Lancashire, Churches Conservation Trust, http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/Ourchurches/Completelistofchurches/All-Souls-Church-Bolton-Lancashire/, retrieved 28 March 2011
- ^ a b History: The Greenhalgh Brothers, All Souls Crompton Community Centre, http://www.allsoulsbolton.org.uk/history.html?start=1, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ a b c d History: All about All Souls, All Souls Crompton Community Centre, http://www.allsoulsbolton.org.uk/history.html, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
- ^ History: Memorials, All Souls Crompton Community Centre, http://www.allsoulsbolton.org.uk/history.html?start=4, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ a b c History: Architecture, All Souls Crompton Community Centre, http://www.allsoulsbolton.org.uk/history.html?start=2, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ a b c Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), The Buildings of England: Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 150, ISBN 0 300 10583 5
- ^ a b c History: Interior, All Souls Crompton Community Centre, http://www.allsoulsbolton.org.uk/history.html?start=3, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ Lancashire (Manchester, Greater), Bolton, All Souls (N10665), British Institute of Organ Studies, http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N10665, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ Bolton, All Souls, Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers, http://dove.cccbr.org.uk/detail.php?searchString=bolton&Submit=+Go+&DoveID=BOLTON++AS, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ History: Changes, All Souls Crompton Community Centre, http://www.allsoulsbolton.org.uk/history.html?start=5, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ All Souls Crompton Community Centre, All Souls Crompton Community Centre, http://www.allsoulsbolton.org.uk/, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ All Souls Bolton project, Churches Conservation Trust, http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/allsoulsbolton/, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ All Souls Church, Heritage Lottery Fund, http://www.hlf.org.uk/news/Pages/AllSoulsChurch.aspx, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ From pews to pods - £3.3million HLF grant to transform All Souls, Bolton, Churches Conservation Trust, http://www.visitchurches.org.uk/news/allsoulsbolton/, retrieved 23 September 2010
- ^ "Fundraisers hope to raise lost cash", The Bolton News (Newsquest Media), 11 September 2010, http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/districtnews/8386503.Fundraisers_hope_to_raise_lost_cash/, retrieved 23 September 2010
Categories:- Grade II* listed churches
- Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
- Religious buildings completed in 1881
- 19th-century Anglican church buildings
- Anglican congregations established in the 19th century
- Gothic Revival architecture in Greater Manchester
- Churches preserved by the Churches Conservation Trust
- Paley and Austin buildings
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