- Old St Ann's Church, Warrington
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St Ann's (old) Church, Warrington 
Southeast aspect of St Ann's Church, WarringtonCoordinates: 53°23′48″N 2°35′41″W / 53.39670°N 2.59475°W OS grid reference SJ 606 890 Location Warrington, Cheshire Country England Denomination Anglican History Consecrated 27 February 1869 Architecture Functional status Redundant Heritage designation Grade II* Designated 24 October 1974 Architect(s) John Douglas Architectural type Church Style Gothic Revival Groundbreaking 1866 Closed 1966 Specifications Materials Red brick with blue brick dressings
Slate roofSt Ann's Church, Warrington is a redundant Anglican church in Warrington, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building.[1] It was closed for worship in November 1995 and since 1996 has been used as an indoor climbing centre.[2] From the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s the church was heated by steam from the then adjacent Tetley Walker's brewery.[1] A new St Ann's church on a different site half a mile away was built in 2000.[3]
Contents
History
The church was built between 1866 and 1868 to a design by John Douglas.[1] There were delays caused by bad weather, and it was not until local solicitor William Beamont paid the builder that the church was consecrated, on 27 February 1869.[4] In 1996 it became a climbing centre with a mezzanine in the chancel. These changes are said to be reversible.[2]
Architecture
The church is built in red brick with some dressings in blue brick and it has a slate roof. Its plan consists of a six-bay nave without aisles, an apsidal chancel, north and south porches, a north vestry and a southeast tower. The tower is in the angle between the nave and the chancel and in in three stages. In the lower stage is a single lancet window and in the second stage are three similar windows. The third stage contains pairs of louvred bell openings and above these is a corbelled parapet. On the southwest corner is a stair-turret rising to the height of the tower and capped by a tall conical-roofed turret rising above the parapet. On top of the tower is a tall steeply-pitched saddle-back roof.[1] In the sanctuary (but currently obscured) are paintings of The Evangelists by Westlake, dated 1868, which were repainted by T. Hesketh in 1894.[2]
Edward Hubbard describes its architecture as being "quite startlingly bold and original".[5] In the Buildings of England series it is described as being "an impressively forceful High Victorian work..., bold and uncompromising", and the "bizarre juxtaposition" of the climbing walls and 19th-century architecture is described as "strangely enjoyable".[2]
See also
- List of new churches by John Douglas
References
- ^ a b c d "Church of St Ann, Warrington", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1161591, retrieved 3 May 2011
- ^ a b c d Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 621, ISBN 0-300-10910-5
- ^ St Ann's, Warrington, Newsquest Media Group, http://www.communigate.co.uk/chesh/stanns/index.phtml, retrieved 24 March 2008
- ^ Parish, Stephen, The History of St Ann's Warrington, ISBN 0-9538345-0-6
- ^ Hubbard, Edward (1991), The Work of John Douglas, London: The Victorian Society, pp. 55–56, ISBN 0-901657-16-6
External links
Categories:- Religious buildings completed in 1868
- 19th-century Anglican church buildings
- Anglican congregations established in the 19th century
- Grade II* listed churches
- Grade II* listed buildings in Cheshire
- Gothic Revival architecture in Cheshire
- John Douglas buildings
- Buildings and structures in Warrington
- Former Anglican church buildings
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