- St Catharine's Church, Scholes
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St Catharine's Church, Scholes 
St Catharine's Church, ScholesCoordinates: 53°32′47″N 2°37′01″W / 53.5463°N 2.6169°W OS grid reference NZ 274 513 Location Lorne Street, Scholes, Wigan, Greater Manchester Country England Denomination Anglican Website Wigan, St Catharine History Consecrated 6 June 1841 Architecture Status Parish church Functional status Active Heritage designation Grade II Architect(s) Edmund Sharpe Architectural type Church Style Gothic Revival Groundbreaking 1839 Completed 1841 Construction cost £3,180 (£230,000 as of 2011) Specifications Spire height 190 feet (58 m) Materials Sandstone, slate roofs Administration Parish Wigan, St Catharine Deanery Wigan Archdeaconry Warrington Diocese Liverpool Province York St Catharine's Church, Scholes, is in Lorne Street, Scholes, Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Wigan, the archdeaconry of Warrington and the diocese of Liverpool. It benefice is united with that of Christ Church, Ince-in-Makerfield.[1] The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[2]
Contents
History
The church was built in 1839–41 and designed by the Lancaster architect Edmund Sharpe. It was a Commissioners' church that cost £3,180 (£230,000 as of 2011).[3][4] A grant of £962 was given towards its cost by the Church Building Commission.[5] The land for the church was given by John Woodcock of Springfield Hall; it was originally a chapel of ease. The church was consecrated on 6 June 1841 by Rt Revd John Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester. In about 1860 the name "Catherine" was changed to "Catharine" and this spelling has continued to be used until the present. About the same time it was discovered that the church was built on a geological fault and that, as a result of coal mining in the area, the west end of the church had moved, causing the spire to lean and twist.[6] Repairs were necessary and these were assisted by contributions from local collieries. In 1864 the church acquired full status as a parish church.[6]
Architecture
St Catharine's is constructed in sandstone from Billinge[4] and has slate roofs; it is in Early English style.[2] Its plan consists of a six-bay nave with north and south aisles constituting one chamber, a south vestry and a short chancel. At the west end is a steeple linked to the nave by a narthex with stair-turrets in the angles. The tower is square and in two stages, with corner buttresses and pinnacles, and a gable at the top of each face. On top of this is an octagonal belfry, again with a gable on each face; this is in turn surmounted by an octagonal spire, with two tiers of lucarnes. In the lower stage of the tower is a west door and in the upper stage are stepped triple-lancet windows with a clock face above them in the gables. The east window is also a stepped triple-lancet. Inside the church are galleries on three sides supported by cast iron columns, with the organ in the west gallery, and box pews. The west end of the church has been partitioned off by a glazed screen.[2] The architectural historians Richard Pollard and Nikolaus Pevsner are of the opinion that "the steeple is altogether and quite awkwardly too big for the church".[4]
External features
The sandstone boundary wall of the churchyard is listed Grade II,[7] as is the brick-built vicarage that stands to the south of the church.[8]
See also
- List of architectural works by Edmund Sharpe
- List of Commissioners' churches in Northeast and Northwest England
References
- ^ St Catharine, Wigan, Church of England, http://www.achurchnearyou.com/wigan-st-catharine/, retrieved 16 April 2010
- ^ a b c "Church of St Catherine, Wigan", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1384484, retrieved 27 July 2011
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
- ^ a b c Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2006), Lancashire: Liverpool and the South-West, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 662, ISBN 0-300-10910-5
- ^ Port, M. H. (2006), 600 New Churches: The Church Building Commission 1818-1856 (2nd ed.), Reading: Spire Books, p. 335, ISBN 978-1-904965-08-4
- ^ a b Bithell Bill (1991), The First 150 Years of St Catharines’s Church Wigan, Lancashire OnLine Parish Clerks, http://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Wigan/Wigan/stcatharine/stcatherine.html, retrieved 17 April 2010
- ^ "Boundary Wall of Church of St Catherine, Wigan", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1384485, retrieved 27 July 2011
- ^ "St Catherine's Vicarage, Wigan", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1384486, retrieved 27 July 2011
Categories:- Church of England churches in Greater Manchester
- Grade II listed churches
- Grade II listed buildings in Greater Manchester
- Gothic Revival architecture in England
- Religious buildings completed in 1841
- 19th-century Church of England church buildings
- Anglican congregations established in the 19th century
- Anglican Diocese of Liverpool
- Edmund Sharpe buildings
- Commissioners' churches
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