- St Thomas' Church, Lancaster
-
St Thomas' Church, Lancaster Location in Lancashire
St Thomas' Church, LancasterCoordinates: 54°02′46″N 2°47′58″W / 54.0461°N 2.7994°W OS grid reference SD 477 614 Location Marton Street, Lancaster, Lancashire Country England Denomination Anglican Churchmanship Evangelical Weekly attendance 200 Website St Thomas, Lancaster History Founded 3 March 1840 Dedication St Thomas Consecrated 14 June 1841 Architecture Status Parish church Functional status Active Heritage designation Grade II Designated 13 March 1995 Architect(s) Edmund Sharpe,
E. G. PaleyArchitectural type Church Style Gothic Revival Groundbreaking 1840 Completed 1853 Specifications Spire height 120 feet (36.6 m) Materials Sandstone, slate roofs Administration Parish St Thomas, Lancaster Deanery Lancaster Archdeaconry Lancaster Diocese Blackburn Province York Clergy Vicar(s) Revd. Jonathan Scamman Curate(s) Revd. Saju Muthalaly Laity Reader Cathleen Dawson Director of music Martin Walmsley Churchwarden(s) Philip Hendry,
Sandra Lane-DixonParish administrator David Cumming St Thomas' Church, Lancaster is in Marton Street, Lancaster, Lancashire, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Lancaster, the archdeaconry of Lancaster and the diocese of Blackburn.[1] The church has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.[2]
Contents
History
St Thomas' was built between 1840 and 1841 to a design by the local architect Edmund Sharpe.[3] One of the subscribers to the church was Queen Victoria who, as Duchess of Lancaster, contributed £150 (£15,400 as of 2011).[4] The foundation stone was laid on 3 March 1840, the church opened for worship on 14 April 1841, and it was consecrated on 14 June by Rt Revd John Bird Sumner, Bishop of Chester.[5] In 1852–53 Sharpe's successor, E. G. Paley added the northeast steeple and the chancel in a similar architectural style.[3]
Architecture
Exterior
The church is constructed in sandstone ashlar with slate roofs in Early English style. Its plan consists of a six-bay nave with north and south aisles under three gabled roofs; the nave is extended one bay to the west to form a narthex. At the east end is a two-bay chancel with a steeple in the angle between the north aisle and the chancel. The lower part of the steeple has two square stages, with buttresses and a stair turret. Above the level of the aisle it becomes octagonal with louvred bell openings. The spire is also octagonal, with two tiers of lucarnes, a finial and an iron cross. A plain parapet runs along the tops of the eaves and gables. In the west front are five tall stepped lancet windows under which is a triple doorway. On each side of the front are buttresses that rise up to turrets with finials. There are more lancet windows around the church, with a triple lancet at the east end.[2]
Interior
Inside the church are galleries on three sides supported by cast iron columns.[2] A brass dated 1881 was produced by Shrigley and Hunt. The arms of Queen Victoria are on the west gallery.[3] According to the authors of the Buildings of England series, the church has "a grand approach up steps with imposing gatepiers".[3] The three-manual organ was built in 1852 by John Banfield, rebuilt in the 1880s by Richard Tubbs and, between 1920 and 1940, was rebuilt again and moved to its present position at the northeast of the nave by Jardine and Company.[6]
See also
- List of architectural works by Edmund Sharpe
- List of ecclesiastical works by E. G. Paley
References
- ^ Lancaster, St Thomas, Church of England, http://www.achurchnearyou.com/lancaster-st-thomas/, retrieved 31 March 2010
- ^ a b c "Church of St Thomas, Lancaster", The National Heritage List for England (English Heritage), 2011, http://list.english-heritage.org.uk/resultsingle.aspx?uid=1195066, retrieved 17 May 2011
- ^ a b c d Hartwell, Clare; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2009) [1969], Lancashire: North, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 372, ISBN 978-0-300-12667-9
- ^ UK CPI inflation numbers based on data available from Lawrence H. Officer (2010) "What Were the UK Earnings and Prices Then?" MeasuringWorth.
- ^ Hughes, John M. (2010), Edmund Sharpe: Man of Lancaster, John M. Hughes, pp. 171–172
- ^ Lancashire, Lancaster, St. Thomas, Penny Street (N10686), British Institute of Organ Studies, http://www.npor.org.uk/cgi-bin/Rsearch.cgi?Fn=Rsearch&rec_index=N10686, retrieved 28 July 2011
Categories:- Church of England churches in Lancashire
- Grade II listed churches
- Grade II listed buildings in Lancashire
- Gothic Revival architecture in Lancashire
- Religious buildings completed in 1841
- 19th-century Church of England church buildings
- Religious buildings completed in 1853
- Diocese of Blackburn
- Edmund Sharpe buildings
- E. G. Paley buildings
- Buildings and structures in Lancaster
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
