Commissioners' Church

Commissioners' Church is the term used for a number of Anglican churches built during the the first half of the 19th century as a response to the population shift from rural to urban areas due to the Industrial Revolution.The term is derived from the Church Building Commission which was established in 1824 to organise the building of these churches.

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries there was considerable movement of people from rural areas to the towns and cities which were involved in the rapid industrialisation of Britain. This led to a mismatch between population size and the availability of places of worship.Citation | last = Parsons | first = Gerald | contribution = Reform, Revival and Realignment: The Experience of Victoria Anglicanism | year = 1988 | title = Religion in Victorian Britain | editor-last = Parsons | editor-first = Gerald | volume = I: Traditions | pages = 18–22 | place = Manchester | publisher = Manchester University Press | id = | ISBN = 0 7190 2511 7] An opinion was also expressed that the middle and lower classes should be made good subjects by making them good Christians.cite book | last =Pevsner | first =Nikolaus | authorlink =Nikolaus Pevsner | coauthors = | title =The Buildings of England: North Lancashire |edition= | publisher =Yale University Press | date =2002 | origyear=1969 | location = New Haven| pages =28–30 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn = 0 300 09617 8] In 1818 Parliament voted a million pounds for building new churches in the industrial areas of the country and in 1824 it voted a further half million pounds. More churches were provided in Lancashire than in any other part of the country, with 19 before 1830 and 62 between around 1830 and 1856. The cost of these churches ranged between £19,948 for St Martin's church in Liverpool (since demolished) and £1,058 for St John the Baptist in Bretherton.

The churches tended to share some common architectural features. Many of them were in the Perpendicular style with thin west towers, thin buttresses and fat pinnacles. Internally many of them had galleries on three sides and plaster vaults. [cite book | last =Hartwell | first =Clare | authorlink = | coauthors =Matthew Hyde, Nikolaus Pevsner | title =The Buildings of England: Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East |edition= | publisher =Yale University Press | date =2004 | location =New Haven | pages =54–55 | url = | doi = | id = | isbn =0 300 10583 5 ] They tended to have tall lancet windows which are either single, or in pairs or triplets. Pevsner states that "they are as a rule clumsy".

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