The Church of St Mary and St Michael is in the village of
Bonds, to the south of
Garstang
Garstang is an ancient market town and civil parish within the Wyre borough of Lancashire, England. It is north of the city of Preston and the same distance south of Lancaster.
In 2011, the parish had a total resident population of 4,268; ...
, Lancashire, England. It is an active Roman Catholic church in the
diocese of Lancaster
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lancaster is a Latin Church Roman Catholic diocese centred on Lancaster Cathedral in the city of Lancaster in Lancashire, England.
History
The diocese was erected in 1924, taking areas and parishes from the Archd ...
. The church is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England
The National Heritage List for England (NHLE) is England's official database of protected heritage assets. It includes details of all English listed buildings, scheduled monuments, register of historic parks and gardens, protected shipwrecks, a ...
as a designated Grade II
listed building
In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...
.
History
The church replaced an earlier chapel in the town of Garstang, and was built in 1857–58. The church and associated
presbytery, schools and schoolmaster's house were designed by the
Lancaster architect
E. G. Paley.
[ The authors of the '']Buildings of England
The Pevsner Architectural Guides are a series of guide books to the architecture of Great Britain and Ireland. Begun in the 1940s by the art historian Sir Nikolaus Pevsner, the 46 volumes of the original Buildings of England series were publish ...
'' series comment that the church is a "big solid job", and that it is "by far the largest and most imposing hurchof the town".[
]
Architecture
Exterior
The church is constructed in sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates ...
rubble
Rubble is broken stone, of irregular size, shape and texture; undressed especially as a filling-in. Rubble naturally found in the soil is known also as 'brash' (compare cornbrash)."Rubble" def. 2., "Brash n. 2. def. 1. ''Oxford English Dictionar ...
and has slate roofs. Its plan consists of a five- bay nave
The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...
and a chancel
In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may terminate in an apse.
Ov ...
under a continuous roof, a north aisle
An aisle is, in general, a space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, certain types of buildings, such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, par ...
with a Lady chapel
A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British English, British term for a chapel dedicated to "Our Lady", Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church (building), church. The chapels are also known as ...
at the east end, a north porch, and a west tower. The tower is in three stages, with diagonal buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, as a means of providing support to act against the lateral ( ...
es, an embattled parapet
A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). ...
, and a stair turret rising to a greater height than the tower and surmounted by a spirelet. On its west front is an arched doorway and a three-light window. The windows along the sides of the church have two lights, and are separated by buttresses. At the east end of the chapel is a two-light window, and the east window of the chancel has five lights. The chancel roof contains a dormer window
A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window.
Dormers are commonly used to increase the usable spac ...
on each side.[
]
Interior
The arcade consists of pointed arches carried on round columns with capitals. At the west end is a gallery. The nave has an open timber roof, and the chancel a barrel roof
A barrel roof is a curved roof that, especially from below, is curved like a cut-away barrel. They have some advantages over dome roofs, especially being able to cover rectangular buildings, due to their uniform cross-section.
Barrel vault
...
.[ The large reredos is in ]Caen stone
Caen stone (french: Pierre de Caen) is a light creamy-yellow Jurassic limestone quarried in north-western France near the city of Caen. The limestone is a fine grained oolitic limestone formed in shallow water lagoons in the Bathonian Age about ...
, and is decorated with arcading. The altar and the altar rail both have marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Marble is typically not foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the term ''marble'' refers to metamorphose ...
shafts. At the entry to the sacristy is a stoup
A holy water font or stoup is a vessel containing holy water which is generally placed near the entrance of a church. It is often placed at the base of a crucifix or religious representation. It is used in the Catholic Church, Anglican Churches ...
incorporating a stone inscribed with the date 1639. The stained glass dates from the later part of the 19th century, and was probably made by Hardman.[ The two- manual organ in the west gallery was made in 1949 by Henry Ainscough and Company of Preston. It was designed by Dr J. Reginald Dixon of Lancaster Cathedral, who also designed the organ case. The organ was restored in 1989 by the Pendlebury Organ Company of ]Fleetwood
Fleetwood is a coastal town in the Borough of Wyre in Lancashire, England, at the northwest corner of the Fylde. It had a population of 25,939 at the 2011 census.
Fleetwood acquired its modern character in the 1830s, when the principal lando ...
.
See also
* Listed buildings in Barnacre-with-Bonds
*List of ecclesiastical works by E. G. Paley
Edward Graham Paley (1823–95) (usually known as E. G. Paley) was an English architect who practised for the whole of his career from an office in Lancaster, Lancashire. He was born in Easingwold, North Yorkshire, and moved to Lancaster in ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bonds, Church of St Mary and St Michael
Roman Catholic churches in Lancashire
Grade II listed churches in Lancashire
Gothic Revival church buildings in England
Gothic Revival architecture in Lancashire
Church buildings by E. G. Paley
Bonds, St Mary and St Michael
Church of St Mary and St Michael
Churches in the Borough of Wyre