Holy Trinity Church, commonly known as Horwich Parish Church, is a 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 ...

Horwich Horwich ( ) is a town and civil parish in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. Prior to 1974 in the historic county of Lancashire. It is southeast of Chorley, northwest of Bolton and northwest of Manchester. It l ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a metropolitan county and combined authority, combined authority area in North West England, with a population of 2.8 million; comprising ten metropolitan boroughs: City of Manchester, Manchester, City of Salford, Salford ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is an active

Church of England parish church A parish church in the Church of England is the church which acts as the religious centre for the people within each Church of England parish (the smallest and most basic Church of England administrative unit; since the 19th century sometimes ca ...

and part of the Deane deanery in the archdeaconry of Bolton, diocese of Manchester. Holy Trinity Church is now part of the United

Benefice A benefice () or living is a reward received in exchange for services rendered and as a retainer for future services. The Roman Empire used the Latin term as a benefit to an individual from the Empire for services rendered. Its use was adopted by ...

of Horwich and Rivington, which includes the other two Anglican churches in Horwich, St Catherine's Church and St Elizabeth's Church, and Rivington Anglican Church.

History

There have been three chapels or churches on the site of Holy Trinity Church. It is not known when the first chapel was built, but it existed before the

English Reformation The English Reformation took place in 16th-century England when the Church of England broke away from the authority of the pope and the Catholic Church. These events were part of the wider European Protestant Reformation, a religious and poli ...

when it was a

chapel of ease A chapel of ease (or chapel-of-ease) is a church architecture, church building other than the parish church, built within the bounds of a parish for the attendance of those who cannot reach the parish church conveniently. Often a chapel of ea ...

to the parish church of

St Mary the Virgin's Church, Deane The Church of St Mary the Virgin, Deane, is an Anglican parish church in Deane, Bolton, Greater Manchester, England. It is a member of Deane deanery in the archdeaconry of Bolton, diocese of Manchester. It is a Grade II* listed building. Histo ...

. In 1565, the "commissioners for removing superstitious ornaments" took various items they considered

idolatrous Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were God. In Abrahamic religions (namely Judaism, Samaritanism, Christianity, the Baháʼí Faith, and Islam) idolatry connotes the worship of something or someone other than the A ...

from the chapel. The earliest gravestone in the churchyard has the initials and date M.H. 1648, however, the church registers only commenced in 1660. After the

Glorious Revolution The Glorious Revolution; gd, Rèabhlaid Ghlòrmhor; cy, Chwyldro Gogoneddus , also known as the ''Glorieuze Overtocht'' or ''Glorious Crossing'' in the Netherlands, is the sequence of events leading to the deposition of King James II and ...

in 1688, the chapel was used by Nonconformists, but in 1716 the

Bishop of Chester The Bishop of Chester is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Chester in the Province of York. The diocese extends across most of the historic county boundaries of Cheshire, including the Wirral Peninsula and has its see in the C ...

recovered the chapel for the established church. As the town expanded during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Great Britain, continental Europe, and the United States, that occurred during the period from around 1760 to about 1820–1840. This transition included going f ...

and the population increased, the old chapel was replaced by a larger building in 1782. Almost fifty years later, the second chapel was replaced by the present church which was designed by

Francis Octavius Bedford Francis Octavius Bedford (1784–1858) was an English ecclesiastical architect, who designed four Greek Revival churches in south London during the 1820s. He later worked in the Gothic style. Life and career Little is known about Bedford's early ...

and consecrated in 1831. It is a Waterloo or

Commissioners' Church A Commissioners' church, also known as a Waterloo church and Million Act church, is an Anglican church in the United Kingdom built with money voted by Parliament as a result of the Church Building Acts of 1818 and 1824. The 1818 Act supplied ...

, partly paid for by money from the

parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the supreme legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of Westminster, London. It alone possesses legislative suprema ...

raised by the Church Building Act 1818, and said to be a celebration of Britain's victory in the

Battle of Waterloo The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, Belgium, Waterloo (at that time in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, now in Belgium). A French army under the command of Napoleon was defeated by two of the armie ...

. The Commissioners paid £5,621 (), the remainder was provided by the Ridgway family, owners of

Wallsuches Wallsuches is a small district of Horwich, Greater Manchester, England. Etymology The etymology of the place-name itself is unclear, although it is believed the name may be from Old English ''wella'' (or the regional dialect variant wella) "strea ...

Bleach Works. Horwich became a parish on 29 December 1853 and the chapel-of-ease became the parish church. The

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. Ove ...

, designed by Bolton architect

Richard Knill Freeman Richard Knill Freeman (1840, Stepney, London – 24 June 1904) was a British architect who began his career at Derby and moved to Bolton, Lancashire in the late 1860s. His work, in Victorian Gothic style and typically recalling the Decorated ...

, was added to the east end of the church in 1903 in memory of the Reverend Henry Septimus Pigot,

vicar A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pref ...

for 48 years.

Structure

;Exterior Holy Trinity Church is built in stone with a slate roof in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style. It has a four-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 ...

with Y-tracery lights between the

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 (s ...

es which are topped with

crocket A crocket (or croquet) is a small, independent decorative element common in Gothic architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French ''croc'', meaning "hook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier. Description ...

pinnacle A pinnacle is an architectural element originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly ...

s. The chancel is shallow with a four-light traceried east window. There are porches on the north and south sides. The west tower has octagonal turrets which become angled buttresses above roof level and open tracery 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'). Whe ...

with corner crocketted pinnacles. The tower has a four-sided clock and louvred bell openings. ;Interior The church has north, south and west galleries supported by chamfered diagonal piers. There is a plaster rib vaulted ceiling.

Reredos A reredos ( , , ) is a large altarpiece, a screen, or decoration placed behind the altar in a church. It often includes religious images. The term ''reredos'' may also be used for similar structures, if elaborate, in secular architecture, for ex ...

with cresting and canopy date from 1923. At the west end of the nave is one of the church's original

box pew A box pew is a type of church pew that is encased in panelling and was prevalent in England and other Protestant countries from the 16th to early 19th centuries. History in England Before the rise of Protestantism, seating was not customary in chu ...

s. The organ loft has a three-light mullioned window. There is a stained glass window of 1874 in the south aisle and the east window dates from 1927 incorporating some earlier glass and the Ridgway arms in the tracery at the head of the window. The Ridgway arms and crest, carved in stone, and a monument to Joseph Ridgway, the church's benefactor in the form of a robed woman kneeling at prayer by

Richard Westmacott Sir Richard Westmacott (15 July 17751 September 1856) was a British sculptor. Life and career Westmacott studied with his father, also named Richard Westmacott (the elder), Richard Westmacott, at his studio in Mount Street, off Grosvenor ...

, are also displayed in the church. The family vault of the Barons Willoughby of Parham is at the church. The tower holds a ring of eight bells, hung for

change ringing Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memor ...

. The whole ring was cast by

John Taylor & Co John Taylor Bell Foundry (Loughborough) Limited, trading as John Taylor & Co and commonly known as Taylor's Bell Foundry, Taylor's of Loughborough, or simply Taylor's, is the world's largest working bell foundry. It is located in Loughborough, ...

of Loughborough in 1913.

Burials

Thomas Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby of Parham Thomas Willoughby, 11th Baron Willoughby of Parham (c.1602–1691/92) was an English peer of the House of Lords. He was born in about 1602, son of Sir Thomas Willoughby and Mary Thornhaugh (Thornley), and grandson of Charles Willoughby, 2nd Baro ...

(under the chancel)

Churchyard

The churchyard contains the

war graves War is an intense armed conflict between State (polity), states, governments, Society, societies, or paramilitary groups such as Mercenary, mercenaries, Insurgency, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violenc ...

of 26 service personnel, 22 of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and four of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Clergy

;Curates of Holy Trinity Chapel, Horwich. ;Vicars of Holy Trinity Church, Horwich.

References

Notes Bibliography * * *. *.

External links

Horwich Parish Church
{{Buildings and structures in Bolton Horwich, Holy Trinity Church Horwich, Holy Trinity Church Gothic Revival church buildings in Greater Manchester Grade II listed churches in the Metropolitan Borough of Bolton Churches completed in 1831 19th-century Church of England church buildings Horwich