St Peter's Church, Bolton-le-Moors, commonly known as Bolton Parish Church, is a

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 ...

Bolton Bolton ( , locally ) is a town in Greater Manchester in England. In the foothills of the West Pennine Moors, Bolton is between Manchester, Blackburn, Wigan, Bury, Greater Manchester, Bury and Salford. It is surrounded by several towns and vill ...

Greater Manchester Greater Manchester is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders Lancashire to the north, Derbyshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Cheshire to the south, and Merseyside to the west. Its largest settlement is the city of Manchester. ...

, England. The parish church, dedicated to

St Peter Saint Peter (born Shimon Bar Yonah; 1 BC – AD 64/68), also known as Peter the Apostle, Simon Peter, Simeon, Simon, or Cephas, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus and one of the first leaders of the early Christian Church. He appears repe ...

, is an example of the Gothic Revival style. 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, ...

as a Grade II*

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, having been designated in 1974. St Peter's is an active parish church in the Diocese of Manchester and is part of the Bolton

deanery A deanery (or decanate) is an ecclesiastical entity in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Anglican Communion, the Evangelical Church in Germany, and the Church of Norway. A deanery is either the jurisdiction or residence of ...

and Bolton

archdeaconry An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that of mo ...

History

The church, on a hill overlooking the

River Croal The River Croal is a river located in Greater Manchester, England. It is a tributary of the River Irwell. Rising at the confluence of Middle Brook and Deane Church Brook, it flows eastwards through Bolton, collecting ''Gilnow Brook'' and th ...

, is the fourth to be built on the site. Until the 1840s the ancient

ecclesiastical parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

Bolton-le-Moors Bolton le Moors (also known as Bolton le Moors St Peter) was a large civil parish and ecclesiastical parish in hundred of Salford in the historic county of Lancashire, England. It was administered from St Peter's Church, Bolton in the township ...

covered a large area and was divided into townships, some of which had chapels of ease. The modern parish covers the town centre and its immediate surroundings.Bolton-le-Moors: St Peter (Parish Map)
URL accessed 4 July 2016. Demolition of the 15th-century church in 1866 revealed several pre-Norman stones under the tower, including a

preaching cross A preaching cross is a Christian cross sometimes surmounting a pulpit, which is erected outdoors to designate a preaching place. In Great Britain and Ireland, many free-standing upright crosses – or high crosses – were erected. Some of thes ...

in three pieces. Fragments of other crosses and stones from the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, a sepulchral slab, stone coffin, and the remains of a 14th-century stone female figure, indicate that two earlier churches had existed on the same site, one

Anglo Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to Ge ...

and one Norman. Little is known of the first two buildings, but the squat, 15th-century church which replaced the Norman structure had an embattled west tower, a

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

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 ...

, north and south

aisle An aisle is a linear space for walking with rows of non-walking spaces on both sides. Aisles with seating on both sides can be seen in airplanes, in buildings such as churches, cathedrals, synagogues, meeting halls, parliaments, courtrooms, ...

s and a south porch which was rebuilt in 1694. Its east window had seven lights. The Chetham and Bradford Chapels occupied the east end of the aisles on either side of the chancel. Galleries were added in the 18th century and the aisle walls were raised and windows inserted to light them. Though the church was modified over the years, the population of Bolton expanded rapidly during the

Industrial Revolution The Industrial Revolution, sometimes divided into the First Industrial Revolution and Second Industrial Revolution, was a transitional period of the global economy toward more widespread, efficient and stable manufacturing processes, succee ...

and the church, in a poor state of repair, became too small and was demolished. Fragments of stone and other artefacts from the first three buildings are displayed in the museum corner of the present church. The present church, built between 1867 and 1871, was designed by the Lancaster architect E. G. Paley. It cost £47,000 (equivalent to £ in ), and was paid for by Peter Ormrod, a local cotton spinner and banker, of Halliwell Hall.

Structure

The church is wide, long, and high. Its tower is high, and is the highest church tower in the historic county of Lancashire.

Exterior

The church, built in

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

with

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

roofs, has a

with

clerestory A clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey; from Old French ''cler estor'') is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye-level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both. Historically, a ''clerestory' ...

and north and south aisles,

transept A transept (with two semitransepts) is a transverse part of any building, which lies across the main body of the building. In cruciform ("cross-shaped") cruciform plan, churches, in particular within the Romanesque architecture, Romanesque a ...

s, a chancel with a

lady chapel A Lady chapel or lady chapel is a traditional British English, British term for a chapel dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, particularly those inside a cathedral or other large church (building), church. The chapels are also known as a Mary chape ...

and

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

chamber. On the south side of the south aisle is a gabled porch with a wrought-iron screen. The

vestry A vestry was a committee for the local secular and ecclesiastical government of a parish in England, Wales and some English colony, English colonies. At their height, the vestries were the only form of local government in many places and spen ...

, which was added later at its north east corner, is reminiscent of the

chapter house A chapter house or chapterhouse is a building or room that is part of a cathedral, monastery or collegiate church in which meetings are held. When attached to a cathedral, the cathedral chapter meets there. In monasteries, the whole communi ...

s of pre-

Reformation The Reformation, also known as the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation, was a time of major Theology, theological movement in Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the p ...

abbeys. The four-stage tower projects from the west end of the north aisle and has clasping

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 (typically Gothic) buildings, as a means of providing support to act ...

es at each corner which terminate in

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

ted

finial A finial () or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a dome, spire, tower, roo ...

s. There are two-light decorated,

lancet window A lancet window is a tall, narrow window with a sharp pointed arch at its top. This arch may or may not be a steep lancet arch (in which the compass centres for drawing the arch fall outside the opening). It acquired the "lancet" name from its rese ...

s in the second and third stages, and paired bell-chamber lights at the fourth stage. Its west door is in a moulded archway with polished

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

shafts. The door, designed by Hubert Austin, retains its original ornate hammered ironwork door furniture. The church has a five-bay nave, divided by buttresses with lean-to aisles and a

above. In each bay is a three-light decorated window with tracery. The clerestory has paired windows with ball flower decorations and

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed Grotesque (architecture), grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from ...

s. There are traceried

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 main ...

s at the east end of

. There is a seven-light east window in the chancel with lancet windows above it. The north transept has a seven-light window and there is a five-light decorated window in the south transept. The lady chapel to the east of the chancel has two two-light windows to south and a three-light east window.

Fittings and furnishings

The chancel and west end of the nave have encaustic tiled floors by Minton. The octagonal wood panelled

pulpit A pulpit is a raised stand for preachers in a Christian church. The origin of the word is the Latin ''pulpitum'' (platform or staging). The traditional pulpit is raised well above the surrounding floor for audibility and visibility, accesse ...

wraps round the northern crossing

pier A pier is a raised structure that rises above a body of water and usually juts out from its shore, typically supported by piling, piles or column, pillars, and provides above-water access to offshore areas. Frequent pier uses include fishing, b ...

, it has stone base and a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

rail to the stairs. The nave seating, canopied civic stalls and choir stalls are original. Three

misericord A misericord (sometimes named mercy seat, like the biblical object) is a small wooden structure formed on the underside of a folding seat in a church which, when the seat is folded up, is intended to act as a shelf to support a person in a p ...

s were saved from the 15th-century church. Of the eight bells installed when the church opened, five were cast in 1699 by Henry Bagley of Ecton in Northamptonshire and three by Rudhall of Gloucester in 1806. The old bells were replaced by the bells from Saviours Church on Deane Road in 1974. Five new trebles were recast from the old bells 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 (instrument), bell foundry. It is locat ...

and the tenor bell was retained and hung "dead" and is rung electrically when required. The tenor bell is inscribed, "I to the Chvrch the living call And to the grave doe svmmon all Henry Bagley made mee 1699". An organ built in 1795 was enlarged in 1852 and replaced in 1882 by a new one which reused some of the old pipes. The three-manual organ built by A. G. Hill in 1882, in a case decorated with stylised flowers and angels, was rebuilt in 2008 by Principal Pipe Organs of York. The organ has almost 3,000 internal pipes, the largest 16 feet long and the smallest half an inch.

Vicars of Bolton-le-Moors

The following is a list of the vicars since the

:Life of the priest
''Parish Magazine, June Issue 2008, page 6'', retrieved 24 March 2009 * 1560–1582: Edward Cockerell * 1582–1593: Alexander Smythe * 1594–1595: John Albright * 1595–1598: Zacharias Saunders * 1598–1625: Ellis Saunderson * 1625–1630: Robert Parke * 1630–1644: William Gregg * 1644–1657: John Harpur * 1657–1662: Richard Goodwin * 1662–1671: Robert Harpur * 1671–1673: Michael Stanford * 1673–1691: John Lever * 1691–1721: Peter Haddon * 1721–1737: Thomas Morrall * 1737–1789: Edward Whitehead * 1789–1793: Jeremiah Gilpin * 1793–1811: Thomas Bancroft * 1811–1817: John Brocklebank * 1817–1857: James Slade * 1857–1886: Henry Powell * 1887–1896: James Augustus Atkinson * 1896–1901: Edwyn Hoskyns * 1902–1909: Henry Henn * 1909–1922: Thomas Alfred Chapman * 1922–1930: Spencer Cecil Carpenter * 1930–1933: Spencer Hayward Elliot * 1933–1948: Walter John Havelock Davidson * 1948–1965: Richard Greville Norburn * 1965–1982: Harold Ormandy Fielding * 1983–1990: Alfred Christopher Hall * 1991–1998: Alan Wolstencroft * 1999–2007: Michael Joseph Williams * 2008–2017: Matthew Thompson * 2018–2023: Christopher Andrew Bracegirdle * 2024–: Hannah Lane

Directors of Music

*William Lonsdale c. 1809–25 *Witton Thomas c. 1825–40 * John Fawcett, BMus 1840–57 *John Aspinall 1857–64 *Joseph Varey 1865 *John H. L. Glover 1865–67 *Miss S. Warbreck 1867–69 *William Best 1869–89 *Walter J. Lancaster, BMus, FRCO, LRAM 1889–1947 *George Fisher, BMus, FRCO, LRAM 1947–52 *Arthur M. Stanier, LRAM, ARCO 1952–56 *P. A. S. Stevens, BSc, BMus 1957–58 *William Morgan, BA, FRCO 1959–86 *Kevin Morgan, BA, PhD, FRCO, LRAM 1986–96 *Martin Bussey, MA 1996–2000 *Stephen H. Carleston, MA, FRCO (Chm) 2000–09 *Michael J. Pain, MA, FRCO, LRAM, ARCM 2009–2022 *Philip O'Connor, MMus, PGDip, ARCO 2023-

Interior

File:The Main Door - Bolton Parish Church.jpg, Main door File:Altar and Reredos, Bolton Parish Church.jpg, Altar File:St Peters -The Chancel.jpg,

Chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

File:St Peters - view from The Chancel.jpg,

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 ...

File:Stained Glass Window - Bolton Parish Church.jpg, Stained glass window File:Bolton Parish Church - Gravestone.jpg, Gravestone File:Bolton Parish Church - Floor tiles in the Chancel.jpg, Floor tiles in the chancel File:Bolton Parish Church - Decorated Organ Pipes.jpg, Decorated organ pipes

References

Citations

Bibliography

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bolton, St Peter's Church Grade II* listed churches in Greater Manchester Church of England church buildings in Greater Manchester Saint Peter's Church Churches completed in 1871 19th-century Church of England church buildings Church buildings by E. G. Paley Saint Peter's Church