St Mary's Church is a
Roman Catholic Parish church in the Standishgate area of
Wigan,
Greater Manchester. It was built in 1818 and is a Grade II* listed building. It is in the Wigan deanery of the
Archdiocese of Liverpool. It is within 200 feet of another Catholic church,
St John's Church. They were built in a spirit of competition with each other.
History
Foundation
On 17 March 1818, its foundation stone was laid; less than a year later, on 27 January 1819, the church was opened.
Originally, the
church also known as ''The Hidden Gem'',
[''St Mary's Wigan History'']
/ref> was served by a priest from St Mary's Church, Manchester
St Mary's Church was an Anglican parish church in Manchester, England.
The expanding population of Manchester, caused by the onset of the Industrial Revolution, led to the foundation of several new churches there during the 18th century, among w ...
. It was only with the restoration of the English Catholic hierarchy in 1850 that the church became part of the archdiocese of Liverpool.
Extensions
With the Catholic population growing, the church was extended and reopened on 19 October 1851. Those present at the ceremony were the Bishop of Liverpool, George Brown George Brown may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* George Loring Brown (1814–1889), American landscape painter
* George Douglas Brown (1869–1902), Scottish novelist
* George Williams Brown (1894–1963), Canadian historian and editor
* G ...
and the Bishop of Southwark, Thomas Grant. A new Lady Chapel was opened two weeks later.[
In 1859, a Fr Gerard O’Reilly became Rector of the church and, during his time, the organ was rebuilt in 1861, and new pews were installed in 1867.][
In 1933, when the Society of Jesus handed over the nearby St John's church to the archdiocese, the two churches began to work in conjunction with each other.
]
Parish
The church has two Sundays Masses, one at 9:00am and the other at 4:30pm, so that its times do not conflict with St John's church next door. St Mary's Church and St John's Church were united for several years in a single parish.[Catholic Directory]
retrieved 16 August 2013 Following a reorganisation of the Wigan pastoral area in 2017 St Mary's again became a one-church parish, with St John's forming a new parish which also included St Patrick's Church.
See also
* Listed buildings in Wigan
Wigan is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The town, together with the outlying townships of Pemberton, Scholes, Whelley, Worsley Mesnes, Winstanley, and Goose Green, (the former Wigan County Borough ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wigan, Saint Mary
Roman Catholic churches in Greater Manchester
Saint Mary
Mary; arc, ܡܪܝܡ, translit=Mariam; ar, مريم, translit=Maryam; grc, Μαρία, translit=María; la, Maria; cop, Ⲙⲁⲣⲓⲁ, translit=Maria was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Joseph and the mother of ...
Grade II* listed churches in Greater Manchester
Gothic Revival church buildings in England
Gothic Revival architecture in Greater Manchester
Roman Catholic churches completed in 1819
Grade II* listed Roman Catholic churches in England
1819 establishments in England
19th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in the United Kingdom
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool