St Thomas' Church is in Lancaster Road,
Preston
Preston is a place name, surname and given name that may refer to:
Places
England
*Preston, Lancashire, an urban settlement
**The City of Preston, Lancashire, a borough and non-metropolitan district which contains the settlement
**County Boro ...
,
Lancashire, England. It has historically been an
Anglican
Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...
parish church, and now used by
City Church Preston, an
AOG GB church. The church is recorded in the
National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II
listed building.
History
The church was designed by John Latham and built between 1837 and 1839 at a cost of £4,500.
When first built the church could seat about 1,100 people. It is recorded in 1869 that near the entrance to the church was a curtained pew that was occupied by
Edward Hermon
Edward Hermon (2 April 1822 – 6 May 1881) was a British cotton magnate and Conservative Party politician.
At the 1868 general election he was elected on his first attempt a Member of Parliament (MP) for the two-seat constituency of Preston in ...
, the local
Member of Parliament.
The church was declared redundant on 1 November 1983. In May 1987 it was in "civic, cultural or community" use, and from 6 February 2001 it has been used for "worship by other Christian bodies". From 2014 it was the Preston Elim Pentecostal Church. From 2018 it became known as St Thomas Centre, after it was purchased and used by City Church Preston.
Architecture
St Thomas' is built in
sandstone 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 rock. ...
roofs, and is mainly in
Romanesque Revival (
Norman
Norman or Normans may refer to:
Ethnic and cultural identity
* The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries
** People or things connected with the Norm ...
) style; all the openings are round-headed. The church consists of a six-
bay
A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...
nave with a
clerestory
In architecture, a clerestory ( ; , also clearstory, clearstorey, or overstorey) is a high section of wall that contains windows above eye level. Its purpose is to admit light, fresh air, or both.
Historically, ''clerestory'' denoted an upper l ...
, north and south
aisles, and a
chancel with a five-sided
apse, which is flanked by north and south
vestries. Above the chancel is a three-stage tower with a window on each side of the middle stage and two-light bell openings in the top stage.
Surmounting the tower is a
broach spire
A broach spire is a type of spire (tall pyramidal structure), which usually sits atop a tower or turret of a church. It starts on a square base and is carried up to a tapering octagonal spire by means of triangular faces.
File:Leicester Cathedral ...
.
[ In the lower part of the west front is a window in a Norman-style surround flanked by windows in two tiers. Above this is a three-light window, and in the gable is a wheel window. There are doorways on each side of the church in the western bay of the aisles, the north doorway being gabled. The other bays along the sides of the aisles and the bays of the clerestory are divided by pilasters, and each contains a window. There is also a window in each side of the apse. Inside the church the arcades are carried on cylindrical ]piers Piers may refer to:
* Pier, a raised structure over a body of water
* Pier (architecture), an architectural support
* Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name)
* Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...
. The interior of the church has been divided by the insertion of an upper floor.[
]
Appraisal
The church was designated as a Grade II listed building on 27 September 1979. Grade II is the lowest of the three grades of listing and is applied to "buildings of national importance and special interest".[ A. Hewitson, writing in 1869, described the church as a "small, strong, hard-looking building".][
]
See also
* Listed buildings in Preston, Lancashire
References
External links
Photograph of the church
from GENUKI
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Thomas Church Preston
Churches in Preston
Preston, St Thomas
Former Church of England church buildings
Churches completed in 1839
Romanesque Revival church buildings in England