St Paul's Church is in Railway Road, Adlington,

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

, England. It is an active

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

parish church A parish church (or parochial church) in Christianity is the Church (building), church which acts as the religious centre of a parish. In many parts of the world, especially in rural areas, the parish church may play a significant role in com ...

in the deanery of Chorley, the archdeaconry of Blackburn, and the diocese of Blackburn. 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 designated 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 ...

. It is registered as a parish of the Society under the patronage of St Wilfrid and St Hilda.

History

St Paul's was built in 1883–84 and designed by T. D. Barry and Sons, at a cost of £8,000 (£ in ). The tower was added following the First World War as a memorial to those who lost their lives.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is in

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...

style, incorporating Early English and Decorated features. It is constructed in yellow stone with red stone dressings; the roof is of Welsh

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 ...

, with a crest of red tiles. The plan consists of a five-

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'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

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 a

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' ...

, 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, north and south

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, and 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 ...

. At the southeast corner is a three-stage tower, containing an entrance porch in the bottom stage. The tower is supported by angle

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, it has paired bell openings and clock faces in the top stage, and a

battlement A battlement, in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals ...

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a 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/brea ...

. There were plans to have a tall spire, but this was never built. Along the sides of the aisles are single-light windows, with two-light windows in the clerestory. In the north and south walls of the transepts are two

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 with an oval window above.

Interior

Inside the church are five-bay arcades carried on clustered piers with moulded capitals and moulded arches. The transept and chancel arches are higher but similar. The roof of the nave is scissor-braced. In the north transept are stained glass windows by Morris & Co. dated 1895 and 1897, and in the south aisle are two windows of 1953 by A. F. Erridge. There is a

ring (The) Ring(s) may refer to: * Ring (jewellery), a round band, usually made of metal, worn as ornamental jewelry * To make a sound with a bell, and the sound made by a bell Arts, entertainment, and media Film and TV * ''The Ring'' (franchise), a ...

of eight bells, all 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 (instrument), bell foundry. It is locat ...

; one dates from 1932, one from 1933, and the rest from 1934.

Clergy

The History of Incumbents

Rev. T Carpenter 1885 – 1894 Rev. T H Minett 1894 – 1921 Rev. A H Baker 1922 – 1928* Rev. W R Coombs 1928 – 1937 Rev. C Gamble 1938 – 1944 Rev. A Hodgson 1944 – 1962 Rev. F Haworth 1963 – 1969 Rev. E Carter 1969 – 1975 Rev. R A Andrew 1976 – 1985 Fr. D F C Morgan 1986 – 2011 Fr. D A Arnold 2012 – 2021 Fr. G Buttery 2022 – Date * Rev. Baker died whilst still in office

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adlington, St Paul's Church Church of England church buildings in Lancashire Grade II listed churches in Lancashire Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Lancashire Churches completed in 1884 Diocese of Blackburn Paul's, Adlington Adlington, Lancashire