St Thomas' Church is in Eskrick Street, Halliwell, a residential area of

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. 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 Bolton, the archdeaconry of Bolton, and the diocese of Manchester. Its

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 ...

is united with those of five other local churches to form the Benefice of West Bolton. 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 ...

History

The church was built in 1874–75 to serve the growing local population, and designed by the Lancaster architects Paley and Austin. The main benefactors were the Cross family, mill owners who lived nearby at Mortfield, Thomas Cross giving the site for the church, a school and a vicarage, plus £1,000. The

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

was given by his son, James Percival Cross. The church was an early use by the architects of brick on such a large scale. For its size it was relatively inexpensive, costing £6,400 (equivalent to £ as of ), and providing seating for 849 people. The church was

consecrated Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

in July 1875 by the Rt Revd James Fraser,

Bishop of Manchester The Bishop of Manchester is the Ordinary (officer), ordinary of the Church of England Anglican Diocese of Manchester, Diocese of Manchester in the Province of York.) The current bishop is David Walker (Bishop of Manchester), David Walker who w ...

. 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 ...

was formed in 1922 as a war memorial. New

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

were added to the church in 1931–32 at a cost of £882 by Austin and Paley, successors in the Lancaster practice. The planned northwest tower was never completed.

Architecture

Exterior

St Thomas' is constructed almost entirely in brick, with a minimum of stone dressings, and has green

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. Its plan consists of a wide

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 eight- bay

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 porches, a north

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 ...

with a bellcote, 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 ...

with a two-storey vestry to its north. At the west end are stepped

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 flanked by

rose window Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in Gothic cathedrals and churches. The windows are divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery. The term ''rose window'' wa ...

s. Below these is a central

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 ...

, with a lancet window on each side of it. Each aisle bay contains a single lancet window, and there are 14 lancet windows along each side of the clerestory. The transept contains two lancets and a doorway with a rose window above them. The bellcote is louvred with a pyramidal roof, and forms a

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

. At the east end are stepped lancets. with a rose window above and blind arcading below.

Interior

The arcades have five bays, with round piers, leaf-and- crocket capitals, and brick arches. The internal surfaces of the church are in plain brick almost throughout, the exception being the east wall below the level of the windows. The consists of lies set in brick recesses depicting features such as

fleur-de-lis The ''fleur-de-lis'', also spelled ''fleur-de-lys'' (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a common heraldic charge in the (stylized) shape of a lily (in French, and mean and respectively). Most notably, the ''fleur-de-lis'' ...

, angels, and the Instruments of the Passion. The rectangular

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 ...

is in stone with

marble Marble is a metamorphic rock consisting of carbonate minerals (most commonly calcite (CaCO3) or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite (CaMg(CO3)2) that have recrystallized under the influence of heat and pressure. It has a crystalline texture, and is ty ...

shafts and an acanthus

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

. The

sanctuary A sanctuary, in its original meaning, is a sacred space, sacred place, such as a shrine, protected by ecclesiastical immunity. By the use of such places as a haven, by extension the term has come to be used for any place of safety. This seconda ...

is floored with encaustic tiles. In the chancel is a

piscina A piscina is a shallow basin placed near the altar of a church, or else in the vestry or sacristy, used for washing the communion vessels. The sacrarium is the drain itself. Lutherans and Anglicans usually refer to the basin, calling it a pisci ...

and a

sedilia In church architecture, sedilia (plural of Latin ''sedīle'', "seat") are seats, typically made of stone, located on the liturgical south side of the altar—often within the chancel—intended for use by the officiating priest, deacon, an ...

, both with segmental arches. The wooden

dates from 1893 and contains linenfold panels, flower motifs, figures of the apostles under canopies, and a low relief of The Last Supper. The choir stalls date from about 1911, and the altar from about 1960, replacing an earlier altar damaged by fire. The

font In metal typesetting, a font is a particular size, weight and style of a ''typeface'', defined as the set of fonts that share an overall design. For instance, the typeface Bauer Bodoni (shown in the figure) includes fonts " Roman" (or "regul ...

dates from about 1950 and consists of a simple cylindrical basin. The stained glass in the east window of 1907 is possibly by Holland, windows in the aisles and Lady Chapel are by Shrigley and Hunt and date from about 1920, and the glass in one of the west windows is dated 1919. The organ was built in 1888 by Lewis, and was modified in 1902 and 1907 by the same company.

Assessment

The church was listed at Grade II* on 26 April 1974. Grade II* is the middle of the three gradings given by English Heritage, and is granted to buildings that "are particularly important buildings of more than special interest". Brandwood ''et al.'' state that the relative cheapness of the structure was achieved by using a 13th-century style of architecture, with lancet windows, an interior mainly of bare brick, stone being used only for a few dressings and the piers. Other than on the east wall, its decoration is minimal. This is consistent with its being designed for a

low church In Anglican Christianity, the term ''low church'' refers to those who give little emphasis to ritual, often having an emphasis on preaching, individual salvation, and personal conversion. The term is most often used in a liturgical sense, denot ...

style of worship, which the norm for Bolton at the time. Nevertheless, it is "a testimony to the effects of the Victorian ecclesiastical revolution on Anglican church-building for all persuasions". Commenting on its structure, the authors of the '' Buildings of England'' series say that the church is "in its brick simplicity sensational for the date".

Notes

References

Bibliography

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Halliwell, St Thomas Grade II* listed churches in Greater Manchester Church of England church buildings in Greater Manchester Anglican Diocese of Manchester Churches completed in 1875 19th-century Church of England church buildings Gothic Revival church buildings in England Gothic Revival architecture in Greater Manchester Paley and Austin buildings Austin and Paley buildings Buildings and structures in Bolton