St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Leigh

St Joseph's Church
St Joseph's Church
Basic information
Location	Bedford, Leigh, Greater Manchester, England
Affiliation	Roman Catholic
Year consecrated	1855
Ecclesiastical or organizational status	Active
Architectural description
Architect(s)	Joseph Hansom
Architectural type	Church
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
Completed	1855, tower 1878
Specifications
Materials	Sandstone

St Joseph's Church is an active Roman Catholic church on Chapel Street in Bedford, Leigh in Greater Manchester, England. It is in the parish of St Edmund Arrowsmith. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building.^[1]

History

After the Reformation when the Church of England left the Catholic Church several recussant families in Leigh kept the 'Old Faith'. Mass was heard in secret at Bedford Hall, Hopecarr and Hall House. Ambrose Barlow carried out priestly duties in the parish while living at Morleys Hall in Astley.^[2]

Father John Penketh, the first Jesuit priest in Bedford in 1678 was imprisoned in Lancaster.^[3] John Shaw built the old chapel from which Chapel Street is named in 1778. One of his successors, Father John Reeve who served from 1828 until 1840, built the school.^[4] The brick-built chapel was replaced by St Joseph's Church which opened on 3 May 1855. Father John Middlehurst raised funds for construction of the nave, chancel and tower base and his successor, Father James Fanning completed the tower in 1878.^[5]

Architecture

Front of the church

The church was designed in the Gothic Revival style by Joseph Hansom and built in 1855 in hammer-dressed stone with a slate roof with fishscale bands. In plan it has a wide nave, polygonal chancel, chapels on the north and south sides, a sacristy, south porch and west tower.^[1]

Exterior

The north and south elevations have nine bays on a projecting plinth separated by buttresses and three-light windows with Geometrical tracery. The chancel has two and three-light windows. The three-stage tower has angled buttresses with an octagonal stair turret in one corner. Above the arched west door at the second stage is a statue and niche. The third stage has four lancet windows and above them two-light belfry openings below the gables. The saddle roof has a statue finial flanked by pinnacles.

Interior

Nikolaus Pevsner describes the interior as "startling". It is a very wide "preaching box" with an apsidal chancel. Its hammerbeam roof failed and slender cast iron columns with palm capitals were installed with iron arches and braces above them creating an arcade.^[6]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St Joseph's Church, Leigh.

Notes

1 2 Historic England. "Church of St. Joseph (1068480)". National Heritage List for England. Retrieved 8 January 2013.
↑ Lunn 1958, p. 213
↑ Lunn 1958, p. 236
↑ Lunn 1958, p. 247
↑ Lunn 1958, p. 260
↑ Pollard, Pevsner & Sharples 1995, p. 231

Bibliography

Lunn, John (1958), History of Leigh, Leigh Borough Council
Pollard, Richard; Pevsner, Nikolaus; Sharples, Joseph (2006), The Buildings of England. Lancashire: Liverpool and the southwest, New Haven: Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-10910-5

Buildings and structures in Wigan Borough, England

Buildings	Astley Green Colliery Museum Bedford Hall, Leigh Billinge Hospital Bispham Hall Damhouse, Astley Garrett Hall Haigh Hall Leigh Spinners Leigh Town Hall Mather Lane Mill May Mill Morleys Hall, Astley Museum of Wigan Life Trencherfield Mill Wigan Pier Wigan Town Hall Winstanley Hall

Places of worship	All Saints' Church, Wigan Chowbent Chapel Christ Church, Pennington St George's Church, Tyldesley St James and St Thomas, Poolstock St John's Church, Wigan St Joseph's Roman Catholic Church, Leigh St Mary the Virgin's Church, Leigh St Mary's Church, Wigan St Matthew's Church, Wigan St Michael and All Angels' Church, Howe Bridge Catholic Church of St Oswald and St Edmund Arrowsmith St Peter's Church, Westleigh St Wifrid's Church, Standish Tyldesley Top Chapel

Education	St John Rigby College, Wigan University Technical College Wigan Wigan and Leigh College Winstanley College

Transportation	Atherton railway station Bryn railway station Gathurst railway station Hag Fold railway station Hindley railway station Leigh railway station Lower Ince railway station Orrell railway station Pemberton railway station Wigan bus station Wigan Central railway station Wigan Darlington Street railway station Wigan North Western railway station Wigan Wallgate railway station

Sport and Entertainment	DW Stadium Edge Hall Road Leigh Sports Village Wigan Casino

Demolished	Atherton Hall, Leigh Barnfield Mills Bedford Colliery Bickershaw Colliery Central Park stadium Chaddock Hall Hilton Park (stadium) Parsonage Colliery Pennington railway station Springfield Park Westleigh railway station

Lists	List of schools in Wigan List of mills in Wigan

Places formerly run by the Society of Jesus in Great Britain

Schools	St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School, Bournemouth Campion School, Hornchurch St Michael's College, Leeds St Francis Xavier's College, Liverpool Beaumont College, Old Windsor Preston Catholic College Hodder Place, Stonyhurst St Aidan's Catholic School, Sunderland

Institutions	Campion House College, Osterley Corby Hall Harlaxton Manor Heythrop Park Loyola Hall Parkstead House Woodhall House, Juniper Green

Churches	Sacred Heart Church, Accrington Sacred Heart Church, Blackpool Sacred Heart Church, Bournemouth St Mary on the Quay, Bristol Corpus Christi Church, Brixton St Edmund's Church, Bury St Edmunds Annunciation Church, Chesterfield Holy Trinity Church, Chipping Norton St Mary Church, Clayton-le-Moors St Michael and St John Church, Clitheroe St David's Church, Dalkeith St Mary's Church, Great Yarmouth St Francis Xavier Church, Hereford St Winefride's Church, Holywell Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Leeds Sacred Heart Church, Leeds St Joseph's Church, Leigh Our Lady of Ransom and the Holy Souls Church, Llandrindod Wells St Aloysius Gonzaga Church, Oxford Our Lady Help of Christians Church, Portico Our Lady Immaculate and St Joseph Church, Prescot St Ignatius Church, Preston St Walburge's Church, Preston St Joseph and St Francis Xavier Church, Richmond Our Lady of the Assumption Church, Rhyl St Joseph Church, Roehampton Holy Cross Church, St Helens Church of St Mary, Lowe House, St Helens St Stephen's Church, Skipton St Ignatius Church, South Ossett St Austin's Church, Wakefield St John's Church, Wigan Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon Christ the King Church, Wimbledon Park St Winefride Church, South Wimbledon St George's Church, Worcester

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Coordinates: 53°29′38″N 2°30′29″W / 53.494°N 2.508°W / 53.494; -2.508

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