Christ Church, Pennington

Christ Church (grid reference SJ653995) is an active Anglican parish church in Pennington, Leigh, Greater Manchester, England. Christ Church serves the parish of Pennington in the Leigh Deanery and Salford Archdeaconry in the Diocese of Manchester.[1] It is a Grade II listed building.[2]

Christ Church, Pennington
53.491°N 2.522°W / 53.491; -2.522
Location	Schofield Street, Pennington, Leigh Greater Manchester
Country	England
Denomination	Anglican
Churchmanship	Charismatic Evangelical
Website	Christ Church, Pennington
History
Status	Parish church
Founded	1854
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II
Designated	27 July 1987
Architect(s)	E. H. Shellard
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Construction cost	£3,800
Specifications
Capacity	800
Materials	Sandstone
Administration
Diocese	Manchester
Province	York

History

The parish was taken out of the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Leigh against the wishes of the vicar of Leigh Parish Church James Irvine. Irvine was opposed by his patron, Lord Lilford and many of his congregation including James Pownall the silk manufacturer. The vicar of St Stephen's Church, Astley, James Hewlett helped raise funds. The site, south of the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, cost £500 (£40,000 in 2014)[3], the building, £3,800 (£320,000 in 2014)[3], the churchyard fence and church furniture cost a further £500 (£40,000 in 2014).[3][4]

Architecture

The church was designed in the Gothic Revival style by E. H. Shellard and built in 1854 in hammer-dressed sandstone with ashlar dressings and a slate roof.[2] Nikolaus Pevsner described it as a "Big, rather lifeless, church."[5]

Exterior

Built on a projecting plinth, the church has a six-bay nave and two-bay chancel separated by buttresses. Its east and west gables have raked parapets with finials. There is a south porch. The bays have three-light windows while the clerestory and chancel have two-light windows. The east window has five lights. The castellated three-stage west tower has diagonal buttresses topped by crocketed pinnacles and a west door.[2]

Interior

The double-chamfered nave arcade is supported on octagonal columns with moulded capitals. The west gallery has an arcaded parapet and below it a partition, constructed of wood and glass in the mid-20th century, separates the west end from the nave.[2][5]

See also

• List of churches in Greater Manchester
• Listed buildings in Leigh, Greater Manchester

References

Notes

1. Leigh Deanery, The Church of England Diocese of Manchester, retrieved 10 January 2013
2. Historic England, "Christ Church, Schofield Streetl (1068484)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 10 January 2013
3. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 2 February 2020.
4. Lunn 1958, p. 92
5. Pollard, Pevsner & Sharples 1995, p. 229 sfn error: no target: CITEREFPollardPevsnerSharples1995 (help)

Bibliography

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