Church Heritage Record 603186

4-bay aisled nave, transepts expressed only above the aisles, 2-bay apsidal chancel flanked by north vestry and south-east sacristy, south-west tower, and west porch.

Nave estimated to be c 23m x 8m (80ft x 25’6ft).

Built on the site of an earlier Mission Hall in 1908, by Potts, Son & Hennings,  who also built the town hall and the grammar school in Blackpool, and Whitechapel library, as well as several other public buildings and houses.  This would appear to be one of very few churches built by this practice, another being Micklehurst All Saints, built in 1892 which shows the same rather naïve boldness.

The furnishings and fittings are the sum of several periods of donations, the latest being the fitting of the sanctuary in 1992.

The style would have to be called free late Gothic Revival with Arts-and-Crafts influence, but with a touch of Romanesque in the tower, chancel apse and other details, quite an ambitious, or naïve, design depending on your point of view.  In a way it is reminiscent of the Tower which is visible from outside the church and perhaps of 1900’s Blackpool itself, gauche and over the top, trying a bit too hard.  Age has not dimmed the screaming redness of the brick, which due to its inherent hardness is still sharp-edged and looks like shiny plastic in the rain.

The tower is square of one tall stage with slit openings below the belfry stage, which has square 3-light louvred openings with a blind gable above, and a pyramid cap. It is squeezed in between the south transept and vestry, and with the tall gable of the former, the low hipped roof of the latter and the apse of the chancel behind makes for a crowded and varied roofline. The sacristy has 2-light square windows in each face, its east wall is carried along the face of the apse which is contained behind it, as is the vestry on the other side.  Beyond this are houses directly adjacent to the church.

Only the west and south facades can be fully appreciated  because of the street corner site. The west window is a large pointed 6-light divided into three groups of two by very thick mullions, also a transom across the middle; this a motif employed throughout..  Below this is a projecting canted baptistery with a crenellated parapet. It has a lancet with odd wavy tracery in the heads in each face, and one more such in the aisle end walls each side of the baptistery. The gable is framed by prominent stepped buttresses.

The aisles of the nave have two square 3-lights with transoms to each bay between pronounced buttresses, the heads of the lights cusped.  A shallow gabled porch takes up the west bay. The clearstorey has a pair of cusped lancets to each bay except the western bay which has a single lancet. The south transept has a large pointed 5-light above a protruding block with pedimented parapet and two 3-lights as in the aisles.  The chancel has three lancets with tracery in the heads.

Moving inside, the interior is calmer but again a mix of styles. The brickwork is mostly exposed but the aisle walls are painted cream to cill level.  Doors lead off into the plain church hall with stage adjacent.  Going into the church and looking west, the baptistery is contained within a broad low arch. There are glazed internal draught lobbies.  Looking east, the aisle arcades are carried on broad round-headed stone arches under a continuous hoodmould, springing without capitals from lozenge-shaped piers, from which transverse arches cross the narrow aisles, creating ambulatories.

The eastern nave bays have smaller paired arches, giving access to the transepts.  The organ chamber is on two levels, with an upper arch in which the pipes are displayed, above a parapet with terracotta panels.  Underneath this are pews facing south, now disused, and access to the vestries, with much useful space. Similar arch on the other side, with a gallery.  There is a nave altar on a small platform between the ranks of simple pitched-pine benches filling the nave. 

The chancel arch is pointed and plain. The chancel apse has a rib-vaulted ceiling, painted white above the cream apse walls.  The pulpit, stone chancel screen with panelled upper part, lectern and choir stalls are all of a piece, the woodwork carved with roundels with various patterns.  There are steps up to the chancel and sanctuary.  Panelling around the walls, with an embossed brass aumbry (donated 1992) in the north side.