Church Heritage Record 603284

5-bay aisled nave and shallow apsidal chancel under one roof,  north-west porch, south vestry block.

Nave estimated to be c 24m x 8m (80ft x 19ft).

Preston has Roman, Saxon and medieval origins, but nothing of this is visible above ground. The town developed slowly through the post-medieval period, then rapidly expanded for the textile industry from the late 18th century, as with most Lancashire towns.  The church was built in 1881-3 to a design by James Hibbert, who also designed the now demolished Preston St James (the Victorian churches of Preston have been decimated in recent years, with the closure and demolition or conversion of the churches of St James, St Mary, St Saviour, St Oswald, and St Jude amongst others). He was to go on to design the Harris Library and Museum in the heart of Preston, a vast and very fine neo-Classical building. The vestry was extended was added at some point in the early 20th century, and the sanctuary was restored in the 1960s in memory of a vicar, Revd Thomas Redfearn.

The church is designed in the Gothic Decorated style and is a confident assay by this at the time unknown architect, proving his proficiency in the Gothic revival style as well as the Classical.  The design of the church makes full use of its location, presenting its best façade to the road.  There are some signs of vandalism, and the windows are protected in places by wire mesh.

The west front is quite dramatic with a huge 6-light window divided by mullions into three 2-lights under a large multifoil in the head, with a roof light above. The west gable has a wheel cross finial, with simpler crosses to the porch and east gable.  There is a similar 3-light in the west wall of the south aisle, but the west wall is pierced by a stepped arrangement of a central 2-light flanked by lancets linked by a continuous hoodmould.

This is the side wall of a tall gabled porch which takes up the north-west bay of the nave, with a very tall and impressive pointed entrance with continuous mouldings recessing to the doorway, which is rectangular under a trefoiled head. This is perhaps the dominant external feature of the church.  Above this is a recessed pointed arch in the gable containing a sexfoil.

The porch roof breaks into the steep nave roof, which is canted out over the aisles, the roofs of these shallowly pitched, an interestingly variegated profile.   The aisles have 2-lights with simple Decorated tracery between gableted buttresses, similar in the canted walls of the apse, similar 3-light in the chancel east wall and in the east end of the north aisle.

The gabled vestry with lancet in the west wall has been added to and is rather an eyesore now, with an eastern-lean-to extension which has been rendered for some reason, and another flat-roofed addition on the west side, both with domestic windows.  This part of the church is tucked away out of view, and there is rubble and other detritus piled up here.

The interior is quite dramatic, and there are several items of good quality. The baptistery at the west end has an encaustic tiled panel with text and a brass plaque recording its dedication in 1898. There is an internal glazed draught lobby to the porch entrance, and a plain glazed wooden screen creating a vestibule across the west aisle bays.

Looking east, the very tall arcades carried on columns with heavy foliate carved capitals carrying moulded pointed arches. The dark-stained scissor-braced roof is taken down to plain corbels, the lean-to aisle roofs have pierced spandrels.  The nave is fully pewed with plain benches, but the aisles are clear.  The floors are of woodblock.  There is no chancel arch or other device to break the view to the High Altar. 

The chancel is raised two steps, the sanctuary a further step, the floors carpeted.  There are attractively carved choir stalls. A low sedilia on both sides within a broad moulded arch. A dark wood screen with filigree open tracery demarcates a chapel in the east end of the north aisle, with benches with high, partly glazed backs acting almost as screens to the west.  On the south side is the organ behind a similar traceried screen, the pipes displayed to the chancel, with a space behind used for storage and two ornate Victorian chairs.  A door in the east wall gives access to the vestry block.