Church Heritage Record 624131

6-bay aisled nave, west tower with clasping porches, 3-bay chancel with north vestry and south organ chamber and vestry. Crypt underneath the nave.

Nave c 20m (70 ft) x 10m (35ft)

Built 1836-39, designed by Richard Lane of Manchester, one of whose (more famous) proteges was Alfred Waterhouse. Lane worked in the Classical Revival style in the 1820s and 1830s, designing the Salford and Chorlton Town Halls as well as a Friends Meeting House (he was a Quaker himself) in this idiom before following the trend and turning to Gothic Revival at the time this church was built. Although in the stylistically naïve version of early Gothic Revival typical of a contemporary Commissioners church, it was in fact a privately endowed building, which cost £6,000. The patron who gave the land was the first vicar, the Revd John Clowes, whose tomb is on the north side of the sanctuary.

The chancel was added in 1846 by J E Gregan, a Manchester architect perhaps best known for his palazzo-style bank building on St Anne’s Square.  The perceived Ritualism of the chancel, in which it is likely A W  N Pugin was closely involved beyond the design of the stained glass, provoked controversy, and the Bishop was vitriolically opposed to it. Gregan was also responsible for the determinedly Ritualist church of St John at  Miles Platting built in 1855, and it seems that his work in tandem with Pugin at Broughton was the inspiration.  The north vestry was clearly added later, cutting across the chancel windows.

Broughton is on the line of the Roman Road from Manchester to Ribchester and Lancaster, and a Roman fort has been postulated here. Archaeological remains of this period at the church site are however unlikely.

While the church has large lancet windows to each bay typical of the simple style of Commissioners’ churches, seen from closer up one becomes aware that the building generally has more architectural detail than the typical Commissioners church. It was clearly a relatively expensive job, and the quality of the remaining furnishings and fittings confirms this impression. 

The west tower has three stages, with a 3-light Decorated window in the west face of the lower stage, and a 2-tier window and clock over. Paired belfry lights and embattled parapet. Angle buttresses rise to tall pinnacles. The porches flanking the tower have 2-light traceried windows with transoms in their west faces, and chamfered arched north and south doors.The nave is divided by buttresses, with a tall pointed 2-light transomed window with Y-tracery in each bay and an embattled parapet. The plinth is marked with Roman numerals and letters all the way around, something also noted in Commissioner’s churches of the time.

The chancel is of a different style with rock-faced coursed and squared rubble, with steep graded slate roof, little attempt has been made to match the nave in terms of articulation. The north vestry cuts across the three 2-light windows of the chancel. It has a segmental arched door and small blocked window in the east bay of similar profile, and in the west bay a 5-light mullioned stepped lancet window under a gable. On the south side the organ chamber has a narrow steep cross gable with a 2-light window and a lean-to vestry. The chancel has a 5-light Decorated east window with mouchettes, the north vestry a smaller version of this, and a wheel window in the south vestry east wall.

The interior is plastered and whitewashed, including the rib-vaulted roof, but the plaster has been cutback to the brick core in several places to tackle dry rot. 

Looking west, there is a baptistery below the tower within a shallow arch from the nave, with a marble font.  Doorways in the side walls used to lead to the balconies. Above this is tracery panelling below a 4-light Decorated traceried internal window to the tower chamber. There may be remains of the decorative scheme by Kempe under what is left of the plaster. The nave arcades have slender octagonal shafts on high bases. The original galleries have long since been removed. There are blocked entrances and windows in the east walls of the aisles, modern double doors have been inserted in the south aisle wall through the blocking.

The nave to the west has been cleared up to the fourth bay, where there is a plain low white wooden screen with a central doorway, backed by oak panelling with tracery on the east side around the doorway. This part of the nave has a woodblock floor. Several rows of pews have been left immediately east of the modern screen. They are of good quality, dark-stained, with panelled backs and traceried bench ends. In the central alley between them is a fine diamond pattern encaustic tiled floor, such also found in the vestry. 

The chancel has a plain chancel arch and waggon roof, very light. The late 19th-century wrought-iron chancel screen, brought here from Porthill St Andrew in Staffordshire in 1982, has been removed apart from the lower part and its slate backing. The fine choir stalls, of c 1846, with poppyheads and tracery panels have also been removed, and there are cheap chairs instead. The chancel has richly coloured Minton encaustic floor tiles but a red carpet has been laid over these, which are only exposed at the edges. On the north side, the arch to the organ chamber is now screened with polythene sheeting. The quality of this important Tractarian chancel has been impaired by these changes.

The sanctuary is however intact. A notable feature is the ogee-arched and crocketed tomb recess in the north wall to John Clowes, the patron of the church, died 1846, in the style of a medieval founders tomb. There is a stepped sedilia opposite with cusped arches and moulded cornice. Three stone steps to the High altar, with inlaid tiles with various emblems. At the east end is a stone traceried reredos, flanked by tiled arched panels coloured with majolica glazes. Texts (Ten Commandments, Lord’s Prayer and Credo) with embossed lettering set in decorative borders, probably late 19th-century, by Minton Hollins. Combined with the stained glass made by Hardman & Co and designed by Pugin, this is a fine ensemble.  There may be remains of the decorative scheme by Pugin under the plaster.