Church Heritage Record 624240

Nave (nine ¼ bays) and chancel in one, narrow aisles, west end division, south porch and south east stair turret.

The nave and chancel together are approximately 46m (150ft) by 15m (50ft) (including aisles).

In 1880 the need for a church and school was identified and a temporary building erected and used. Works started on the church in 1885 and it was consecrated in 1886. The architect for the church was Richard Knill Freeman (1838 – 1904) who worked primarily in Manchester and Lancashire and designed a number of other buildings in Farnworth.

St Peter’s is a long tall rectangular building with one continuous pitched roof for the nave and chancel. On the north elevation all nine bays have paired tall lancets set within a relieving arch demarcated in brick and underlined with a string course. Each bay is divided with a tall slender narrow buttress with a single weathering at height.  There is a partial tenth bay at the east end and this is blind and forms an overwide buttress. There is a doorway in the second bay from the west.

The south elevation is the show side of the building and has a very shallow porch in the second bay from the west which has a slight shouldered gable surmounted by a cross and an arched doorway. The seven bays from west to east have detailing and fenestration as the north side except for above the porch where the window is the same style as all other bays but with shortened lancets and a higher stringcourse.

Between the eighth and ninth bays on the south side there is a stair turret. The turret has five faces (as though octagonal in plan) and rises to a small pyramidal roof which then blends into a rectangular projection with louvred opening. Below the pyramidal roof there are three paired lights in a row across the three central faces; a further pair is set lower in the central face. The turret is finished with a hipped roof with broached corners set at right angles to the nave. There is a small doorway to the east of the turret.

The east elevation is sheer and imposing. Buttresses at the north and south with two highly set weatherings join the roof line with gablets creating a shouldered effect. Four undercroft windows are just visible and finish level with the road. The main window is a relieving arch containing five irregularly stepped lancets. The outer lancets are divided by thin decorative pilasters in the same form as the buttresses. A central buttress rises to the bottom of the central lancet with a gablet over and the weathering in line with a string course.

The west elevation has a stepped finish to the gable and two tall paired lancets under thin relieving arches similar to the openings in the nave and underlined with a string course. A tall buttress is positioned centrally between the two arches and there are two shorter buttresses positioned on either side. Four shorter lights are positioned directly beneath each lancet at a lower level.

The nave is wide and spacious. The aisles employ a characteristic Freeman style and are really only narrow walkways separated from the outer walls by two-storey small strainer arches which create narrow ambulations and short tunnel cross vaults.  The arcades reach to the full height of the nave without capitals and are sharply pointed.

The western bay has a balcony of sorts created by a three bay baptistery with wide segmental arches. The font was relocated to a central position in the nave in 1974 and the arches glazed to create an enclosed chapel space.

A wooden screen separates the next two bays from the nave and here the pews have been removed to create an open space which can be used flexibly. The next four bays constitute the nave proper and here there are long pew benches spanning the space.

The chancel occupies the next two bays  and is raised on seven steps and marked with a sturdy stone wall which replaced the rood screen in 1955. The wall is shaped to include the large contemporary octagonal pulpit. Wooden screens separate the space from the ambulatory aisles and give a degree of intimacy in contrast to the nave. The organ is positioned on the south side of the chancel in the ninth bay. The north aisle has access to the stair turret and steps down to the undercroft below the chancel.

The sanctuary occupies the tenth bay which appears almost as an afterthought and is marked by slender arches (perhaps a third the width of other bays) which are also lower in height.