Church Heritage Record 624324

Six-bay nave with clerestorey, aisles, four-stage north tower to NW, porch. Polygonal apsidal chancel. Hexagonal vestry to the north, chapel to the south. C20 parish room with WC and kitchen in western section of nave and aisles.

The archaeology data service has only recorded post-medieval sites in the vicinity of Heywood, mostly industrial. The Victoria County History records that Heywood was farmland from the medieval period until it began to develop into a town in the later eighteenth century, growing in the nineteenth with the arrival of the Rochdale and Manchester canal in 1830 and the railway in 1841. No previous building is known to have existed on the site and there are no known burials. The archaeological potential of the site is therefore likely to be low.

The chancel, and later the tower, were given by the first vicar, Rathbone Hartley.

Trees and bushes in churchyard; according to QI they are not subject to any TPOs. Surrounded by farmland to the S and E.

The nave has cusped plate tracery in C13 style: to the aisle, of two lights, cusped, with trefoil above; to the clerestory, of three lights, cusped, with taller central light and a roundel, trefoil or vesica piscis above each side light. In each case, windows are joined by continuous course of dressed stone below. Easternmost bay of S aisle has single cusped lancet beside pointed-arched door with hood mould with foliate stops. Weathered buttresses between windows to aisles; pilaster-strips between windows to clerestory. Gable between nave and chancel with cross finial and gableted weathered buttresses.

The N transept has plate tracery (three cusped lancets) at lower level and Geometrical round window above (three trefoils, roundels and mouchettes). Course of dressed stone to each side of round window, and another, broken, above. Coped gable. Weathered angled buttresses to N face.

Polygonal vestry with weathered angle buttresses and paired, cusped square-topped windows, roofed pyramidally with pointed finial.

Polygonal chancel has diagonal weathered gableted buttresses. Windows have geometrical tracery, hood moulds with foliate stops. Two-light, with sexfoil above, except for E window, which is three light with central sexfoil and flanking trefoils above. String course beneath windows and another above plinth.

SE chapel has Geometrical round window to E wall (three trefoils) and plate tracery (two lancets with roundel above) to S. Coped gables to E and W.

W façade: doorway to S aisle (two-leaf, with fine hinges), with hood mould, and weathered plinth above. W wall of nave has grand Geometrical window: four lancets, each with two quatrefoils and a sexfoil above, and a central cinquefoil. Two cusped lancets below, with pointed surrounds. N aisle has plate tracery (two lancets with roundel above), and weathered plinth above. W wall has coped gable topped with cross finial.

Four-stage tower standing outside the N aisle, with angled buttresses that become diagonal buttresses at the bell stage. The bell-stage has traceried lancet openings and stone-flag louvres; the parapet has blind traceried arcading. Projecting polygonal tower stairway with pyramidal roof to W. Doorway to N, with three-ordered surround, and hoodmould; door is two-leaf with fine hinges. Above, a carved dedicatory tablet; weathered plinth; and geometrical window (two lancets with quatrefoil above) with hood mould with foliate stops.

The interior is of brick, with judicious use of dressed stone in window surrounds, pillars, hood moulds and vaulting. There is little carved decoration.

The chancel is rib-vaulted, “a lavish refinement paid for by the first vicar” (B of E). It has quadripartite brick vaulting with stone ribs supported on stone shafts - that nearest the chancel arch on each side terminating in a corbel. There is a cusped square-topped door to the vestry on the N side; on the S side, the chancel and chapel are divided by stone columns. The surround to the chancel arch features detached stone shafts. There are two steps up to the choir, which is divided from the nave by a low stone wall; two steps up to the communion rail; and three more to the altar.

Beneath the clerestory, two string courses frame a plaster strip. There is a hood-mould above the nave arches. The double-chamfered nave arcade has octagonal columns with plain bold capitals. The nave has a scissor-braced hammer-beam roof with arch braces.

The W end of the nave and aisles was subdivided in 1994 to form a parish room, kitchen and store: “an expensive job but leaving unresolved the dead space above it” (B of E).

The first stage of the tower is the porch. The porch roof has the same brick and stone vaulting as the chancel. Inscribed around the walls, Psalm 26 v.8: “Lord, I have loved the habitation of thy house, and the place where thine honour dwelleth.” There is a stone bench to the E. To the W, a doorway leads to a brick-lined stone spiral stair to the second stage, the ringing chamber, which has brick walls, quarry glazed windows and a timber floor and ceiling. There is a long wooden stair ladder to the third stage, the clockroom, which has a timber floor, brick walls and a concrete ceiling. There is a ladder to the fourth stage, the bell chamber, which has concrete floor and ceiling and brick walls. There are ashlar surrounds to the louvres, which have mesh to the rear to protect from birds.