Church Heritage Record 603033

8-bay nave with north aisle, 2-bay chancel, organ chamber and north vestry, north-west porch.

Chancel and nave estimated to be c 24m x 6m (78ft x 19ft).

In the 19th century Blackburn rapidly expanded for the textile industry, as with most Lancashire towns. The parish church was built in 1901 to serve the new housing being built around it as Blackburn expanded east up the slopes, though the church was built in fields and still has this character.  The church was enlarged in 1923 with the addition of a north aisle and porch and a double storey vestry and Sunday School block which wrapped onto the east end.  The architects were Sames & Green of Blackburn. A new hall was built on to the south-west in the 1950s. At some time after this there were internal changes to accommodate the large congregation, including cutting away a section of the arcade piers.  An extension linking church and hall was built in 1992.

The architectural style chosen for this church is a simple pointed lancet style, with little in the way of ornamentation; this is a business-like building, cheaply erected and frequently enlarged and altered as needs changed, resulting in a very odd jumble of shapes and spaces indeed. The complex consists of the church built in 1901, extensions and vestry of 1923 to the north, church hall to the south-west built after World War II and the modern foyer and link building between church and hall. The following description is quite long as this complex is difficult to describe, this length should not be taken to be commensurate with its architectural interest or quality.

The south elevation of the church is the easiest to appreciate and describe, and would appear to represent the “original” church. The short chancel has a stepped lancet 5-light window in the east wall.  It is lower and slightly narrower then the nave, which is of no less than eight bays, with three cross-gables irregularly spaced, these have a round window in the gable.  Each bay has paired lancets, except one central bay which has only a single lancet. Buttresses of two steep weatherings define the bays throughout.

The north elevation cross-gables are partly cut off by the added north aisle, which has paired lancets in each bay. The central bay of the elevation has a World War I memorial stone under the window, with an iron railing set into a low wall defining a small flower bed before it.  This stone records the enlargement of the church, presumably by the addition of this aisle, in 1923. The aisle is one build with the double-gabled block containing vestry, organ chamber, and Sunday School, a large building in the same style with a mixture of paired lancets and domestic windows which butts up against the north wall of the chancel, overshadowing it. 

A simple gabled porch projects from the west end of the aisle, with angle buttresses. The west elevation is now impinged upon by the brick and glass modern extension, the gable of which cuts across the west window.   This is a 3-light stepped lancet. There is also a single lancet in the square west façade of the south aisle, and a rectangular light in the west wall of the porch. The hall is long and low, of brick with concrete buttresses and a continuous band of domestic windows under the eaves.

Moving inside, the porch leads into a narthex with the stone font set within a brightly coloured carpet.  Opening to the east beyond an oak screen is what would normally be a conventional vista, but the eye is caught by the aisle arcade; the unusual thick square piers have been cut away through the middle leaving steel stanchions supporting the arcade of simple pointed arches.  This was done in the early 1980s to improve sight-lines to the altar from the north aisle, as the church was apparently regularly full to overflowing at this time.

Moulded corbels support a false hammer-beam roof; there is an inserted ceiling at the height of a collar.  This dark painted roof constrasts with the white emulsion used throughout, which is flaking badly in the north aisle and over the pointed chancel arch.  The sanctuary east wall is painted dark green.  The floors are of woodblock with red carpet in the central aisle and chancel, except for a monochrome tiled floor in the sanctuary.  The nave is still fully pewed, with simple benches.  There are equally simple choir stalls, with pierced fronts and little tracery panels on the sides.  The organ pipes are displayed in the north-west bay, which gives onto the two-storey organ chamber and vestry.  The furnishings are rather disparate, clearly given at different times and perhaps brought from other churches over the years.