Church Heritage Record 624100

South-west tower with south entrance, 5-bay aisled nave with clerestory, shallow transepts. 3-bay chancel with north organ chamber and vestry and south Lady Chapel with west porch. Crypt the length of the church.

[Approximate] Nave 26 m (85 ft) x 8 m (26 ft), chancel 11 m (36 ft) x 7 m (23 ft), aisles 5m (16 ft) wide

Historically Bedford was situated within the county of Lancashire. Leigh was a medieval town, first mentioned in 1276 and Bedford, which was a township of Leigh, merged with it formally in 1875.

A Neolithic find within a kilometre of the site indicates early settlement of the area. Other archaeological records largely date to the industrialisation of the area in the 19th century. At the time of the building’s construction the local population were employed in collieries, agriculture, brick-making, iron foundries, brewery and maltings, cotton, silk and corn mills [VCH]. The historic environment records reflect these industries with records including canal warehouses, engine houses, workers cottages, silk mills and breweries. To the north of the site is a row of listed silk mill-workers houses, presumably constructed for workers from Brook Mill, a former silk weaving mill which was located to the north-west. Brewery Lane, north of the St Thomas was also the site of Leigh Brewery, founded as Bedford Brewery in 1801. A railway opened in Bedford Leigh in 1864 and closed in 1969.

The first church was built with the assistance of an ICBS grant on this site and consecrated in 1840. It was designed by Mills and Butterworth. Early 19th century headstones in the graveyard date to this period. The original building however was replaced by a new one in the early 1900s with funds raised by public subscription. The architect was Mr Richard Bassnett Preston of Manchester [d.1934] and the builders were Messrs J Gerrard and Sons of Swinton. The foundation stone for St Thomas was laid in 1902. Construction began with the chancel, with the old nave used until sufficient funds had been raised to continue the project. The eastern two bays of the nave were constructed shortly after, with the west of the nave and the tower commenced in 1909. The church was dedicated in 1910.

Although there was an earlier church on the site, it is of low archaeological potential. The site is located within a Conservation Area and contains mature trees with TPOs.

A church of considerable scale built in the decorated style, with a prominent south-west tower. Red brick with stone bands and continuous stone sills beneath the windows at aisle and clerestory level (intersecting tracery in clerestory and reticulated in aisle windows). The church is hard to miss given the height and size of the building though not of considerable architectural interest. Its appearance is not enhanced by the addition of light grey PVC downpipes which stand in bold contrast to the vibrant red brickwork.

The roofline is virtually of one with a ridge and stone cross finial over the chancel arch and a finial on the east gable. Lean-to buttressed aisles with double gabled projecting transepts to north and south, to the east side of each an octagonal turret (intended to suggest a rood stair?). That to the north with a door providing access up onto the roof. In the north-east corner the vestry with north door under square head and steps up. To the south of the south transept a low porch with west door and square-headed window. The east elevation has a stone niche in the gable. The west has octagonal turrets rising either side of the gable and angle buttresses. Implied buttresses at clerestory level align with those at aisle level, formed from projecting brickwork.

Metal railings run around the western end of the church on the  south, west and north sides, with the ground dug away allowing for light down to filter down through windows into the basement. Some of the windows are blocked, and may never have been open. Some were once holes for shovelling coal through for the boilers. Steps on the north side provide external access down into the space (there are also steps inside from the north-east corner).

The brick south-west tower has a stone parapet and details include gargoyles with clasping buttresses. The main entrance to the church is in the base, in the south elevation. There is a thick band of carved stone above the door and a carved figure of St John in a niche above that. A ramp with rail leads up from the lychgate.  A clock face is displayed on the east elevation.

The interior is accessed through the base of the tower, entering the south-west corner behind an inserted pod containing WCs. The dark (no electricity) soaring interior is formed of a 5-bay nave and 3-bay chancel. Pointed stone arcades on piers either side. The walls are of brick with stone features and an exposed timber roof structure. Principle trusses rest on stone corbels between each bay. Light filters down through clear glazing in the three-light clerestory windows. Additional spotlights are fixed at this height too. The north and south aisles are mostly of two and three light stained glass windows.

The nave has a level reinforced concrete floor with herringbone wood block finish and stone paved central aisle. A kitchen area has been arranged in the north-west corner inserted in around 2005. The nave was reordered approximately 20 years ago so the pine pews were replaced with upholstered wood chairs and the dais removed and a platform installed in front of the chancel for a nave altar. Pews remain in the aisles, though no longer fixed.

The transepts have been cleared of and rearranged as the Chapel of the Sacred Heart to the north, and the south transept as the Chapel of our Lady of Walsingham. The Lady Chapel at the east end of the south aisle is panelled on each side and seated with fixed benches. Carpet along the aisle, and a raised altar at the apsidal east end. A large old gas heater is suspended along the centre of the ceiling.

From the nave there is a rise of two steps up to the inserted platform which is then level with the choir. The floors at the east end of the church are paved in marble slabs with simple geometric patterns formed by contrasting red and dark grey stones. Oak choir stalls are positioned to north and side with characterful bench-ends depicting squirrels amongst other things. A passageway to the north side is behind a wood screen which bares an inscription recording that both the screen and stalls were the gift of Mary Alice Grundy in memory of Rev John Thomas Lawton c.1930. The organ is accessed from this passage, and a door at the east end of the corridor, beneath a carved cusped tympanum, accesses the vestries. The organ pipes are within the two spans of the open arcade in the chancel. Those to the south have a matching wood screen across the spans with the chapel lying beyond.

Two steps at the east end, with the altar raised on three more. Oak panelling to the walls on each side of the sanctuary and a stone sedilia within the south wall. Two-light clerestory windows in the chancel.