St Peter's Church, Ashton-under-Lyne

St Peter's Church is in Manchester Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester, England. It is an active Anglican parish church in the deanery of Ashton-under-Lyne, the archdeaconry of Rochdale, and the diocese of Manchester.[1]

St Peter's Church, Ashton-under-Lyne
The Church of St Peter from the south
St Peter's Church, Ashton-under-Lyne Location in Greater Manchester
OS grid reference	SJ 931 986
Location	Manchester Road, Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester
Country	UK
Denomination	Anglican
Churchmanship	Open evangelical
Website	St Peter, Ashton-under-Lyne
History
Status	Parish church
Dedication	Saint Peter
Architecture
Functional status	Active
Heritage designation	Grade II*
Designated	12 January 1967
Architect(s)	Francis Goodwin
Architectural type	Church
Style	Gothic Revival
Groundbreaking	1821
Completed	1824
Specifications
Materials	Stone, slate roof
Administration
Parish	The Good Shepherd, Ashton-under-Lyne
Deanery	Ashton-under-Lyne
Archdeaconry	Rochdale
Diocese	Manchester
Province	York
Clergy
Bishop(s)	Rt Revd Dr David Walker
Vicar(s)	Revd Josie Partridge

With four other local churches, it is part of the Parish of the Good Shepherd, Ashton-under-Lyne.[2] The church is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade II* listed building.[3] It is a Commissioners' Church, having received a grant towards its construction from the Church Building Commission.[4] The authors of the Buildings of England series consider it to be a "large and ambitious" church.[5] In the National Heritage List for England it is described as a "particularly imposing and elaborate example of a Commissioners' Church".[3]

History

St Peter's was built between 1821 and 1824, and was designed by Francis Goodwin. A grant of £13,191 (equivalent to £1,170,000 in 2019)[6] was given towards its construction by the Church Building Commission.[4] The land for the church was given by the patron of the advowson, George 6th Earl of Stamford and Warrington, whose cousin, Revd Sir George Booth, had been Rector of Ashton from 1758 until 1797. It was the first of three churches designed by Goodwin for the Commission in the Manchester area. In 1840 a clock was installed with its face at the east end, the mechanism at the west end, and connected by a drive shaft running the length of the church.[5] During the latter part of the 20th century, the west end was divided under the gallery.

Architecture

Exterior

The church is constructed in ashlar stone with a slate roof. Its plan consists of a seven-bay nave with a canted vestry at the east end acting as a chancel. At the west end is a tower. The tower is in three stages with buttresses at the corners rising to piers surmounted by pinnacles. It has a west door over which is a three-stage window. At a higher level are clock faces under gablets.[3] In the top stage are pairs of open pointed arches acting as bell openings. The parapet is also open and is traceried.[5] Each bay of the nave contains a three-light transomed window. These contain tracery in Perpendicular style constructed in cast iron and painted to look like stone. Between the bays are buttresses rising to pinnacles. The pinnacles at the corners of the church are crocketed.[3] At the east end is a rose window, above which is a clock face in the gable.[5]

Interior

There are galleries on three sides in the church, carried on quatrefoil cast iron columns. The church originally contained box pews but these, and many other furnishings, have since been removed. The stained glass in the east rose window dates from the 1830s, and is by David Evans, of Shrewsbury; it depicts the twelve apostles. On the north side of the church is a window by W. Pointer dating from 1923, and three windows by Curtis, Ward and Hughes from the 1890s and 1901. The south side includes windows by Lavers and Westlake.[5] The three-manual organ was built in 1831 by Samuel Renn, and rebuilt in 1959 by J. J. Binns.[7] There is a ring of eight bells, all cast in 1871 by Mears and Stainbank of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry.[8]

External features

The churchyard contains the war grave of a Royal Garrison Artillery soldier of World War I.[9]

See also

• Grade II* listed buildings in Greater Manchester
• Listed buildings in Ashton-under-Lyne
• List of churches in Greater Manchester
• List of Commissioners' churches in Northeast and Northwest England
• List of works by Francis Goodwin

References

1. St Peter, Ashton-under-Lyne, Church of England, retrieved 16 October 2011
2. Welcome to our website, Parish of the Good Shepherd, retrieved 16 October 2011
3. Historic England, "Church of St Peter, Ashton-under-Lyne (1067994)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 17 October 2011
4. Port, M. H. (2006), 600 New Churches: The Church Building Commission 1818-1856 (2nd ed.), Reading: Spire Books, p. 326, ISBN 978-1-904965-08-4
5. Hartwell, Clare; Hyde, Matthew; Pevsner, Nikolaus (2004), Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East, The Buildings of England, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, pp. 114–115, ISBN 0-300-10583-5
6. UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017), "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)", MeasuringWorth, retrieved 2 February 2020
7. "NPOR N10960", National Pipe Organ Register, British Institute of Organ Studies, retrieved 2 July 2020
8. Ashton under Lyne, S Peter, Dove's Guide for Church Bell Ringers, retrieved 17 October 2011
9. MARVEL, CHARLES, Commonwealth War Graves Commission, retrieved 5 February 2013