Church Of St Alban

MACCLESFIELD

SJ9173NW CHESTER ROAD 886-1/9/42 (South side) 17/03/77 Church of St Alban (Formerly Listed as: CHESTER ROAD (South side) Roman Catholic Church of St Alban)

GV II*

Roman Catholic church. Designed 1838; built 1839-41. By Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin. Coursed and squared rubble with ashlar dressings and Welsh slate roof. PLAN: unfinished west tower, nave with high clerestorey and 2 aisles, chancel. Perpendicular style. West tower unfinished. EXTERIOR: deeply moulded west doorway with 5-light window above, stilted arched light in upper stage flanked by statues in niches. Clasping buttresses and stair turret in SE angle. Nave with steep roof over clerestorey. Lean-to aisles, the south aisle divided by buttresses, and with gabled porch with shafts to deeply moulded archway. North aisle and projecting confessional booths concealed behind presbytery. Statue in niche over south doorway. Angel corbels across the western angles of the aisles carry statues in traceried niches clasped between buttresses. Shallow chancel with 4-light windows north and south, and 7-light east window. All gables coped with cross finials. Single storey vestry in NE angle. INTERIOR: 5-bay arcade, with very slender and lofty clustered shafts carrying Perpendicular arches. 10-window clerestorey, each window of 2-lights. King post and collar roof with arched braces and wind braces. Tall Perpendicular arches to west tower and chancel, painted. Choir gallery and organ loft in tower. Open-work chancel screen carrying rood. High chancel has coloured tiled floor and ornate altar piece with advanced central statue in aedicule over tabernacle, forming centre piece of altar with 12 figures of saints each side. Traceried sedilia to south. Stained glass in east window, a central figure, the rest emblematic. Chapel to SE with painted Perpendicular arch and wall painted with stencilled monograms and emblems to dado height. Altar piece with statue in niche flanked by high relief panels depicting scenes from the Life of Mary. Stained glass in window above, also dedicated to the Life of Mary. Painted text as hoodmould to window. Altar recessed at east end of N aisle, with 3 statues in traceried niches set beneath a small high window with stained glass. Pulpit added 1850 by Edward Welby Pugin, square in plan with traceried panels and statues in niches at angles. A church of exceptional interest among the works of this major architect. (Buildings of England: Hubbard E: Cheshire: Harmondsworth).

Listing NGR: SJ9116073662