Church Of St Stephen And All Martyrs

BOLTON

SD70NW HAG END BROW 797-1/4/104 (North East side) 26/04/74 Church of St Stephen and All Martyrs

II*

Parish church. 1842-45. Edmund Sharpe, architect. Terracotta throughout, with slate roof. PLAN: nave with west porch (intended as tower with spire), 2 transepts, shallow chancel and vestry. EXTERIOR: flat roofed west porch with ball flower and text in deep relief round arch of doorway; ornate ironwork to paired doors. Flat western gable with full-height window above the porch, its shafts with foliate capitals. 5-bay nave divided by buttresses surmounted by finials. 2-light Decorated windows. Parapet with openwork cusped scrolled decoration. Transepts and chancel similarly enriched, with 4-light Decorated windows. INTERIOR: nave with crossing and 2 transepts. Shallow chancel with original vestry in north-east angle. Hammerbeam roof with collar truss and short king post, the main timber members carried on terracotta corbels, and enriched with terracotta cusping. Pendant flying beams over crossing similarly enriched. Crossing arches all deeply moulded with ball flower decoration. Full height western arch with doorway and window over, enriched with terracotta work in deep relief, with ball flower, foliage and text. Elaborate decorative scheme in sanctuary, all executed in terracotta: blind traceried wall panelling forming reredos, incorporating prayer boards with raised lettering set in ornate traceried and canopied panels. Wall surfaces entirely made up of small foliate panels. Frieze above continuous through both transepts, with raised lettering and high relief foliate band. Similar foliate frieze forms dado to nave seating. Stalls throughout also incorporate terracotta work, as traceried panels set into seat backs, and as bench ends, also incorporating traceried panels. Terracotta canopied casing to organ in south transept. Some applied decoration to responds of crossing arch, stencilled motifs incompletely exposed at time of inspection (January 1993). Window embrasures also enriched with terracotta foliate bands in deep relief. STAINED GLASS: pictorial stained glass in transepts possibly contemporary with church; later C19 glass in chancel and nave windows of various dates and styles including a representation of the execution of Charles I, and at least one window by

Holiday. HISTORY: the church was the first of the terracotta churches built by Edmund Sharpe at the invitation of the terracotta manufacturer John Fletcher, and is a remarkable demonstration of the capabilities of the material. (BOE: Pevsner N: South Lancashire: Harmondsworth: 1969-).

Listing NGR: SD7328008477