Roman Catholic Church of St Chad and attached Presbytery, and Boundary Walls

Roman Catholic Church of St Chad and attached Presbytery

This Roman Catholic church with attached presbytery, now an oratory, was built in 1847 by the architects Weightman and Hadfield. The building is constructed of coursed rubble Todmorden summit sandstone with slate roofs.

The Church

The church plan comprises a nave with a substantial south-west tower, north and south aisles, a chancel with north and south chapels. The building is designed in the Perpendicular Gothic style and sits on a low weathered plinth that runs around the entire structure.

The chancel features a large five-light traceried east window with a stopped hoodmould and angle buttresses. The north wall is adjoined by the Lady chapel, which is gabled and possesses a three-light traceried east window with a four-centred arch head, hoodmould and stops. The Lady chapel's north wall contains two two-light windows under stopped hoodmoulds and a north-west buttress.

The north aisle consists of six bays with buttresses, five of which display large gargoyles said to represent the deadly sins. At the north-west corner stands a crocketed pinnacle. The windows are pointed-arched three-light openings with hoodmoulds that are stopped with unidentified likenesses; each window's tracery is subtly different. The fifth bay from the left contains a doorway with an ogee head featuring crockets and likewise stopped with likenesses, above which sits a statue niche. The south aisle comprises three similar bays with more figurative hoodmould stops and two gargoyled buttresses. To the right lies St Philip's chapel, which is gabled with two two-light windows. Its west return features a three-light low-pointed arched window with hoodmould and angel stops. The gabled south porch, positioned in the angle with the tower, has buttresses and a small pinnacle at the left, together with a modern access ramp. The nave contains mostly paired two-light north and south clerestory windows.

The tower is a very substantial structure of three stages with a narrow south-west vice and string-courses. Angle-buttresses, a massive moulded and weathered plinth, an embattled parapet with a small crocketed spire above the vice, crocketed intermediate and corner pinnacles, and two louvred and traceried belfry windows per side separated by shafting characterise the design. The vice is square to the lower stage and rises octagonally, with a corner niche containing a statue of St Chad. The west face of the tower contains a small three-light west window with a hollow-moulded surround, tracery and a likeness-stopped hoodmould. The second stage has a niche with a crocketed hood.

The west wall displays a very large traceried five-light west window and a moulded doorway beneath it, both with likeness hoodmould stops. To the left, the north aisle features a similar three-light traceried window.

Interior of the Church

The chancel is arcaded and features a marble and terrazzo floor. The east window dates from 1847 and was created by Barnett of York; it depicts scenes from the life of St Chad, though as of 2023 these scenes are not displayed in their original narrative order following an earlier cleaning. The window is partially obscured by an elaborately carved and painted reredos which has been raised. The high altar, which contains relics of St Chad, is similarly designed, retaining its more modest original tabernacle and exposition throne behind more elaborate additions from the 1870s. The piscina and sedilia remain in place. Murals dating to 1856 depicting the life of St Chad, figures of St George, St Andrew, St Patrick and St David, and angels are partially visible through later overpainting.

The Lady chapel to the north contains an east window depicting Mary Auxiliam Christianorum with images representing other titles of the Virgin, including Seat of Wisdom and House of Gold. The north windows show some bomb-damaged areas. The east wall is painted with lilies and roses and bears the Greek abbreviation MP/OY (Meter Theou). The reredos and altar feature sculptural carvings.

St Philip's chapel, located to the south of the chancel, contains elaborately carved communion rails and a similar screen. A tall coved wooden reredos and a carved stone altar are present. The windows are by William Wailes.

The nave features six-bay arcades of pointed double-chamfered arches on octagonal piers with embattled capitals, a hammerbeam roof, and terrazzo aisle floors with a mosaic at the foot of the sanctuary. A very richly carved pulpit with canopy and crocketed pinnacles is present, with similar canopies surmounting statues on either side of the chancel arch. The north aisle contains a window depicting St Catherine. The large nave west window, created in 2020 by Deborah Lowe, depicts the Transfiguration and overlooks an extended choir gallery, with 1960s confessionals and narthex beneath. The south aisle has a modern war memorial at its east end incorporating an older carving. Further west is a memorial to Sergeant James Nicholson, killed in action in 1915, in the form of a Pieta statue, flanked by wooden pillars listing the names of the parish fallen of Miles Platting.

The belfry contains a single 18-hundredweight bell by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. It is inscribed: LAUDO DEUM VERUM. PLEBEM VOCO/ CONGREGO CLERUM. DEFUNCTOS PLORO/ PESTEM FUGO. FESTA DECORO (translation: I praise the true God. I summon the people. I gather the clergy. I weep for the dead. I banish the plague. I embellish the feasts).

The south porch is lined with decorative tiles and contains a holy water stoup.

The Presbytery

The presbytery is also executed in the Gothic style and comprises two storeys plus attic and basement. Its plan is of reverse-L form, with south and east ranges and a courtyard in the angle formed by corridors, with a north sacristy connecting to the church.

The main front faces east onto Stocks Street. Due to level changes, the basement is exposed here. It consists of three wide bays, gabled at the right. The left bay has a gabled half dormer, a three-light first-floor window and a five-light ground-floor window, with a blind window to the left. There is a first-floor chimney breast with a shield in a decorative surround. The entrance bay has two gabled dormers, two two-light windows, a polygonal ground-floor bay window, a small statue niche, and a pointed doorway with hoodmould, reached by steps along the front. The right-hand bay contains two- and three-light windows and a square ground-floor bay window. A tall gable stack rises at the right.

The south wall features a later square pent-roofed bay window at the right and a tall eaves chimney stack at the left, with a central ridge stack.

The west wall has a gabled bay at the right with a three-light window to each of its two storeys. To the left is a low entrance corridor with a pointed doorway; above can be seen a dormer and the hipped-roof stair tower of the east range. The north wall is blind with a projecting gable chimney breast and stack.

The presbytery interior retains doors and windows with leaded and stained glass, and parquet floors to corridors and the north sacristy. The centrepiece is the dining room on the ground floor of the east range, which features a Jacobean strapwork plaster ceiling, a corbelled heraldic fireplace, and heraldic stained glass to the three large windows.

Boundary Walls

The boundary walls to the north and west sides of the churchyard, with a return on the east side to the presbytery, are constructed of coursed sandstone rubble with ashlar coping. There are two gateways in the west side and one in the north side, featuring wooden gates in arch-braced form. The east return retains some original railings.