Ukrainian Catholic Church of SS Peter and Paul and All Saints, and associated boundary wall and gatepiers

Ukrainian Catholic Church of SS Peter and Paul and All Saints

A church originally built in 1889 as an Anglican place of worship, standing west of Chadderton Road with its east end facing south-west. It was converted to serve as a Ukrainian Catholic church in 1987 by the architects Winder and Taylor. The building is constructed of Ruabon red brick with buff Yorkshire stone dressings and has a slate roof.

The church comprises a chancel, north chapel and south vestry, north and south aisles, and a north-west tower. Stylistically, it employs Perpendicular Gothic design throughout.

The exterior features stone sill-and-plinth bands and kneelers. The chancel is buttressed and gabled, with decorative pressed brick tiles in the upper section and a three-light pointed window with hoodmoulds. Above the chancel returns sit moulded-brick cornices. The north chapel has a hipped roof with decorative brick gable and a three-light window, while the south vestry and organ loft is monopitched and plainer in treatment, marked by a tall chimney.

The nave extends across six bays, each with three-light pointed clerestory windows. The aisles contain buttresses dividing the bays and two-light pointed windows with hoodmoulds, topped by a moulded-brick cornice. At the west end of the south wall is a buttress with a half-bay beyond, featuring a colonette supporting the west-end kneeler. The south aisle's western end has a flat-roofed porch with pierced stone parapet and a blocked doorway.

The north-west tower rises in three stages with buttresses and a polygonal north-east stair turret. Its belfry is louvred with colonettes and crowned by a stone parapet featuring corner pinnacles. The west side contains the main entrance, framed by columns and a moulded-brick surround, with adzed doors, a multi-paned leaded overlight, and a stone hoodmould beneath a stone-and-brick gable. The hoodmould and gable display decorative carved stops. A pressed-brick gable crowns the west end, with a three-light window and pressed-brick aprons below. The centre apron bears a shield dated 1889. Below this is a pedimented stone memorial dated 1988 commemorating the first millennium of Christianity in Ukraine, inscribed with text in both English and Ukrainian Cyrillic lettering.

The interior of the chancel contains a decorative tiled floor. The east window, designer unknown, displays stained glass depicting seven scenes of Christ's Passion above panels of local arms set against oak leaves, including those of Oldham surmounted by an owl. An elaborately carved reredos features gilded war memorial inscriptions added later. The chancel roof is vaulted and painted. The elaborate baldacchino is the work of Ferdinando Stuflesser of Ortisei, Italy.

The nave has brick arcades rising from painted stone columns beneath a hammerbeam roof. Oak choir stalls, which have replaced the eastern nave pews, include one bearing three brass plates recording the gift of the stalls by Thomas Taylor of Chadderton Cottage, Oldham, in memory of his wife Mary and their youngest son John William, who died during his homeward voyage from Australia in 1886 and was buried at sea near St Helena. The north-east chapel contains a three-light window dated 1891, signed by JB Capronnier of Brussels, given in memory of John and Emma Jackson. This window depicts scenes from the Gospel of St Matthew. Circulation areas throughout feature parquet floors. The main west window depicts the Ascension with a background skyline of Oldham. Smaller lights below, given by the Girls' Brigade and dated 1953, depict Mary and Jesus, the dove of peace, and the holy grail. All west windows are thought to be by TF Willford of Marple Bridge. The font is adorned with colonettes and bears gothic lettering around its rim reading: SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME AND FORBID THEM NOT FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

A stone wall with moulded copings surrounds much of the church, incorporating substantial gate piers. Those at the main entrance are monumental in scale and feature decorative caps.