Church of St Thomas is a Grade II listed building in the Oldham local planning authority area, England. First listed on 8 March 1993. Church.

Church of St Thomas

WRENN ID
odd-corbel-spindle
Grade
II
Local Planning Authority
Oldham
Constituency
Oldham East and Saddleworth MP: Debbie Abrahams (Lab)
Country
England
Date first listed
8 March 1993
Type
Church
Address
Church of St Thomas, Northgate Lane
OS grid reference
SD 950 075
Coordinates
53.56448, -2.07595
Source
Historic England listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Church of St Thomas is a parish church dating from 1872, with a western vestry added in 1933. It was designed by H Cockburn. The church is constructed of coursed and squared rubble with a Welsh slate roof featuring scalloped bands. The building comprises a west tower, a nave with a clerestory, two lean-to aisles, and a chancel.

The west tower has angle buttresses; it features a double-chamfered arch for the west door, a three-light Decorated window above, and a small lancet window further up. Above this is a recessed upper stage with paired bell-chamber lights and octagonal pilasters culminating in a traceried parapet. A turret with a spirelet is located to the north-east. The west side of the south aisle has three-light windows with stilted arches, while a canted vestry, added in 1933, is to the north aisle. A gabled south porch has paired shafts to the doorway. The aisles have paired plate traceried windows in stilted arches. A gabled chapel extends to the east of the north aisle, and a vestry is located east of the south aisle. The clerestory has three-light plate traceried windows in stilted arches. The chancel incorporates a cornice with rosettes and angle buttresses, a two-tier two-light window, and a five-light Decorated East window. A cinquefoil light is present in the chancel clerestory to the north.

The interior features a west tower arch supported by clustered shafts and a five-bay nave arcade with clustered shafts on high bases, octagonal capitals, and double-chamfered arches. A string course runs above, with wall shafts supporting cambered roof trusses comprising collars and two purlins. A wide double-chamfered chancel arch is carried on shafts sprung from corbels. The north aisle chapel has oak fittings, including a memorial screen. The chancel has an encaustic tiled floor and a stone reredos with marble inlay, flanked by tiled panels with low relief. Marble panels above are inscribed with the Ten Commandments. An organ chamber is situated to the south. A timber integral pulpit stands to the north of the chancel arch, built on a stone base and featuring high relief figures of saints. An octagonal font with recessed panels featuring high relief is located beneath the tower. Stained glass windows are present in the north aisle (dating from 1902, 1908, and 1928, made by Mayer and Co of Munich, and Jones and Willis respectively), and the east window, likely of around 1880. A series of windows in the south aisle are by Capronnier and are dated between 1881 and 1891.

Local climate

Church of St Thomas sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 1,080 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 86% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 79% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 50 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 92% of listed buildings. Of these, 29 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

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