Church of St Mary-in-the-Baum, St Mary's Gate, Rochdale

Church of St Mary-in-the-Baum, St Mary's Gate, Rochdale

Parish church built 1909–1911, designed by Ninian Comper. Constructed in narrow, hand-made red brick laid in English garden wall bond (4:1) with Alderley sandstone ashlar dressings and small red tile roofs. The interior is faced in Alderley ashlar stone.

The church is planned with a continuous nave and chancel separated by a rood screen positioned on the south side. A central aisle with a west-end entrance doorway runs through the building, with an organ loft and screen at the east end. A north outer aisle contains a north entrance porch, and a screened Jesus Chapel occupies the east end with a vestry beyond. This double aisle arrangement allowed the nave and chancel to capture the best light from the south, where ground level changes prevented building up against this side.

The north (entrance) elevation features a flat-roofed outer aisle with a balustraded parapet, moulded stone cornice, coping and turned balusters. The aisle is divided into four bays by stepped brick pilasters with cyma mouldings. The first, second and fourth bays each contain two round-headed windows with ashlar surrounds incorporating pilasters and keystones; each window holds three large stained-glass roundels from 1867 set in small leaded roundels of clear glass. The third bay projects a pedimented porch with a doorway framed by ashlar pilasters and a moulded round-headed arch with keystone; the door comprises twelve fielded panels with an overlight containing small leaded roundels of clear glass. The single-storey vestry to the left has a steeply pitched roof with stone-coped gable and kneelers. It is lit by a three-light and a five-light mullioned window with hood moulds, separated by a Tudor-arched doorway. A stepped-back clerestorey to the higher central aisle features 'Y' tracery to flattened pointed arches. The chancel behind the vestry and central aisle has a single large pointed-arch window with Perpendicular style tracery.

The west elevation comprises three bays. The left-hand bay continues from the north outer aisle with similar detailing and a round-headed window with balustraded parapet. A stepped buttress separates this from the gable walls of the central aisle and the higher nave, both with stone coping and kneelers. The nave ridge carries an ornate classical timber and lead bell-cote re-used from the original church. Both gable walls display large Perpendicular style windows. A porch with embattled parapet, flush with the slightly projecting nave wall, stands on the right-hand side of the central aisle and has a pointed-arch doorway with panelled double doors.

The south elevation displays seven window bays separated by gableted, stepped buttresses. The buttress between the fifth and sixth bays is taller and heavier, dividing the nave from the chancel; an embattled porch abuts it, with a doorway in the west elevation and a two-light window in the south elevation. The very large pointed-arch windows (24 feet × 12 feet) feature four-light Perpendicular style tracery and small panes of leaded clear glass. The east gable wall of the chancel bears a very large pointed-arch window (30 feet × 18 feet) with Perpendicular style tracery, stone coping, kneelers and a cross finial. The east gable wall of the central aisle is stepped back with a six-light window divided at the centre by a mullion and topped by a hood mould at ground-floor level. The right-hand gable wall of the vestry contains a five-light window with hood mould.

The interior is faced in ashlar stone with embattled oak panelling rising almost to sill level on the south and west walls of the five-bay nave. The south wall of the two-bay chancel features timber sedilia beneath the first window and panelling up to the embattled sill of the second window; the stone window sills above are also embattled. Floors are wooden parquet with stone flags in the chancel. The chancel contains a stone piscina in the south wall and an aumbry in the north wall, with a squint running through from beneath the organ loft at the east end of the central aisle.

The nave and chancel rise to considerable height (120 feet). The roof features elaborately painted king-post trusses, shaped braces and roof surface, now faded. A moulded stone arch head separates the nave and chancel with a decorated timber tie-beam supporting a relief-carved beardless Christ seated in a mandorla and flanked by kneeling angels. The enormous twelve-light east window contains Perpendicular style tracery and stained glass designed by Comper depicting the 'Life and Love of God, so lovingly bestowed upon man', including two images of an unbearded Christ in a mandorla.

The nave is separated from the central aisle by a very tall arcade of alternately round and concave-sided octagonal piers. The central aisle has a shallow arched and panelled roof. The west window serves as a War Memorial, its roundel depicting St George slaying the Dragon surrounded by shields bearing the arms of the five principal allied nations. It commemorates 73 men of the congregation who died in the First World War; a panel was added later to commemorate seven men lost in the Second World War. The six-light east memorial window beneath the organ loft depicts three female saints on the left-hand side and three male saints on the right-hand side.

The central aisle is separated from the outer north aisle by an arcade with Tuscan columns and semi-circular arches; the soffits feature lozenge coffering. The north aisle has a flat, panelled ceiling with moulded timber spine and cross beams. The east wall contains a depressed-arch doorway opening into the vestry and a round-headed doorway opening into the north porch. The stained glass roundels depicting the Life of Christ from the original church are set in the windows, flanked by an Annunciation in the easternmost window and the Crucifixion in the west window.

A heavily enriched and intricately carved timber screen, designed by Comper, separates the nave and chancel. It incorporates tracery and tabernacles with saints bearing symbols of their martyrdom or ministry. Above the screen stands a rood group comprising a crucified Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, St John and two angels; above Christ is the tie beam supporting the Pantokrator. The screen continues in identical manner across the east end of the central aisle in front of the organ loft. The organ case, also designed by Comper, features angled groups of pipes and painted images of cherubs.

The four eastern bays of the north aisle are enclosed by an intricate timber parclose screen with brattishing. At the west end of the nave stands the stone font from the original church, dated 1866. On the south side of the nave is a hexagonal panelled pulpit on a pedestal, topped with an octagonal sounding board supported by an intricately carved post and a back panel carved with linenfold.