Church of Saint Mary is a Grade II listed building in the Rochdale local planning authority area, England. First listed on 4 January 1974. A Victorian Church. 1 related planning application.
Church of Saint Mary
- WRENN ID
- vacant-render-auburn
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Rochdale
- Constituency
- Rochdale MP: Paul Waugh (Lab)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 4 January 1974
- Type
- Church
- Period
- Victorian
- Address
- Church of Saint Mary, Oldham Road, OL11 2HB
- OS grid reference
- SD 904 116
- Coordinates
- 53.60095, -2.14637
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Church of Saint Mary is a church built between 1865 and 1872 by architects J.M. and H. Taylor. It is constructed of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings and features a slate roof. The building has a nave with aisles, a clerestory, transepts, a chancel, and a northwest tower, all designed in the Gothic Revival style with Decorated elements.
The north elevation showcases a four-bay nave with elaborately buttressed aisles. The aisle windows are composed of two lights with Decorated tracery and hood moulds, while the clerestory has square-headed, three-light openings with cusped tracery. The transept features a rose window and a central circular buttress that rises from a three-stage hexagonal base, topped with a carved animal finial. The chancel consists of two bays, with diagonal buttresses and detailed moulded eaves. Each section of the church has a separate roof covered with patterned slates, complete with gable parapets and cross finishes.
The tower is tall and consists of four stages, with diagonal offset buttresses and an octagonal stair turret on the left side. The bell stage includes two cusped lancet openings, ball flower eaves detail, and gargoyles depicting angels and animals. The broach spire is adorned with gabled lucarnes and canopy pinnacles at each corner.
Inside, there is a four-light stone screen separating the chancel from the organ chamber and vestry, polished granite columns in the nave arcade, and a central area defined by high transeptal and chancel arches. The roofs are scissor trussed, except for the chancel, which is braced and panelled. The church is part of a cohesive group with the school located to the south, designed in the same architectural style.
Local climate
Church of Saint Mary 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.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- Sale history — 1 transaction since 2017
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.
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