Cathedral Of St John And Attached Cathedral House

Roman Catholic cathedral dating to 1845, designed by Weightman & Hadfield, with the south transept added in 1884. The building is constructed in coursed and squared stone with a Welsh slate roof, and is executed in the 14th-century Gothic style, extensively modelled on the cathedrals of Selby and Howden.

The cathedral comprises a nave with two aisles, a central tower and spire, and an aisled chancel. The exterior features a tower that rises above the nave, with paired bell chamber lights set in deep, shafted recesses. Angle buttresses terminate in pinnacles with a quatrefoil parapet running between them. The brooch spire has four tiers of lucarnes. The nave consists of four bays divided by buttresses, each with a three-light Decorated window. A gabled porch to the west has a deep moulded doorway with a niche over. Paired two-light Decorated windows light the clerestory. The north transept displays a rose window in its north wall and an octagonal turret in its western angle, topped with a scallop-tiled ogival conical roof. The chancel extends for four bays without buttresses, and features three-light Decorated windows with quatrefoil tracery, and reticulated traceried three-light windows to the clerestory. Polygonal turrets on each eastern angle of the chancel have low leaded roofs. A large east window of seven lights has richly reticulated tracery. Octagonal pinnacle turrets flank the west front, each with two-light Decorated windows in gabled faces and crocketed spirelet. The west door is set in a deeply moulded splayed arch, flanked by blind traceried panels. A four-light Decorated window rises above, with an enriched pointed hoodmould and blind traceried panels to each side. Gabled buttresses feature traceried panelling and canopies over statues. Three-light Decorated windows light the west of the aisles. The south transept comprises two bays, articulated by gabled buttresses and with a corbel table to the eaves.

The interior contains a nave arcade of four bays with clustered shafts and paired arches to the clerestory. The crossing arches have clustered shafts. The nave is covered by a timber roof, while the chancel has stone vaulting. Internal decoration is generally austere, relieved by rich altar furnishings and stained glass.

The south transept chapel has polished marble altar rails and an encaustic tiled floor, with an oak-panelled reredos featuring gilded painted scenes from the life of Christ. The marble altar has a raised reredos with linenfold panelling above marble quatrefoils containing emblematic sculpture, terminating to the south-east with a statue in a niche. A high relief sculpted panel serves as the south chancel chapel altar, with painted screens dividing the chapel from the ambulatory behind the high altar by a stone canopied memorial. The ambulatory is separated from the high altar by a low stone traceried screen. An east altar in the ambulatory has an elaborately carved reredos. The chancel floor is laid in mosaic of an abstract design with central emblems, set in a polished marble surround. Between the clerestory windows, above each pier of the chancel arcade, stand statues of kings and bishops in canopies. The north transept chapel altar has figures set behind glazed tracery to the returns and frontal. A memorial to Bishop Sharples, who died in 1850, takes the form of a recumbent effigy in a moulded recess.

The stained glass is possibly by Hardman, with examples in the east window and chancel aisles; one south window is dated 1849 and the east window 1854. The glass depicts representations of saints, kings and martyrs in medieval idiom. Emblematic glass appears in the south and north aisle windows. The west window of the north aisle represents Saint Aloysius and is dated 1889. The Durrell memorial window to the north is by Barracough and Sanders of Lancaster, dated 1920. A sacramental window of approximately 1889-90 lights the north transept.

Cathedral House adjoins the cathedral to the east and originally served as the Theological College, dating to approximately 1850. It is constructed in coursed and squared stone with steeply pitched Welsh slate roofs. The building has an L-plan with an entrance range facing the road behind a courtyard, arranged over three storeys. The road-facing range is three windows wide and features a central full-height canted bay with a polygonal slated roof containing a narrow central dormer. A large porch or porte cochere has a shallow segmental archway, with paired sash windows above. Similar paired sash windows occupy the flanking bays, all with relieving arches to the first floor. A modillion eaves cornice supports steeply gabled dormers, with two chimney stacks springing from the right-hand dormer. A projecting wing to the right, a somewhat later addition though in similar style, extends a six-window range featuring a moulded arched doorway to the right and relieving arches over four-pane sash windows to the first floor. Three wide gabled dormers crown the roof. A further brick wing extends this wing to the rear, and at the angle of the main ranges stands a large traceried wooden lantern with a continuous band of windows beneath a pyramidal roof.