Church Of St Augustine

In the entry for: SWINTON & PENDLEBURY BOLTON ROAD SD 70 SE (south-west side) 2/2 30/3/66 Church of St Augustine G. V. II*

the grade shall be amended to read grade I.

SWINTON & PENDLEBURY BOLTON ROAD SD 70 SE (south-west side) 2/2 Church of 30/3/66 St. Augustine G.V. II*

Church. 1871-4. By G. F. Bodley for Edward Stanley Heywood,a Manchester banker. Brick with clay tile roof and stone dressings. Nave and chancel all under continuous roof with west door, south porch and north vestry. Passage-aisles pierce the internal buttresses. Free Gothic style. Total of 10 bays which have a projecting plinth and shallow weathered buttresses which rise above the coped parapet to be terminated in gablets. The nave and chancel are treated similarly except that 3-light windows below blank arches (apparently inspired by Toulouse and Albi) in the nave are replaced by 4-light windows with reticulated tracery in the chancel. The chancel has pierced quatrefoils in the parapet and the eastern bay is canted to take up the depth of the passage-aisles and add to the internal perspective. A blind bay, or on the south a projecting staircase to the Rood also separates nave from chancel. The 7-light east window has flowing reticulated tracery and is surrounded by cusped panelling at high level. Angled buttresses to either side have statue niches towards the top and are finished by elaborate crocketed pinnacles. 5-light west window. Interior: magnificent proportions with the internal buttresses supporting arches at high level and short transverse vaults across the passage-aisles. Barrel roof which is richly painted above chancel. Sanctuary is raised by several steps. Reredos has tiers of painted figures. Organ case, elaborately carved Rood screen and sedilia all by Bodley. Stained glass and pews. Stone font. The church shows remarkable quality of design from the imposing simplicity of its massing to the smallest detail of internal fittings. Probably Bodley's most radical church. An equally impressive tower was designed but never built. N. Pevsner, BoE.

Listing NGR: SD7872401610