Church Of St Augustine

Church of St Augustine was built between 1871 and 1874 by G.F. Bodley for Edward Stanley Heywood, a Manchester banker. The building is constructed of brick with a clay tile roof and stone dressings. It comprises a nave and chancel under a continuous roof, a west door, a south porch, and a north vestry. Passage aisles are pierced through the internal buttresses. The design is in the Free Gothic style, with a total of ten bays, featuring a projecting plinth and shallow, weathered buttresses rising above a coped parapet and terminating in gablets. The nave and chancel are largely similar, although 3-light windows with arches inspired by Toulouse and Albi appear in the nave, while the chancel features 4-light windows with reticulated tracery. The chancel’s eastern bay is canted to improve internal perspective, and a blind bay, or a projecting staircase to a Rood, separates the nave and chancel on the south side. The 7-light east window has flowing reticulated tracery and is surrounded by cusped panelling at a high level. Angled buttresses flank the east window, featuring statue niches and elaborate crocketed pinnacles. A 5-light window is located on the west side. The interior exhibits magnificent proportions, with internal buttresses supporting arches and short transverse vaults across the passage aisles. The barrel roof above the chancel is richly painted. The sanctuary is raised several steps and features a tiered reredos with painted figures. Other notable features include an elaborately carved Rood screen, sedilia, and organ case, all designed by Bodley, along with stained glass, pews, and a stone font. The church is noteworthy for the quality of its design, extending from its massing to the details of its internal fittings, and is considered likely to be Bodley's most radical work. A tower was designed but never constructed.