The Church Of St Vincent De Paul And Presbytery

This Roman Catholic church and attached presbytery were built between 1903 and 1905 to designs by Edmund Kirby of Liverpool. Both buildings are constructed of Ruabon brick with terracotta dressings and slate roofs. The church is in the Early English style, while the presbytery has a more vernacular character but uses matching materials.

Setting and Plan

The buildings occupy a large triangular plot surrounded by gardens. The church is aligned north-east to south-west (with the ritual orientation placing west at the north-east end). It comprises a nave with side aisles under separate roofs, a polygonal apsidal chancel, transepts, and a porch at the north-east (ritual west) end. The presbytery is attached to the south corner. A low enclosed ambulatory wraps around from the south transept to the rear of the south side aisle, incorporating the sacristy and linking the church to the presbytery.

The Church: Exterior

All windows contain leaded and stained glass. The building features stringcourses and decorative moulded brickwork, including elaborate door and window surrounds.

The north-east (ritual west) elevation has three parts. The central gabled porch is topped with a Cerclee cross finial and contains the recessed main entrance within a scalloped-arched, moulded-brick surround. Three steps lead to plain panelled double doors with a tympanum above incorporating a cinquefoil flanked by small trefoils. Behind and above rises the tall gabled nave with slender, part-corbelled and gableted-buttressed turrets crowned by pinnacles. Slender lancets flank the porch. Above these, three tall lancets (the west window) separated by narrower blind lancets form a seven-bay arcade, with a relief quatrefoil frieze above and a slender recessed elliptical light at the gable apex.

The side aisles are lit by triple-light lancet windows at their north-east ends with cusped heads and raised centre lights. The south-west end of the south aisle has a rose window, while the south-west end of the north aisle has an octofoil window. Along each aisle's side elevation, lancet windows are arranged in groups of four, separated by low buttresses. The clerestory is lit by paired lancet windows.

Two low transepts are lit by triple-light lancet windows with raised centre lights. The north transept also has a doorway in its left return with a tall arched surround and recessed segmental-headed panelled door.

The chancel has a hipped roof and is lit by three large traceried windows (the south-east window is wider). Raised gables above the side aisles contain triple-light lancet windows with cusped heads and raised centre lights.

The low enclosed ambulatory, which has a tall chimneystack attached to the south transept, is lit by short paired lancet windows. Its south-west elevation has a segmental-headed panelled door incorporating two small square leaded lights.

The Presbytery: Exterior

The presbytery has two storeys with a hipped roof and tall ridge and wall stacks. It is fenestrated with 6-over-1 sash windows with segmental arched heads throughout (ground floor windows are slightly taller).

The north-east elevation features two stringcourses between ground and first floors. The lower stringcourse incorporates a dentil band, and between the two runs a raised diapered brickwork frieze in a diamond pattern. Similar diapering appears in the left bay on both floors. The main entrance at ground floor right has a Tudor-arched doorway containing a recessed nine-panel door. Two windows stand to the left of the doorway, with five windows at first floor above.

The south-east elevation, which faces Bentinck Road, is three bays wide. The ground floor and frieze feature stringcourses and diapered brickwork matching the north-east elevation. The left bay has a single window on each floor. The ground floor centre-right has a square bay window with a hipped roof, with paired windows above. The far right of the ground floor has a similarly styled canted bay window with three windows above.

The south-west elevation has four bays. Ground floor windows appear in bays two and four, first floor windows in bays one, two and four, a former stair window in bay three, and a tall wall stack between bays three and four.

The north-west rear elevation has eight bays with doorways at each end of the ground floor. The left doorway has a Tudor-arched head and surround with a six-panel door incorporating a tripartite leaded light at the top. The right doorway has a segmental arched head matching the window style, with a tripartite overlight. Ground floor windows appear throughout, with first floor windows in bays two, four, five and seven. One ground floor window has a replaced casement insert.

The Church: Interior

The narthex has two marble piscinae flanking the main entrance, with later glazed panels and doors on the south-west wall. Two original panelled side doors with leaded glazing in their upper panels lead into the main body of the church.

A corbelled hammerbeam roof covers the nave and sanctuary, supported by full-height pink marble wall-shafts in the sanctuary. The floor is parquet. The arcaded side aisles incorporate alternating octagonal and circular piers of pink sandstone with Tuscan-style carved bases and capitals. Plaster garlands appear on the upper part of the nave side walls below the clerestory windows. The pews are probably later additions.

An oak organ and choir gallery sits above the narthex, with a panelled front incorporating pierced detailing. The organ itself dates from approximately the 1960s or 1970s and is a replacement. The gallery is accessed by a stair in the north side aisle with a pierced geometric balustrade.

The sanctuary is set upon an octagonal stepped platform with an ornate marble altar (originally located in the north side aisle's chapel). The altar rails have been removed. To the left of the altar stands the top section of a marble pulpit incorporating carved figurines of Sir Thomas More and John Fisher. Its original pierced sections are now infilled with marble, and the lower section has been removed. A highly decorative marble reredos stands below the south-west (ritual east) window.

The side aisles' south-west chapels each have marble reredoses (the north aisle example has a later inserted panel at bottom centre), along with marble altar rails and decorative metal gates. An alabaster and marble font is set in front of the south side aisle's chapel.

Timber panelled confessionals in each transept have doors incorporating leaded glazing.

The sacristy has built-in cupboards and doors leading into the sanctuary, ambulatory and exterior. The ambulatory contains later built-in cupboards and a chimneybreast (the fireplace has been removed).

The Presbytery: Interior

A stair hall at the centre contains a pitch-pine stair with thick painted stick balusters and a wide half-landing lit by a square skylight. Roll and plain moulded cornicing runs throughout. Original five-panel doors (some with later glazing inserted in the top panel) and door architraves survive. Most original marble and timber fire surrounds remain in place. A later en-suite bathroom has been inserted into one first-floor bedroom.

Some original quarry tiled flooring survives in the rear service area, but the rear stair has been removed and a toilet inserted into the ground floor space with a void above. The former housekeeper's room is now used as an office.

Boundary Features

The entire site, including gardens and a small parking area at the north-west corner, is enclosed by a low pink sandstone wall (stepped in places) with square gate piers incorporating chevron and diagonal carvings and plain metal gates.

Historical Context

The parish of St Vincent's in Altrincham originated in the mid to late 19th century from a community of Irish immigrants who had come to escape the famine of 1845-52 and to work on the Manchester Ship Canal and farms in Cheshire. The Church of St Vincent de Paul and its presbytery were constructed between 1903 and 1905 to Edmund Kirby's designs at a cost of approximately £6,000. The church replaced an earlier church on New Street, Altrincham and was opened on 1 October 1905 by the Bishop of Shrewsbury. It was designed to accommodate 500 people.

The sanctuary was re-ordered and the altar rails removed approximately 20 years ago. The organ was replaced in the 1960s or 1970s. The rear service accommodation in the presbytery was altered in the 1970s or 1980s.

The buildings were designated at Grade II for their architectural quality as a well-detailed and imposing composition, their design by the notable ecclesiastical architect Edmund Kirby (a former pupil of E. W. Pugin), their general intactness with much original historic character and features retained, and the high quality of the church interior with its corbelled hammerbeam roof, alternating circular and octagonal nave piers of pink sandstone, panelled organ gallery, marble reredoses and altar, and alabaster and marble font.