Church Of St James With St Thomas

WIGAN

SD50SE HARDMAN STREET, Poolstock 24-1/5/134 (South side) 11/07/83 Church of St James with St Thomas

II*

Formerly known as: Church of St James HARDMAN STREET Poolstock. Church. 1863-6 (dated 1866 on tower). By EG Paley. Coursed squared sandstone, slate roofs. Decorated style. PLAN: nave with west tower, north and south aisles, chancel with south chapel and north vestry. EXTERIOR: the large 5-stage west tower, with angle buttresses up to the 4th stage (those at the south-west corner clasping a vice), has a segmental-pointed west doorway with moulded surround, double-doors with large ornamental strap hinges, and a hood-mould with figured stops (as have all the windows in the church); a 2-centred arched 4-light traceried west window; a crocketed niche at the 3rd stage containing the monogrammed date "1866" (2-light windows in the sides at this level); clockfaces to the 4th stage; pairs of 2-light gabled belfry windows with stone louvres; a frieze with ball-flower enrichment and a pierced parapet with crocketed pinnacles. Both the high 5-bay nave and its aisles have cavetto cornices with grotesques between bays, and embattled parapets with pierced triangular upstands between bays; the nave has a clerestory of coupled segmental-pointed 2-light windows with crocketed shafts and tracery alternately mouchette and trefoil, and large east pinnacles; the aisles are buttressed and have one 2-centred arched 3-light traceried window in each bay, except the 2nd of the south aisle which has a large gabled porch which has (inter alia) a 2-centred arched moulded doorway with semi-columns, ball-flower ornament, and a hood-mould with figured stops and crocketed finial. The lower 2-bay chancel, with diagonal buttresses, a cornice like that of the nave and a parapet of pierced trefoils, has a 2-bay transept to the 1st bay with a geometrical rose window, a 2-light window to the 2nd bay, and a very large 2-centred arched 5-light east window with wheel tracery in the head. INTERIOR: tall 5-bay arcades of slender columns alternately quatrefoil with annular caps and octagonal with carved stiff-leaf caps (all different), moulded 2-centred arches with hood-moulds which have large figured stops (all different); paired clerestory windows in reveals with free-standing shafts; carved angel corbels (all different) to arch-braced king post roof trusses which have open-work spandrels; large moulded chancel arch; richly-decorated chancel including ornate reredos, 2 tiers of niches with carved figures flanking east window (1877), side walls with carved stone panels and frescoes with painted figures on gilded ground; good stained glass in chancel and chapel by Hardman of Birmingham. HISTORY: founded by James and Nathaniel Eckersley (of Eckersleys Mills, Swan Meadow Road, (qv)).

Listing NGR: SD5782004545