Church Of All Saints

Church of All Saints, Wigan

This parish church on the west side of Wallgate is mainly of the 15th century, though it has been substantially rebuilt and restored. The church retains its original north tower and chapel, but the remainder was restored between 1845 and 1850 by the architects Sharpe and Paley as a faithful copy of the medieval structure. The top stage of the tower was added by Paley in 1861, and the tower was restored and partly refaced in 1922.

The building is constructed of coursed squared sandstone for the tower and chapel, with sandstone ashlar used elsewhere and a lead-clad roof. It is designed in the Perpendicular style.

The plan comprises a six-bay nave and two-bay chancel united as a single vessel, with a continuous south aisle and south porch at the west end of the aisle. A north aisle with the tower attached at its junction with the chancel runs parallel, with a chapel to the west of the tower and a north vestry to the chancel.

The exterior of the nave and chancel are separated by octagonal turrets with crocketed caps. The nave and chancel have tall four-centred arched clerestory windows, coupled in each bay to form an almost continuous arcade. All the windows have three lights (except a two-light window at the west end) with deep splayed reveals and linked hood-moulds. The nave windows have cusped lights and hollow spandrels, while those of the chancel have Perpendicular tracery. The south aisle is buttressed with one large four-centred arched window in each bay—those to the nave have three cusped lights with mouchette tracery, and those to the chancel have four cusped lights with varying tracery in the heads, quatrefoil in the first and Perpendicular in the second. Both nave and aisle feature moulded bands and embattled parapets with slender crocketed pinnacles rising from angel corbels on the nave band and from carved grotesques on the aisle.

A prominent gabled porch with a moulded two-centred arched doorway is positioned at the second bay of the nave aisle, matching the overall style. A priest doorway opens into the second bay of the chancel aisle. At the west end, the nave displays a large six-light traceried window with a brattished transom above a band of enriched quatrefoils. The east end of the chancel has a large seven-light window with a transom, cusped lights below and Perpendicular tracery above. The north aisle, comprising three bays, has a square-headed doorway in the centre and large seven-light windows with Perpendicular tracery in the others.

The square tower is of four unequal stages with diagonal buttresses. The second stage has small two-centred arched windows with Y-tracery. Large coupled three-light belfry windows with stone louvres and Perpendicular tracery rise above these. The top stage, added by Paley, is short and features blind arcading, with a clock face in the centre of each side, a moulded cornice with prominent corner gargoyles, and an embattled parapet with crocketed corner pinnacles and a pair of smaller ones in each side.

The two-bay chapel has large depressed arched windows of five stepped lights with cavetto mullions and hollow spandrels: two in the north side and one in the west gable, the latter with a 19th-century doorway breaking into its left corner.

The interior has six-bay aisle arcades of quatrefoil columns with moulded two-centred arches, with shafts between the bays rising to the clerestory and topped by consoles bearing statues of angels. At the west end are tiered Corporation stalls of 1850. The roof is in Perpendicular style with coffered design, moulded beams and joists, said to incorporate largely old timbers. The chancel arch features a good painted and carved screen. A pulpit in matching style stands adjacent to the screen. The chancel contains Minton tiling. The south chapel houses damaged stone effigies believed to represent Sir William de Bradshaigh and his wife Mab. The north chapel contains various wall monuments to the Walmesley family.

Wall monuments in the south aisle commemorate Roger Downes of Wardley (1676), John Baldwin (died 1726) with a small elaborately carved cartouche, and William Bankes of Winstanley (1689) with a draped cartouche and skull. A stained glass window depicting St Christopher, created by William Morris in 1868, is also positioned in the south aisle wall.