Church of St Thomas

Church of St Thomas

Anglican parish church built between 1902 and 1910, designed by Richard Bassnett Preston of Preston and Vaughan. The building is constructed in Accrington brick with Runcorn red sandstone dressings and Coniston slate roofs.

The church comprises a three-bay chancel with a north vestry and south chapel, two-bay north and south transepts with a south porch, a southwest tower, and a five-bay nave with aisles. It stands to the north of Chapel Street in an empty churchyard, with a Scout hut occupying part of the northern side and a small public park to the east.

The brickwork throughout is laid in Flemish bond. The chancel, divided by plain brick pilasters, is flanked by stepped buttresses with stone kneelers at each end and along the east elevation. The east window features tall ribbed mullions with lively Decorated tracery in the arch. The gable contains an empty stone niche topped by a cruciform finial. Stone sill-and-impost bands run along the north and south walls, which carry pointed-arch clerestory windows with Decorated tracery. The chancel and nave west bay windows have single mullions, while the other four nave bays have two mullions.

The north wall contains a lean-to vestry accessed by steps with flanking walls and a Tudor-arched door, alongside a traceried window. An organ loft with a parapeted top and high-level window features an octagonal vice in the northwest corner. The transept is parapeted with a gablet over each bay and a stepped buttress between them. The aisle has a parapet with stepped buttresses between bays and a corner buttress. The crypt features flat-lintelled mullioned windows with ogee heads. Basement areas adjacent to the aisle are bordered by stone kerbs, steps, and iron railings. The south wall mirrors the north, except for a small flat-roofed porch abutting the right-hand bay of the transept and a two-bay Lady Chapel with an apsidal east end replacing the vestry. A second porch, forming the lowest stage of the tower on the south side of the western bay, contains stairs and a two-centred-arched doorway to the south aisle.

The four-stage tower measures 20 feet square and rises 78 feet from ground to the top of the stone parapet, with corner buttresses extending almost to full height. The parapet is crenellated and richly carved with a cornice decorated with flowers, fruit, grotesques and animal heads, and winged gargoyles at each corner. The hoodmoulds of the belfry louvres terminate in carved heads: on the south, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York; on the east, Dr Sumner, Bishop of Chester (who consecrated the Old Church), and Dr Knox, Bishop of Manchester (who dedicated the present building); on the north, the Revd Moorhouse James (the first vicar) and the Revd JT Lawton (vicar when the present building was built); and on the west, King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. The clock faces of the third stage sit within diamond-shaped surrounds, with angels at the top and bottom, and animals and fruit to the left and right. The angels carry shields inscribed with Rex and Lex (south face), IHS and Lux (east face), and Pax (west face). The second stage has low-level windows with mullions and hoodmoulds. Either side of the main entrance are carved the arms of the Province of York and the Diocese of Manchester. Above the doorway is a niche containing a statue of St Thomas. Traceried blind windows flank the doorway, which is reached by modern ramps and steps with handrails. The east and west faces of the lower stage have oculus windows with tracery. The west elevation contains a two-light window in each aisle, with buttresses flanking the west window, which like the east window features five mullions and Decorated tracery in the arch.

The interior contains a chancel arch rising 40 feet high. A patterned marble floor steps up from the choir and progressively towards the altar, which stands on a central step against the east wall. The southeast corner contains sedilia and a piscina. The east window is a memorial to parish members who fell in the First World War, depicting the Te Deum with the Incarnation, Atonement, and Majesty of Christ surrounded by the worship of prophets, saints and angels, including St George with a soldier and airman, and St Nicholas with sailors. The roof features collared trusses, boarded beneath the rafters and collars, with decorative arched braces to the collars and tie beams. The oak reredos and altar depict the Resurrection with a central panel showing St Thomas kneeling before the risen Christ, flanked by panels containing innocent witnesses (Mary and St John) and penitent ones (St Peter and Mary Magdalene). The inscription reads "Beati qui non viderunt et crediderunt" (blessed are those who have not seen and have believed). Carved screens separate the chancel from the organ loft and Lady Chapel.

Furnishings include decoratively carved choir stalls with vines and animals, a carved oak pulpit, and a Litany desk. The nave is lofty with red brick walls, red sandstone dressings, and arcades of octagonal columns with fillets carried through the clerestory to moulded capitals supporting the tie-beam braces, which match the chancel roof. Some pews remain in the aisles only. The west bay of the south aisle is enclosed by an inserted screen forming a lobby with toilet facilities.

Windows include examples by James Powell & Sons, an unknown designer, and J Wippell, with other designers also unknown. The west window features clear leaded glass, while the remaining windows are primarily by AK Nicholson, largely given as memorials. The stone font, originally at the west end, currently stands in the north transept. Beneath the west window is a panelled oak First World War memorial with added Second World War names, flanked by oak panelling that extends to the first column of the arcade.

The boundary wall to Chapel Street is of red brick with a chevron course and red sandstone copings, with gateposts at the east end. A red brick lychgate with sandstone arches and slate roof carries a stone tablet in the gable in memory of those who fell in the Second World War.