Church Of All Saints

The Church of All Saints is a church built in 1840 by John Harper and enlarged in 1882. It features coursed dressed sandstone and a slate roof. The church is designed in the Early English style and includes a west tower and nave from 1840, along with a chancel, vestry, and organ house added in 1882. The nave has seven buttressed bays with tall lancet windows that have hoodmoulds, all connected by an impost band. The three-stage tower, which is partially embraced by the nave, has angle buttresses at the chamfered corners that stop at the second stage. It includes a moulded arched doorway topped with a gablet, a deeply-splayed circular window at the second stage, and a tall belfry featuring three very tall stepped lancets on each side, along with corner pinnacles that rise from the belfry head level and pass the chamfered corners of the parapet. The chancel has a three-light east window with a multifoil head, flanked by blind lancets and additional lancets in the side walls. Inside, the auditorium is surrounded on three sides by a gallery from 1852, which has traceried panels and an unusual ceiling that is flat at the sides and coved in the center, with spandrels to struts containing tracery. The chancel features an arch-braced roof and an elaborate alabaster reredos, pulpit, reading desk, and parapet, all from 1882. The church was built largely at the expense of the proprietors of Oakenshaw Printworks, Messrs. Mercer and Fort, along with contributions from their workpeople, at a cost of £3,000.